Music Performance tutor to present master’s paper at international symposium

A Music tutor at The Manchester College will be speaking at an industry-leading symposium in Poland in August to present a paper she penned for her master’s degree.

Rosie Fortune teaches on the Level 3 Music Performance course in our Industry Excellence Academy for Music at City Campus Manchester.

Alongside teaching, Rosie is studying for a master’s degree in Voice Pedagogy at the Voice Study Centre. For her master’s, she wrote a paper - ‘Considering barriers to performance for adolescent female singers and potential solutions & support mechanisms’ – and has now been invited to present her findings at the International Symposium for Performance Science (ISPS) at the Chopin University of Music in Warsaw.

Speaking about the opportunity, Rosie said: “The company I am studying with, Voice Study Centre, send out regular emails with calls for papers. I thought the symposium looked really interesting and decided to submit an abstract from my module 3 research project. To be honest, I wasn’t expecting to be selected but I am delighted that I have been and look forward to both sharing my work and hearing about the work of others.”

Presenting at the symposium will give me the opportunity to experience the world of performance science first hand and meet key academics and scientists working to extend knowledge in the field. I hope to be inspired by the work of others, and gain confidence in the work I have done and hope to do in the future.

The ISPS was set up in 2007 by Aaron Williamson, Director of Performance Science at the Royal College of Music in London. It’s a biennial meeting of performers and scientists that provides platform to discuss and debate all facets of performance.

Rosie will be joined at the symposium by keynote speakers from all over the world, including Brazil, China and South Africa. 

Rosie added: “For my current master’s module, I am working on a wellbeing programme specifically for musicians and I hope to speak with the Chair of the Symposium, Aaron Williamson, who was instrumental in the setting up of Healthy Conservatoires - a working group of all UK conservatoires who promote wellbeing in musicians and carry out research - and others who may help inform my work.

“I hope to use the connections I make to further my learning around performance science, develop exciting industry links, and ultimately inform my teaching practice. I plan to begin to deliver my wellbeing programme in January utilising the knowledge I will have gained from the conference.”

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