Researching Music:

materials, cultures, behaviours

Celebrating 3 new Music Professors

This inaugural celebration of three new Professors in Music at Sheffield will give a taste of what research in music may entail and the insights that are offered through the study of music in its varied contexts.

To celebrate the work of recently qualified professors Dorothy Ker, Dominic McHugh and Renee Timmers, we are delighted to be hosting an evening of inaugural lectures, Q&As and a performance from rising young soprano Ella Taylor. The lectures will span the interaction of mind and body in the enjoyment of music, Broadway and (dis)ableism in Cold War America, plus contemporary composition.

Professor Dorothy Ker

Professor of Composition
Department of Music

Email

d.ker@sheffield.ac.uk

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Professor Renee Timmers

Professor of Music Psychology
Department of Music

Email

r.timmers@sheffield.ac.uk

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Professor Dominic Broomfield-McHugh

Professor of Musicology
Department of Music

Email

d.mchugh@sheffield.ac.uk

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Renee Timmers will start the evening with an exploration of interactions between minds, bodies, and their environment in the creation and enjoyment of music. Dominic Broomfield-McHugh will follow with a discussion of how the Broadway musical can help us to understand (dis)ableism in North America in the Cold War period. Closing the evening, Dorothy Ker will present her new work Ode in Connection with my Body for soprano and piano, which will be given its world premiere by Ella Taylor with Leo Nicholson. 

Programme details

Chair: Dr Cayenna Ponchione-Bailey

5.30-6.00 Renee Timmers: Music, Bodies and Minds - an integration of senses 

6.00-6.30 Dominic Broomfield-McHugh: Representing Disability in the Golden Age of the Broadway Musical: Insights from Meredith Willson's The Music Man (1957)

6.30-6.50 Reception

6.45-7.30 Dorothy Ker: Sounding the Body 

World premiere performance of Dorothy Ker’s ‘Ode in Connection with my Body’ (complete) on a poem by Denys Trussell, for soprano and piano. The performance will be given, by Ella Taylor and Leo Nicholson.

Ella and Leo will also perform a selection of other pieces.

Audiences

This event is aimed at a broad audience and anyone with an interest in music is invited to attend. 

Admission is free. Please book to reserve your place for planning and catering purposes. Places can be booked through Concerts at:

This event is part of our streaming series for the Autumn 2021 University of Sheffield Concert Series. Both online and in-person tickets are available. Tickets 

Ella Taylor: Freelance work during a pandemic

Ella Taylor BMus Music

We spoke to Ella Taylor, one of our BMus alumni, who talks to us about being a freelance musician through the pandemic.