Research Colloquia in Music
Music hosts a series of colloquia on behalf of the Royal Musical Association featuring national and international guest speakers, along with staff and postgraduate students.
All talks take place in-person, in various venues on the Gilmorehill campus (see the University campus map for detailed directions) . All sessions are free and open to the public and a warm welcome is extended to all.
2025–26 Semester 2 — Wednesdays at 4.15pm (unless stated otherwise)
Wed 4th February, 4:15pm — Studio 2, ARC (11 Chapel Ln, G11 6EW)
Prof. Steve Waksman (University of Huddersfield)
Amplifying Materials: Tubes, Transistors, and Transduction
In his foundational study of sound reproduction, The Audible Past, Jonathan Sterne stresses the importance of transducers, devices that ‘turn sound into something else and that something else back into sound’ (p. 22). Transduction is also essential to the history and development of amplification technologies; and much of the work of transduction, in turn, has depended on the successive technologies of the thermionic valve, or vacuum tube, and the transistor. One could well divide the entire history of amplification technologies along the lines of ‘tube’ and ‘transistor’, and yet this history has been far from linear. Especially in the sphere of electric instrument amplification, tubes were not strictly replaced by transistors. Rather the divide between tube and solid state amps has remained fundamental and an ongoing point of distinction and discrimination, with the sound of tube amps often cast as most desirable in its perceived ‘warmth’ and ‘fullness’ relative to its solid state counterpart. Drawing upon patent documents, print and visual representations of amplifier technology, and original interviews with amp technicians and musicians – including Kevin Shields of My Bloody Valentine – this presentation aims to historicize the tube/solid state divide. I will first explore the different material dimensions of these two core amplifying materials, and second, will examine how the distinction between tube and solid state technologies can shed light on broader processes of defining musical value through what Fink, Latour and Wallmark have called ‘the relentless pursuit of tone’.
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Steve Waksman is the Leverhulme International Professor of Popular Music at University of Huddersfield, UK, where he is principal investigator on the Amplification Project. His publications include the books Instruments of Desire: The Electric Guitar and the Shaping of Musical Experience (1999), This Ain’t the Summer of Love: Conflict and Crossover in Heavy Metal and Punk (2009), and Live Music in America: A History from Jenny Lind to Beyoncé (2022), which was awarded the Music in American Culture Award from the American Musicological Society. Most recently, he completed The Cambridge Companion to the Electric Guitar, co-edited with Jan-Peter Herbst.
Tue 25th February, 4.15pm — Studio 2, ARC (11 Chapel Ln, G11 6EW)
Dr Graeme Smillie (University of Glasgow)
WE MAKE MUSIC NOW! The impact of free Instrumental Music Tuition on Scottish local authorities, schools and learners
This talk will discuss findings from We Make Music Now! (WMMN), a Scottish Government commissioned research project conducted by the Music Education Partnership Group (MEPG). Dr Graeme Smillie led this project, which looked at Scotland’s Instrumental Music Services (IMS) following the 2021 agreement to remove fees for instrumental music lessons in schools. WMMN! gathered quantitative data from 28 local authorities and qualitative data from all 32 local authorities across academic years 2023/24 and 2024/25. Learners, parents, carers, instrumental music instructors (IMIs), service managers, headteachers, stakeholders and administrators participated in interviews and focus groups that explored the lived experience of IMS delivery. Prevalent themes in the findings include issues of socio-economic equity, ASN delivery, rurality, holistic impacts of musical participation in schools, areas for systemic and structural growth, and professional recognition for instrumental music instructors.
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Dr Graeme Smillie is a lecturer in Creative Practice in Music at the University of Glasgow and head of research and programmes for the Music Education Partnership Group (MEPG). In addition to leading the Scottish Government research on instrumental music services, Graeme’s MEPG work has also involved the development online resources cataloguing and documenting the diverse range of opportunities for musical learning in Scotland, establishing a Scottish FE/HE working group, co-ordinating the national WMM Youth Forum, and continuing to work on building partnerships between formal and non-formal music education organisations. MEPG are currently working to inform and develop their national strategy for 2026-2031 and are working with political parties in shaping manifesto commitments for the forthcoming Scottish parliamentary elections.
Graeme also teaches at the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland, having previously taught on the BA Popular Music at the University of the Highlands and Islands and as a local authority instrumental instructor.
His PhD research was an ethnographically-informed examination of conservatoire learning cultures, focusing particularly on the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland’s fair access work. Graeme has written and delivered music programmes for hard to reach and care-experienced young people, with a commitment to providing musical opportunities and pathways for learners from diverse backgrounds.
Graeme also remains a busy touring and recording musician, having played for artists like Emma Pollock, Arab Strap, The Vaselines, The Delgados, Kathryn Williams and Withered Hand, Malcolm Middleton, Karine Polwart and Del Amitri among others.
Wed 11th March, 4:15pm — Room 303, Sir Alexander Stone Building
Dr Aaron McGregor (University of Aberdeen)
Vagabonds to virtuosi: musical networks, patronage, and the search for legitimacy in early modern Scotland
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Dr Aaron McGregor is a Lecturer in Music Performance at the University of Aberdeen and a freelance violinist. He grew up in Orkney and studied at the University of Edinburgh, before undertaking postgraduate degrees at the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland and the University of Glasgow, where he completed a PhD in 2020 under Dr David McGuinness and Professor John Butt.
As a performer, his background ranges across a spectrum of styles, including modern & baroque violin, and Scottish traditional fiddle. He is particularly interested in 17th and 18th-century Scottish fiddle music, performing regularly with Scots Baroque and Concerto Caledonia, with whom he has made four recordings, given several live performances on BBC Radio 3 and Radio Scotland, and toured Ireland, Finland, and Australia. He has also performed with ensembles such as Scottish Ensemble, Scottish Ballet, RSNO, Dunedin Consort, Manchester Camerata, the Cinematic Orchestra, the GRIT orchestra, the Evergreen Ensemble (Australia), and Les Musiciens de Saint Julien (France). As a guest leader, he has appeared with the Barsanti Ensemble, the Glasgow Barons and Amicus Orchestra. He has also led the National Youth Orchestra of Scotland and the RCS Symphony and Opera orchestras.
Dr McGregor’s research interests include the history of traditional and classical music in Scotland, early dance music, and the Historically Informed Performance movement, thinking about its relevance and use across genres. His PhD research focussed on the violin in Scotland in 1550-1750, exploring a far earlier history of the instrument in Scotland than previously considered, through study of performers and repertoire. His work has uncovered a thriving tradition, with vernacular music interacting with a surprisingly cosmopolitan range of styles. This work redefines the beginnings of Scottish fiddle music, forcing a rethink on Scotland’s cultural insularity.
Wed 25th March, 4:15pm — Room 303, Sir Alexander Stone Building
Prof. Elaine Kelly (University of Edinburgh)
Music and Anti-Imperial Solidarity: East Germany and the Third World
In this talk I will provide an overview of my latest book project, which explores how solidarity relationships between the German Democratic Republic and anti-colonial states and resistance movements were imagined, encoded, and enacted through music. The book unfolds through a series of case studies—among them a postcolonial conservatory, a court orchestra, an anti-apartheid opera, a folk ensemble, and a fusion rock band—each charting different meanings and experiences of solidarity. Drawing out some of the main themes from these, I will discuss what we can learn about socialist solidarity by focusing on music, and will reflect on the diverse circulations of music, musicians, and musical ideas that socialist solidarity facilitated.
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Elaine Kelly is professor of music and politics at the University of Edinburgh. The research from which the talk comes was funded by a Leverhulme Major Research Fellowship. Her previous work explores intersections between music, culture, politics, and intellectual history in the German Democratic Republic and post-Wende East Germany.