back to School

It's already week six of the new term at Guildhall, which has flown by. In the second half of this term, I shall concentrate on research activities, both my own (the December MIDAS paper in Holland and now a firm date to speak in Valencia as part of the international research seminar series which Héctor López hosts there for the Universidad Politécnica) and working to establish and develop two student research groups at School, one for BMus and one for MMus students.

I had a very enjoyable lunch with Mark Bernstein (the designer and main driving force of Tinderbox) over the summer break; we met while he was en route to a conference in Denmark. As well as passing on many helpful ideas and comments that day, Mark has kindly offered to make introductions between the musicians and musicologists who he knows use the programme in their work: there are a fair number of us, it turns out. Organising this, and getting in contact with Eva Nässén (who teaches at the Göteborg School of Music and Drama and who is also talking at MIDAS in Holland) are my immediate priorities.

I am going to trial using Tinderbox in the research groups as a 'thinking out loud' tool; blogging will also get a look in today and tomorrow, when I will be talking with all of the new postgrads about the whys and wherefores of developing their self-reflective skills (on which they are assessed as an integral part of their award).