The Music Department boasts a vibrant community of postgraduate researchers working across the entire range of the Department's research specialisms. Read more about our current PhD students below. For details of completed PhD projects at MU Music, please visit Former PhD Students.
Please click through the tabs below for information on doctoral projects currently being supervised in the Department of Music.
Shauna Louise Caffrey (she/her, sí/í) is an Irish Research Council Postgraduate Scholar at the department of Music, Maynooth University. Her PhD project, ‘Wayward Sisters: Witchcraft, Music and Magic on the Seventeenth-Century Stage’, explores the origins and impact of onstage sorceresses in Early Modern theatrical traditions, with a focus on the operatic stage. Inspired by her lifelong passion for folklore and mythology, her research seeks to explore the intersections of oral and literate cultures in Early Modern Europe, and to interrogate the ideologies transmitted through operatic archetypes.
She graduated with first class honours in both her B.A. (Trinity College, Dublin) and M.A. Music and Cultural History (University College Cork), and was awarded the Mahaffy Memorial Prize for her research into the origins and appearance of witchcraft in Henry Purcell’s Dido and Aeneas in 2017, and the Society for Musicology in Ireland’s 2019 Alison Dunlop Postgraduate Prize. Shauna is a founding member of experimental music collective Analog On, with whom she has performed throughout Ireland and in the U.S.A. She is also a performance artist and dancer, and received the title Mx Horror 2020 for her performances at Ireland's Women in Horror Festival.
'Wayward Sisters': Witchcraft, Music and Magic on the Seventeenth-Century Stage
The witch has long been a subject of fascination for artists and audience members alike. Revered, feared, and the alternating subject of love or loathing, the witch has evolved from a seemingly omnipresent figure in world folklore, to the subject of musical, theatrical, and—in the last century—cinematic works. Manifesting in myriad guises and under numerous titles, today the witch presents ever more artistic potential, as the history of witchcraft is re-examined, the plight of the accused reinterrogated, leaving notions of cackling, broom-wielding spell-smiths cast aside. Witches have become the heroes and heroines of the postmodern age; the subject of children’s books, comedy shows, and advertising campaigns, the apprehension with which the subject of witchcraft was treated in the 16th and 17th centuries has largely dissolved. But what of these origins? What of the cackling, malevolent weavers of magic that inspired such terror and chaos on the Early Modern and Baroque stage, of the women and men whose trials have burned such a pregnant image into the Western psyche, and of the cultures that birthed them? The development of opera in the Baroque period saw the integration of the witch from folklore, drama and literature into the emerging genre. While sorceresses such as Armide and Medea terrorized the European stage, Britain experienced witchcraft of a different sort in Henry Purcell’s Dido and Aeneas, and countless masques and anti-masques. This project seeks to examine these witches and their magic on the seventeenth-century stage, to provide a cultural history of their origins, and to analyse their appearances. By shedding light on the witches' first significant foray into popular culture, this project will illuminate their prominent place in the modern psyche, as an alternating subject of fear and passion, and in their recent emergence as a feminist icon.
Teaching Assistant, Music and Trauma Studies (University College Cork), 2017-2018.
Contributor, GoldenPlec Classical, 2016-present
Course Instructor, Celtic Studies, Older Student Course (Centre for Talented Youth Ireland), 2019.
Course Instructor, Various Young Student courses, incl. Greek & Roman Mythology, Fantastic Beasts & How to Write Them (Centre for Talented Youth, Ireland) 2016-present
Teaching Assistant (Centre for Talented Youth, Ireland), 2014-2018.
Archive Manager, Trinity College Music Department Shellac & Vinyl Record Archive, 2014-2016.
Student Steering Committee Member, Society for Musicology in Ireland, 2020-present.
Conducting Masterclass with Eimear Noone, IMRO, August 2018
Active Music Making: The Kodály Approach Summer Course, Kodály Society of Ireland, 2014
Caffrey, Shauna Louise. ‘Mother, Monstrous: Motherhood, Grief, and the Supernatural in Marc- Antoine Charpentier’s Médée’. Irish Journal of Gothic and Horror Studies, no. 17 (2018): 13.
'Voicing the Liminal: Examining Gender and Liminal Identities through the voices of Operatic Witches', McGill Music Graduate Symposium, McGill University, March 2021.
'Wayward Sisters': Witches, Magic and Music on the Seventeenth-Century Stage’, Society for Musicology in Ireland Postgraduate Plenary, January 2021.
‘Sounding Wicked: Occult Soundscapes in The Chilling Adventures of Sabrina’, Gothflix 2020, Lancaster University, February 2020.
‘Otherworldly Thresholds: Liminality and Magic in Henry Purcell’s The Fairy Queen’, Society for Musicology in Ireland Annual Plenary Conference, Maynooth University, June 2019.
‘‘Like Dismal Ravens Crying': Supernatural Spectacle on the Restoration Stage’, Gothic Spectacle and Spectatorship, Lancaster University, June 2019.
‘Fear and Sensuality in New England: The Music of The Witch’,Folk Horror in the 21st Century, Falmouth University, September 2019.
‘Otherworldly Thresholds: Liminality and Magic in Henry Purcell’s The Fairy Queen’, Aigne Postgraduate Conference, UCC, December 2018.
‘She frights and frayes’: The Literary Origins of the Sorceress in Henry Purcell’s Dido and Aeneas’, Staging Witches: Gender, Power, and Alterity in Music AMS San Antonio Pre-Conference, October 2018.
Alison Dunlop Graduate Prize, 2019
Government of Ireland Postgraduate Scholarship 2018-2022
Mahaffy Memorial Prize, 2017
Society for Musicology in Ireland
Chris is currently undertaking his PhD in Musicology under the supervision of Dr Laura Watson. Having studied jazz and contemporary music performance at Newpark Music Centre in Dublin in 2014, he then completed a master’s in jazz performance at TU Dublin in 2021, with his thesis ‘The Impact of the Picking Hand on Individuality in Jazz Guitar’ exploring the idiosyncratic approaches to guitar playing in jazz. Chris performs regularly throughout the South-east of Ireland with his jazz trio and runs his own music teaching business in Athboy, Co. Meath.
The Musical Language of Louis Stewart and its Impact on Jazz Culture
Louis Stewart (1944-2016) was an Irish jazz guitarist whose place in the history of jazz in Ireland is unparalleled. Over a period of fifty years, he performed and recorded prolifically, eventually enjoying international acclaim in the early 1970s after being recruited by the acclaimed American jazz musician Benny Goodman into his band. Stewart's success has had a profound impact on the jazz scene in Ireland and he is widely credited as the most important Irish jazz musician to date. However, despite having achieved international acclaim along with his unquestionable influence on the Irish jazz scene, there is a striking lack of in-depth knowledge about his musicality. To date, his improvisational techniques have yet to be put to page and studied, and there are no publications containing his musical scores, which is in stark contrast to other musicians of similar stature and influence. There is also little existing biographical research surrounding his approach to practice, performance, and wider views and opinions on jazz and music. Through the use of contemporary musical analysis techniques on selected music spanning Stewart's career, a comprehensive insight into the musical concepts that he utilised will be gained. These concepts will then be catalogued and compared with the concepts of current prominent jazz musicians that cite Stewart as an influence to determine whether his lasting impact in jazz is cultural, stylistic, or both. Documentation of oral history from former bandmates, students, and acquaintances will add an additional layer of understanding to this process by revealing Stewart's own musical perspectives and philosophies. It will also aid in quantifying Stewart's subsequent cultural impact in Ireland and abroad.
Instrumental teacher – Keys + Strings School of Music, Dublin (2016-2018)
Instrumental teacher – Castleknock School of Music, Dublin (2018-2022)
Performer (2009-Present)
The Society of Musicology in Ireland
John and Pat Hume Doctoral Scholarship
Rory Corbett is currently completing a PhD in the Department of Music at Maynooth University. His research explores the cultural symbiosis of two of the United States’ most resilient and (as a consequence) most influential constituencies, Irish- and African-Americans, from the colonial period up to the mid-nineteenth century. The study also situates the banjo as a notable site of cross-cultural exchange between these two most prominent “others” in Anglo-American popular culture during this period.
The history of the banjo is one that crosses boundaries of class, race, gender and ethnicity and as such an overarching goal of Rory’s research is to tie in that transitory history, and the complexities arising from such with that of the Irish diaspora and their changing ethnic and racial status within antebellum American society.
Rory was awarded a first class honours for his B.A. in NUI Galway in Irish Studies, Sociology and Politics, and English in 2015. He was also awarded a first class honours for an M.A. in Ethnomusicology in University College Cork in 2019, for which he submitted a thesis which reconnected his own creative practice as a practitioner of the African American-derived clawhammer banjo style with that of the earliest blackface minstrel performers.
Rory’s research is funded the Irish Research Council. In 2019 he was also awarded a Travelling Studentship by the National University of Ireland for the purposes of undertaking substantial archival research abroad. In 2021 Rory was additionally awarded a Visiting Fellowship by the British Library’s Eccles Centre which will further facilitate the archival end of his study.
“A Darker Shade of Green: the Twisted Roots of the Irish Banjo”
This thesis explores the cultural symbiosis between Irish, African American and blackface minstrel cultures in the nineteenth century and the adoption of the banjo by Irish American blackface minstrel performers during that time. The study sbegins with a brief overview of Green and Black migratory patterns and cultural encounters within the context of Atlantic state formation in the New World in the colonial period. It then leads into the closing years of the War of 1812, wherein the initial performances of the first distinctively American blackface dialect song, “the Siege of Plattsburg,” more commonly known today as “Backside Albany,” took place. The study rounds up in the early 1840s, when the Virginia Minstrels firmly established the Minstrel Show as the first mass popular music culture in the Atlantic world.
As a core part of that investigation the project explores the fluidity and performativity of ethnicity, race and identity for Irish American minstrel banjoists in an increasingly racialised antebellum American society. Changing power relations between Irish and African American social groups will be a key concern here. Though these performers have been described, somewhat interchangeably, as Anglo-American, Scots-Irish, and Irish-American, the extent to which the use of such ethnic labels proves applicable will be another, as will the significance of changing perceptions and representations of “Irishness” and “blackness” within antebellum popular culture.
Moreover, in the attempt to overcome the challenge of researching an oral/aural vernacular expressive culture, and one that has largely eluded the historical record, the project will involve extensive archival fieldwork combined with the employment of an interdisciplinary theoretical framework which fuses perspectives from Historical Ethnomusicology and Irish Studies with that of Social Theory. Moreover, and in addition to Post-Colonial and Critical Race Theory, a thorough engagement with the work of scholars of the modern school of Liminality Theory has the potential to be the most significant in that regard.
Assistant Editor and Web Manager – Aigne, UCC’s Peer-Reviewed Postgraduate Journal (2022-23)
Music Performance Mentor - Northwest Regional College, Derry (2020–2021)
Guest Lecturer - World Music Studies Class, HND Level 5 Northwest Regional College, Derry (2014–2020)
Guest Lecturer - Music and Race Seminar, University College Cork, Cork (2019/2020)
Teacher - Children’s Popular Fiction, DCU’s Centre for Talented Youth, Western Gateway Building, Western Road, Cork (Spring 2018)
Peer-reviewed Articles
In 2020 I had my first solely authored publication, entitled “Backside Albany, Trickster’s Spirit and the Axial moment of Blackface Minstrelsy,” which was published in the International Political Anthropology Journal. Drawing extensively upon concepts derived from the works of Arnold van Gennep, Victor Turner and other political anthropological theorists, the article retraced the origins of the Blackface Minstrel genre to the performance of the wartime ballad “Backside Albany;” the first dialect dong to be published in America. The article explored the notable use of an Irish air associated with anti-Catholic sentiment within that work.
Corbett, Rory. 2020. “‘Backside Albany,’ Trickster’s Spirit and the Axial Moment of Blackface Minstrelsy.” International Political Anthropology: 13(1): 29–47.
Abstract:
This paper retraces the liminal societal conditions in which the wartime ballad “Backside Albany” came to instantiate the blackface minstrel tradition in America. Through tracing the animating effects of a trickster spirit in the post-Revolutionary American song tradition, it argues for the importance of recognising the dangers inherent to persisting liminal conditions for a trickster takeover and with it an escalation of mimetic rivalry. As a result new avenues for understanding the deterioration of relations between Irish and African Americans in the antebellum American social drama are offered.
After participating in a conference jointly held by History Ireland and Drew University in 2016 I was very kindly asked by one of the panellists to contribute to an article entitled “A Uniting Force:” Irish Music on U.S. Radio” published in Taylor and Francis’ Journal of Radio & Audio Media.
Dempsey, John Mark, Rory Corbett and Marc Geagan. 2016. ‘“A Uniting Force”: Irish Music on U.S. Radio’. Journal of Radio & Audio Media 23(1): 123–143.
Abstract:
Ethnic music of all kinds has had a powerful influence on American popular music throughout history, and this is certainly true of Irish music. For nearly 100 years, radio has been a vital conduit for conveying musical influences of all kinds to listeners and musicians alike. This qualitative study analyses Irish radio broadcasting in the United States The article is based upon an open-ended survey of U.S. broadcasters of Irish music programs in the top 10 markets and provides a summary of their recent playlists.
Corbett, Rory. 2021. “The Virginia Minstrels’ 1842–44 British and Irish Tour.” SMI/ICTM-IE Postgraduate Conference.
Corbett, Rory. 2020. “The Twisted Roots of the Irish Banjo.” The Banjo Gathering.
Corbett, Rory, Ellen Scheible, Kathryn Holt, Molly Ferguson, Rachel Nozicka. 2020. “Race and Protest” Panel. Mid-West American Conference for Irish Studies.
Corbett, Rory. 2020. “Crisis and Transition: The Invention of the Banjo and the Reinvention of the Self.” Joint ICTM-IE/SMI Annual Postgraduate Conference, University of Limerick.
Corbett, Rory. 2019. “The Whitening of the Banjo and the Whitening of the Irish in Jacksonian America.” The Irish Association for American Studies Annual Conference, University College, Cork.
Corbett, Rory. 2016. ‘“This Machine Surrounds Hate and Forces it to Surrender”: The Banjo’s Transformation as a Symbol of Oppression in the Nineteenth Century to One of Resistance in the Twentieth’. Drew University Trans-Atlantic Conference, Bundoran, Co. Donegal.
Corbett, Rory. 2015. “How Ulster Helped Shape America’s Ballad Tradition.” Drew University Trans-Atlantic Conference, Bundoran, Co. Donegal.
Corbett, Rory. 2015. “Irish American involvement in Blackface Minstrelsy.” Drew University Trans-Atlantic Conference, Bundoran, Co. Donegal.
Corbett, Rory. 2014. “When Paddy Picked Up the Banjo.” Drew University Trans-Atlantic Conference, Bundoran, Co. Donegal.
Corbett, Rory Mick Moloney, Charlie McGettigan, John Dempsey, Marc Geagan . 2014. “The Emigrant’s Song: The Impact of Irish Music on American Culture” Panel. History Ireland at Drew University Trans-Atlantic Conference, Bundoran, Co. Donegal.
2021
The British Library’s Eccles Centre Visiting Fellowship
2019–2022
Irish Research Council Postgraduate Scholarship
2019
National University of Ireland Travelling Studentship
2018–2021
UCC PhD Excellence Scholarship
2017–2018
UCC Masters Excellence Scholarship
2014
The Yeats International Summer School Pierce Loughran Memorial Scholarship
Seamus O'Grady Prize by Irish Studies Department
2011–2014
NUIG scholarship on basis of final results for years 2, 3, and 4
Granted title University Scholar for exam results from year 2
Member of The Society for Ethnomusicology (SEM)
Member of British Forum for Ethnomusicology (BFE)
Member of The Irish Chapter for the International Council for Traditional Music (ICTM)
Member of The International Association for the Study of Popular music (IASPM)
Associate Member of The Irish Musicians Rights Organisation (IMRO)
Member of the Society for the Study of Nineteenth Century Ireland
Email - [email protected]
Twitter - @RoryCorbett
Kayleigh is completing a PhD in Musicology under the tutelage of Professor Lorraine Byrne-Bodley. Previously, she has obtained an MSLIS qualification in Rare Book and Special Collections Librarianship from Long Island University, and an MMus in Historical Musicology from University College Dublin. Her goal is to pair her background as a music researcher with her skills in library and archive services to work as a cataloguer and curator of manuscript sources and humanities collections, in between traveling the world with her dog.
Kayleigh’s thesis, aptly titled “A Case for Enhanced Access to Irish Musical Sources: The Pugin Collection in the Russell Library, Maynooth University,” is exactly that: a case study using a ‘dark’ archive of music and cultural heritage sources held at Maynooth as a plea for the importance of digital preservation in the humanities. This study will run alongside the enhancement of the collection’s metadata and preservation efforts through online access, and work to promote such methods as an integral and viable scheme for the survival of cultural heritage materials, as well as a call to improve access to underserved demographics.
Kayleigh has served as a cataloguer for various libraries and archives, chiefly Archbishop Marsh’s Library in Dublin and the LIU Post Archives with the Gardiner Foundation in New York. She has also taught music theory and private instruction and led tutorials in academic writing.
Out of Myself and My Country I Go: A Historical Discourse of the Troubadour in British Literature (International Medievalisms, Maynooth University, June 2019; The Society for Musicology in Ireland Plenary Conference, October 2020; forthcoming publication for Boydell and Brewer, Medievalisms).
Rare Books of Dublin: A History of the Book Through Ireland’s Written Artefacts (Commissioned for the CNY Irish Cultural Society, March 2019).
The Hibernian Catch Club Collection at Archbishop Marsh’s Library, Dublin: A Preliminary Assessment (UCD School of Music Graduate Colloquium, April 2017).
Maynooth University’s John and Pat Hume Doctoral Scholarship
Gardiner Foundation Graduate Archival Fellowship
American Library Association
American Musicological Society
Association of College and Research Libraries
Musique Medievale
Rare Books and Manuscripts Section (ACRL)
Society for Musicology in Ireland
Darragh is a pianist, educator, composer and music examiner from Ireland. He is an Assistant Lecturer of Piano at the Royal Irish Academy of Music (RIAM), Ireland's most distinguished conservatoire. For this, he manages a team of Teaching Assistants, who are MMus/DMus students and External teachers. He is also a Local Centre Examiner with RIAM, examining music grades/recitals nationally, as well as a piano tutor in Maynooth University. Alongside a UK-based composer, Darragh has recently acted as an advisor and co-composer for bespoke piano tutor books. Several of his compositions are featured in these books, as well as in the Royal Irish Academy of Music’s piano albums. He previously worked for four years in Maynooth University’s Academic Writing Support Services, providing support to students of all disciplines with their writing concerns, through 1-to-1 appointments and courses which he taught and led.
His qualifications include a first-class honours in both a BA International in Music and a Masters in Performance and Musicology. He studied abroad in the University of Vienna for an Erasmus year. He is a holder of an Associate Diploma in Piano Pedagogy from RIAM and a Licentiate Diploma in Piano Performance from Trinity College London (Distinction). He also completed a Certificate in Third-Level Teaching and Learning. Darragh is currently in his final stages of a PhD in Musicology under the supervision of Prof. Lorraine Byrne Bodley, author of the most recent Schubert biography. He is the recipient of the John and Pat Hume Doctoral Scholarship Award. His research interests include Schubert’s contribution to piano duets and the role which piano duets play in pedagogy.
Title: Schubert’s Piano Works for Four Hands
Abstract: Franz Schubert’s engagement with piano duets began at the age of thirteen and continued until his untimely death in 1828. He elevated the piano duet to a new degree of sophistication, composing extensively for the medium – 34 works. He was a pioneer in this genre and no composer has rivalled his legacy since then in terms of the quantity and quality of his piano duets. There was a point in time during which the popularity of the four-hand genre rivalled that of solo piano, though many of these works were transcriptions/arrangements. Schubert’s works though were almost exclusively original piano duets. His output consists of extremely diverse genres and forms including sonatas, polonaises, marches, dances, variations, fantasies, overtures, rondos, divertissements, and a fugue. Of all his opus numbers published during his lifetime, his piano duets were second only to his Lieder in number. His artful complexity in the genre paved the path for Schumann, Brahms, and later composers to explore this area, as Schubert attracted new attention to the genre as a serious artform.
However, despite Schubert’s efforts in transcending the boundaries of the piano duet, the significance of his piano duets remains largely unexplored or at least significantly unaddressed in scholarship. Why is this? This thesis will investigate contributing factors that until now, have not been given significant attention. Much of the scholarly efforts in the nineteenth and twentieth century on Schubert were centred around his Lieder – though I argue Schubert was of a pioneer in the genre of piano duets too. More recently, scholars have begun to re-examine Schubert’s solo piano works, especially his ‘Wanderer’ Fantasy and his late piano sonatas. I posit that Schubert’s cultivation of the piano duet genre was equally authentic as his solo works and ask, why have his piano duets not been held in such a high regard? A selection of Schubert’s overlooked piano works are provided as case studies, providing performative and pedagogical perspectives. This research penetrates uncharted territory, as scholarship on Schubert’s piano duets is minimal and a more comprehensive study is due. Consequently, this thesis will bridge gaps in the reassessment of Schubert’s piano output, and it will contribute to the creation of new perspectives manifesting in a more comprehensive Schubertian representation
RTÉ Brainstorm Article: https://www.rte.ie/author/1472971-darragh-gilleece/
Piano method books with QuietlifeMusic: editorial assistance and co-composer
Piano composition in The Royal Irish Academy of Music’s 2025 primary album
Piano composition in The Royal Irish Academy of Music’s 2026 grade 2 album
Co-author of Maynooth University's Handbook for Writing Tutors
Presented for: the Schubert Institute UK, Maynooth University Research Colloquia, Maynooth University Postgraduate Conference, the SMI and ICTM-IE Postgraduate Conference, SMI Plenary Conference
Pianist for various occasions; recent events included performing in the University of Wrocław, the Italian Institute of Culture and the Department of Foreign Affairs (Iveagh House).
Erasmus Grant for Arqus course, University of Wrocław
HEA Covid Extension Award, provided by the Department of Further and Higher Education, Research, Innovation and Science
John and Pat Hume Doctoral Scholarship Award
Offered PhD Scholarship, DCU
Nominated for Alison Dunlop Prize for MA Thesis, Society for Musicology Ireland
Maynooth University Library Innovation Award
Offered MA Scholarship, Maynooth University
MUSE Award, Maynooth University
Swiss Embassy Award
Austrian Embassy Award
Arklow Music and Arts Scene Composition Award
Society for Musicology in Ireland
William Kearney is an Irish Research Council Postgraduate Scholar at the Department of Music, Maynooth University, Ireland. His PhD research takes a choreomusicological approach to the study of embodiment in participatory Irish set dancing contexts with a particular focus on the traditions of the Cork/Kerry/Limerick border region of Ireland.
Passing It On: The Significance of Gesture in the Embodiment of Irish Traditional Dance Music and Dance
In the literature on Irish traditional music and dance, a certain level of ambiguity is typically taken as a given when thinking about transmission and embodiment. Owing to the predominately oral nature of these art forms, learning by listening and imitation are rightly viewed as key stages of embodiment, yet little discussion is given to how crucial information relating to performance practice (style) and aesthetics is transmitted and internalised in these processes. Taking the starting point of viewing embodiment as multimodal, multisensory, and mimetic, this research aims to foreground the role of gesture - whether expressed through the dancing body, a melodic line played on an instrument, or both - positing gesture as a conduit through which such sophisticated knowledge is communicated and interpreted in these oral art forms. As such, it is argued that this interpretation is influenced by one’s culture, while the degree to which it is embodied is dependent on individual interest, desire, and motivation. In addressing these questions, a choreomusicological approach (an approach which underscores the interrelatedness of music and dance) is applied to the set dancing traditions of the Munster region of Ireland, positing that the music and dance as practice in these participatory art forms, can be viewed as different gestural iterations of a shared embodied ideal of performance style and aesthetic.
Department of Music, Maynooth - Dec 2021- present
Lecturer on the Introduction to Irish Traditional Music module for 23-4 and 24-5 academic years.
Tutor for first year undergraduate music theory module for 23-4 academic year.
I have graded papers for several undergraduate modules delivered by the department.
Technical Editor of Ethnomusicology Ireland - April 2023 to present
Kearney, William. 2024. ‘Towards a Multimedia Choreomusicology: Exploring the Potential of Digital Animation as a Tool in Sound-Movement Research Dissemination.’ In Reconsidering Knowledge Production and Inclusion/Exclusion in Dance Communities, edited by Rebeka Kunej and Ann R David. Ljubljiana: Založba ZRC.
Kearney, William. 2024. ‘Learning by Ear: Multimodal Listening and the Embodiment of Irish Traditional Music and Dance’. In British Forum for Ethnomusicology & International Council for Traditional Music Ireland Joint-Annual Conference. Cork, Ireland. https://mural.maynoothuniversity.ie/id/eprint/18441.
Government of Ireland Postgraduate Scholarship 2023-25
Hume Fellow Scholarship from Maynooth University 2021-23
Member of the International Council for Traditions of Music and Dance
Member of The Society of Ethnmusicology
Hui Han Lui is currently completing a PhD in the Department of Music at Maynooth University, under the supervision of Dr Antonio Cascelli and Prof. Alison Hood. Her research explores a selection of 19th-century piano techniques and their application on both modern and historical pianos.
Prior to pursuing her PhD, she has completed a Bachelor of Music (Performance) from Universiti Putra Malaysia and MA in Performance and Musicology from Maynooth University, both with first class honours. She has an interest in performance studies and focused on researching body movements and gestures in piano performance during her MA studies. She completed a thesis titled Formalizing Body Movements and Gestures in Piano Solo Work: Estampes by Debussy during her MA studies.
As a pianist, her achievements include obtaining a Licentiate of Trinity College London (LTCL), being selected as one of the scholarship recipients of the YAMAHA Scholarship Program 2017, as well as one of the finalists at the First International Aswara Piano and Vocal Competition.
Reimagining 19th-Century Piano Techniques from a 21st-Century Perspective
This research reimagines a selection of nineteenth-century piano techniques, specifically those by Johann Nepomuk Hummel, Carl Czerny, Ludwig Deppe, and Theodore Leschetizky from a twenty-first-century perspective. These historical techniques were studied mainly through historical treatises or technique books where instructions on physical approaches, one of the most fundamental aspects of learning playing techniques, were focused on in detail. Through this, the resulting body and hand postures, positions, and movements were observed, and the implications of these researched techniques on musical aspects such as touches, tones, dynamics, and phrasing were studied, mainly on the modern piano and briefly on historical piano.
In carrying out this study, musicological research served as the foundation, while different methodologies such as autoethnography and motion capture were used to extract findings from two different perspectives. The nineteenth-century techniques, reimagined and assimilated into modern piano playing, were showcased through the final recordings of performances where changes can be observed in aspects such as clarity, touches, dynamics, and phrasing. The demonstrations, musical examples, and recordings extends its contribution to both historically informed and modern piano performances. It provides an additional aspect to consider in the preparation of historically informed performances (HIP) and opens the possibility for modern pianists to take inspiration from historical techniques. It helps modern pianists understand the selected nineteenth-century techniques, and make more informed decisions when assimilating them, while offering a potential solution to playing historical keyboard instruments.
Hui has provided one-to-one piano lessons to undergraduate piano majors, taught and examined first- and second-year group piano lessons, and delivered tutorials for music theory modules. Additionally, she has worked as a piano teacher for about ten years, preparing students for ABRSM, Trinity, and RIAM graded exams, as well as the Leaving Certificate practical exam.
To further develop her knowledge and skills in historical piano performance, Hui has also attended summer schools on historical instruments, including the Historical Piano Summer Academy 2023 in Ghent, Belgium (passive participant, as part of the Early Muse short-term scientific mission) and the 2024 Early Music Summer Course in Magnano, Italy, where she studied clavichord and fortepiano. Furthermore, she is also learning the clavichord as part of her ongoing exploration on historical keyboards.
The Arts Council Ireland 2024 Agility Award in Music
John and Pat Hume Scholarship
YAMAHA Scholarship Program 2017
Hui Han Lui, ‘Reimagining the use of 19th-century techniques on historical piano: from the perspective of a 21st-century pianist’, RUUKKU - Studies in Artistic Research, 21 (2024), https://doi.org/10.22501/ruu.2100311
Hui Han Lui, ‘Perception Gaps Between Modern and Historical Piano— A Way Towards Emancipation’, Early Muse Blog, 29 May 2024 https://earlymuse.eu/publications/blog/perception-gaps-between-modern-and-historical-piano-a-way-towards-emancipation-by-hui-han-lui-maynooth-university-ireland/
Interweaving the Past in the Present: Integrating Hummel’s techniques in Mozart’s Sonata in D
Nov 2024 —the 47th National Conference of the Musicological Society of Australia
The Reconciliation of Artistic and Empirical Perspectives in the Study of Body Movements and Sound through Learning the Late 19th century Piano Techniques
Jan 2023 — Joint SMI/ICTM-IE Postgraduate Conference, University College Dublin, Ireland
Learning the Late 19th century Piano Techniques: From the Perspective of a Performer-researcher
Jan 2023 — BFE/RMA Research Students’ Conference 2023
Effects of Classical Techniques on Body Movements and the Sound of a Modern Grand Piano: Hummel and Czerny, Performance: Waldstein Sonata 1st Movement
Mar 2022 — Perform_Live, National Concert Hall
Effects of Classical Techniques on Body Movements and the Sound of a Modern Grand Piano: Hummel and Czerny
Jan 2022 — SMI/ICTM-IE Postgraduate Conference
Jan 2022 — 2022 BFE/RMA Research Students’ Conference, Plymouth University, Jan 2022
Evolution of Body Movements: Piano Techniques and Playing Approaches in Classical Period
Sep 2021 — Doctors in Performance 2021, Tallinn, Estonia
May 2021 — SMI/ICTM-IE Joint Plenary Conference, Trinity College Dublin
Dylan Murphy is a Contemporary Classical Art Music Composer/Performer, who hails from Galway in Ireland’s West, but is currently based in Dublin, Ireland. He is currently researching 20th Century Irish Literature in relation to contemporary art music composition at Maynooth University under the supervision of Dr Martin O’Leary, and is also currently a lecturer in the Theory Department of BIMM Dublin. He has released music in a Jazz context previously, which has been said to “culminate in this delicious melange of blues styles”; but has gone on to focus on Contemporary Classical Art Music composition and performance with the release of his first piece, Iridescence - for solo piano, performed by Izumi Kimura. His influences include Arnold Schoenberg, Igor Stravinsky, Lili Boulanger, but are not just limited to a contemporary classic tradition, he has also found influence from Miles Davis, John Coltrane, Julian Lage and Bill Frisell, among many others. His sound can be said to be derived from the fusing of this background: Jazz along with Contemporary Classical, culminating in this tonally dense soundscape.
Juxtaposed Art Forms: 20th-Century Irish Literature and Contemporary Classical Art Music – the Interaction and Impact on my Music.
Art influences art; throughout my previous studies, MA of Composition at Maynooth University, literature played a key role in its culmination; and thus, the research being conducted in this PhD is based upon the interaction of literature with Contemporary Musical Composition.The main focus within will be of new music composition in relation to key writers of 20th Century Irish Literature, that of: James Joyce, Samuel Beckett and W. B. Yeats. The new music composed will be influenced by the literature in a variety of ways, but primarily the forms and techniques uncovered within the literature, that will be incorporated to the musical idiom. There will also be this question of modernist vs. postmodern thought within the newly composed music as well as the case studies (music/literature) analysed, along with a question of Irishness within the composed music and case studies.
Lecturer – BIMM Dublin 2021 – Present
“Iridescence – For Solo Piano”, performed by Izumi Kimura. https://youtu.be/8TgLxxsaOOw
Inês Nunes Trindade is a PhD student at Maynooth University (ERC Grant, 2024-28), as part of Professor Karen Desmond’s research project ‘Polyphonic Singing and Communities of Music Writing in Medieval Britain and Ireland, c. 1150 to c. 1350’ (BROKENSONG). Having finished a BA Degree in Musical Sciences at NOVA University of Lisbon, she completed her MA Degree in Historical Musicology in 2024, at the same institution, with a dissertation titled ‘Communion Antiphons: Liturgical and Musical Identity in the Sources of Braga and Guimarães (12th-17th centuries)’, under the supervision of Professor Elsa De Luca. She actively collaborates with the Early Music Study Group, at CESEM, where she is a member in the project ‘Echoes from the Past: Unveiling a Lost Soundscape with Digital Analysis’, having taken part in the projects ‘The Musical Manuscripts of the Belém Monastery’ and ‘Texts and voices lost and found. Recovering, reconstituting, and recreating musical fragments (c.1100-c.1600)’.
Uncovering the Plainchant at Worcester Cathedral (12th-14th century)
The Worcester Cathedral Library preserves an incredible collection of complete medieval manuscripts and an important set of fragments taken from their bindings. To uncover the plainchant, the point of departure for this research is a unique Worcester Service Book from the 13th century, known as Antiphoner F. 160, compiled in the Cathedral. This source is relevant since it contains all the chants for the performance of the daily religious services. With 355 leaves, it compiles several books, namely an Antiphoner (Temoporale and Sanctorale), a Processional, the office and mass for Corpus Christi and for the Visitation, a Calendar, a Psalter, a Hymnal, a Collectar, and a Gradual (with Temporale and Sanctorale content, as well as troped Kyries, Glorias, Sequences, troped Sanctus and Agnus). By indexing and analysing the musical content, I aim to open up new possibilities for identifying and understanding the peculiarities of the plainchant and the musical notation in Worcester, having in mind the relationship with Norman and Sarum sources. Furthermore, this output will contribute to one of the goals of the BROKENSONG project, that is, to find thematic concordances with the texts of Worcester’s polyphonic and monophonic compositions.
Research projects:
PhD researcher, Polyphonic Singing and Communities of Music Writing in Medieval Britain and Ireland, c. 1150 to c. 1350, (2024-28).
Researcher, Echoes from the Past: Unveiling a Lost Soundscape with Digital Analysis (2023-ongoing).
Research fellow, Texts and voices lost and found. Recovering, reconstituting, and recreating musical fragments (c.1100-c.1600) (2023-24).
Researcher, The Musical Manuscripts from the Monastery of Belém: The Exploration of an Unknown Hieronymite Tradition (2022-23).
Research fellow, CONCHA - The construction of early modern global Cities and oceanic networks in the Atlantic: An approach via Ocean's Cultural Heritage (2022).
Event organization:
Digital Technologies Applied to Music Research: Methodologies, Projects and Challenges, NOVA University of Lisbon, Portugal, June 27-29, 2024.
Lost & Found: Traces of Early Music An International Colloquium on Fragmentology, NOVA University of Lisbon, Portugal, July 19-22, 2023.
5th Transnational Opera Studies Conference, NOVA University of Lisbon, Portugal, July 6-8, 2023.
XI Meeting of Research in Music, University of Aveiro, November 10-12, 2022.
Publications:
Trindade, Inês Nunes. 2025. “The Tridentine Reform in Braga Liturgy: The Melodies of Communion-Antiphons as Case-Study”. In Early Centuries of Franco-Roman Chant in Iberia, ca. 1050–1300 (accepted).
Trindade, Inês Nunes. 2025. “A Liturgia Bracarense: um olhar sobre as melodias das antífonas de comunhão”. In Incipit 13 (accepted).
Trindade, Inês Nunes. 2024. “As Antífonas de Comunhão: Identidade Musical e Litúrgica nas Fontes de Braga e Guimarães do séc. XII ao séc. XVII”. Master Thesis, NOVA University of Lisbon, Portugal.
Alvarenga, João Pedro d'; Trindade, Inês Nunes. 2023. “Lost&Found Recovering, reconstituting, and recreating musical fragments (c.1100-c.1600)”. Paper presented in Dia da investigação e inovação 2023 (DII23).
Oral Presentations:
“The Veneration of Saint Scholastica in the British Isles: The Worcester Gradual F. 160 as Case-Study”, Joint SMI/ICTM-IE Postgraduate Conference, Trinity College Dublin (Ireland), January 2025.
“As melodias das antífonas de comunhão do Gradual da Sé de Braga do século XVII”, XIII Meeting on Research in Music, Conservatório Regional do Algarve (Faro, Portugal), November 2024.
“The Liturgy of Braga: Uncovering the Melodies of Communion Chants”, Digital Technologies Applied to Music Research: Methodologies, Projects and Challenges (Lisbon, Portugal), June 2024.
“A Liturgia Bracarense: um olhar sobre as melodias dos cantos de Comunhão”, XVI Medieval Studies Workshop (Porto, Portugal), April 2024.
“De pergaminho a biblioteca digital: O cantochão de Braga e Guimarães como estudo de caso”, 4º National Meeting of Researchers of the IN2PAST (Lisbon, Portugal), February 2024.
“Antífonas de Comunhão: Identidade Litúrgica e Musical nas Fontes Bracarenses do séc. XII ao séc. XVII”, Post-Graduate Forum in Studies in Music and Dance (Lisbon, Portugal), December 2023.
“The manuscript P-Ln L. C. 259: an antiphonary from the monastery of Belém”, MEDyREN (Zamora, Spain), April 2023.
Claire O’Donnell is currently pursuing a PhD in musicology at Maynooth University, focusing on Irish composer John Field’s connections to the 18th-century Italian pedagogical traditions of partimento and solfeggio. She is a classical pianist and composer specializing in historical styles who brings an interdisciplinary background to her research projects. A former professional translator with a Research Master’s degree in Sociolinguistics and a Professional Master’s degree in Translation, Claire was drawn to historical improvisation through Robert Gjerdingen’s linguistics-inspired approach to music analysis. Since 2019, she has immersed herself in the study of schema theory, partimento, and solfeggio, while regularly self-publishing compositions and partimento realizations. Claire is also a private teacher of piano and historical improvisation and composition.
John Field and the Nocturne: How the Italian Partimento and Solfeggio Traditions Shaped the Genre
Despite Irish composer John Field’s (1782-1837) reputation as a skilled improviser and ‘inventor’ of the piano nocturne, the role of historical improvisation practices in the development of this celebrated genre remains unexplored, leaving an important gap in our understanding of how this music was shaped.
The role of improvisation - a ‘forgotten’ skill - has largely been overlooked in Western classical music in modern times. Yet, recent scholarly research has revealed that 18th and 19th-century pedagogy involved a strong focus on improvisation. Specifically, a tradition known as partimento (harmonic exercises) and solfeggio (melodic exercises), which originated in 18th-century Italian conservatories, taught musicians to speak a ‘common language’ by internalizing a rich variety of musical patterns. This tradition has been rediscovered by modern scholars, who are using historical pedagogical models to revive the skills of improvisation and cultivate a more integrative approach to classical music education.
John Field’s nocturnes are significant because they embody the transition between Classical and Romantic aesthetics and established a model for composers of the Romantic era (1800-1850). Having trained under Italian teachers Tommaso Giordani (c.1730-1806) and Muzio Clementi (1752-1832), Field’s connection to the partimento tradition is unexplored, raising questions about the traces of improvisational practice in the genre’s development.
My research will begin by examining Field’s training and the broader historical context. It will then analyze pedagogical works by his teachers and Field’s own nocturnes, using a comparative lens to demonstrate how he used and transformed conventions in the emerging nocturne genre. Finally, I will describe harmonic models used by Field and provide practical demonstrations through original compositions in the nocturne style.
As a pianist, composer and improviser, I aim to contribute new models for the growing community of musicians interested in historical improvisation, while demonstrating Ireland’s link to the partimento tradition for the first time.
Formerly a professional translator (2008–2017) and a musician since childhood, Claire began retraining as a piano teacher in 2018 through private instruction and RIAM examinations. Her discovery of historical improvisation in 2019 was transformative, sparking a deep passion for the field. Since then, Claire has pursued various training opportunities, including over two years of active participation in John Mortensen’s Improv Planet. She also attended the MentiParti intensive summer workshops on 17th- and 18th-century Italian traditions of partimento and solfeggio in both 2021 and 2023 and has taken private lessons in partimento and counterpoint. She currently works as a private piano teacher while pursuing her PhD.
“Improvising with the Preludes of Tommaso Giordani: Analysis Through a Pedagogical Lens” – Paper presented at the Chigiana conference “Performing Classics Today” in Siena, Italy, December 2024
Improcomp scholarship for active participation in the “Piano Improvisation in the 18th and Early 19th Centuries” workshop in Perugia, Italy
Society for Musicology in Ireland
Irish flautist Eilís O'Sullivan graduated from the Cork School of Music and, as a scholarship student, continued her studies at the Royal Scottish Academy of Music and Drama. She graduated with B.A. (Hons) and M.Mus with Distinction. Eilís is much in demand as a solo, chamber and orchestral musician, having broadcast and toured extensively. Throughout her career she has been distinguished with many awards including the Silver Medal of the Worshipful Company of Musicians, London and first prize in the Governor's Recital Prize Competition at the Scottish Conservatoire. Eilís has performed widely as a soloist. Recitals include performances at St. Martin in the Fields, London, Sir Adrian Boult Hall, Birmingham, NCH Dublin, with Crash Ensemble in Germany, for the Prince of Wales at Hollyrood Palace, Edinburgh and at the main concert hall and music club venues throughout Ireland, Britain and Germany. Guest concerto engagements include performances in Seattle, USA, Glasgow & Edinburgh, Scotland, and as a broadcast with the RTE Concert Orchestra, Dublin. As an active chamber musician some of Eilís' recent performances include Debussy's Sonata for Flute, Viola and Harp, Beethoven's Trio for Flute, Bassoon and Piano, Wind Trios for ClassicalKids, recitals with Hifilutin flute quartet and NCH appearances with the Orpheus Trio. As an orchestral musician she has freelanced with the RSNO (Royal Scottish National Orchestra), SCO (Scottish Chamber Orchestra), BBC Wales, NSOI (National Symphony Orchestra of Ireland) and RTÉCO (Radio Telifis Éireann Concert Orchestra). Currently Eilís is a lecturer at the MTU Cork School of Music and is a PhD student at Maynooth University working under the supervision of Prof. Fiona Palmer and Dr Antonio Cascelli.
A Flautist’s Exploration on ‘I-Thou’ (I U): (U I) ‘Thou-I’ [An Artistic Research into and through the performances of Olivier Messiaen’s Le Merle Noir (1952) and Luciano Berio’s Sequenza 1 (1958)]
Born in France within a family of musicians, Sydney Rime started her journey as a professional pianist and piano teacher when she was in her late teens, while studying at the Conservatory and the University in Paris. After graduating with multiple academic and performance degrees (music history, literature, piano, music theory, accompaniment), she specialised in early music and historically informed performance.
Having a Breton heritage, she was always eager to find connections between traditional and classical music. In 2022, she moved to Ireland and started a Ph.D. in musicology at Maynooth University under the supervision of Dr. Adrian Scahill. Her thesis explores the legacy of the Celtic Revival folksong collections published at the turn of the twentieth century. Outside her doctoral research, Sydney runs her own music teaching business, teaches a module at Maynooth University, plays the organ for church services, and works on a debut album of piano pieces inspired by Breton folklore.
The legacy of the fin-de-siecle Celtic Revival folksong collections (1880-1910)
This research focuses on the legacy of Irish, Welsh, Breton, Scottish, Manx and Cornish folksong collections for piano and voice published at the turn of the twentieth century (1880-1910). These collections mainly consist of folk tunes collected from oral or written sources, arranged for a parlour setting (piano and voice). In fewer instances, the songs (music, or text, or both) were composed specifically for the collections. There have been many debates around the authenticity of these folksongs, but there is a gap of knowledge when it comes to their transformation and legacy. Initially intended for a domestic use, these songs were played in concerts during the early twentieth century, and diffused by the means of school manuals, radio broadcasts, or pan-Celtic festivals. The 1970s folk revival saw a renewed interest in these songs, with an attempt to transform them into something more “authentic”. Some of these late nineteenth and early twentieth century volumes have been forgotten today, but clear evidence of their legacy remains in contemporary Celtic music.
Through a musical analysis of these collections, research into their history and context, and interviews of people who have been inspired by this repertoire, I am attempting to answer the following questions: how did these folksong collections contribute to the development of different forms of Celtic music in the twentieth and twenty-first centuries? What was their role in the creation of a pan-Celtic musical identity?
By looking at the transmissions of these folksongs in an innovative way, this research provides new perspectives on folksong collections of this period, and a contemporary re-thinking of the terms “Celtic” and “Pan-Celtic” as applied to music.
Pianist (over 100 concerts as a solo keyboardist (piano, fortepiano, clavichord, organ, harpsichord) and over 250 concerts as part of ensembles (chamber music, orchestra, choir, accompanist).
Organist for Blessington union of parishes (since 2024)
Piano teacher (since 2010) in conservatories and music schools (MJC de Chaville, Conservatoire de Lorient, Ecole de Musique de Chateaulin, Piano Academy of Ireland, Ceola Music academy…) and private lessons
Lecturer for MU254 module (ensemble performance, classical music) at Maynooth University (since 2024)
“Music and historical re-enactment” in Soanyway magazine (Early music special insert), 2020
“Investigating the legacy of folksong collections published during the Celtic Revival (1880-1910): a methodology. ” SMI/ICTMD conference, Trinity College Dublin, January 17 2025- “The legacy of Harold Boulton’s folksong collections”, International Nineteenth Century Studies Association inaugural conference, Durham University, July 10 2024.
“Mapping Celtic Songs – Journey maps of folksongs published during the fin-de-siècle “Celtic Revival” Aberdeen University, March 28-29th 2024
“Nineteenth century folksong collections and the development of a Breton musical identity” BFE / RMA conference “identity”, Cardiff University, January 10 2024
“The idea of the “popular” in Harold Boulton’s folksong collections – from the Victorian parlour to the traditional music scene” North American British Music Studies Association Online Symposium “the popular”, August 10th 2023
“Bourgault-Ducoudray’s folksong collections – towards a pan-Celtic musical identity”. SMI / ICTM Postgraduate Conference, University College Dublin, January 2023 Dublin)
Arts Council Agility Award 2024
Society for Musicology Ireland
British Forum for Ethnomusicology
International Nineteenth Century Studies Association
North American British Music Studies Association
2021 is Peter Shannon’s seventh year as Artistic Director and Conductor of the Jackson Symphony in Jackson, Tennessee. He was the first Artistic Director and Conductor of the Savannah Philharmonic, in Savannah Georgia, from 2008 to 2018, before deciding to relocate with his family to his native Ireland. He commutes regularly to the USA and mainland Europe to conduct. As a Bachelor of Music student at University College Dublin and a member of the RTÉ National Chamber Choir, he began studying conducting under the Irish conductor, Colman Pearce. In Germany, Shannon began postgraduate studies in Weimar at the Franz Liszt Hochschule für Musik, founded by the great pianist Franz Liszt. He earned a second postgraduate degree at the Karlsruhe Hochschule für Musik. Following in the steps of J.S. Bach who conducted the Leipzig Collegium Musicum, Shannon, at age 26, was appointed conductor of the Collegium Musicum Orchestra in Heidelberg, Germany, the county’s oldest university.Peter Shannon has always had a strong desire to connect Music and Medicine. Recognizing the holistic connection between music and healing, Peter has developed and shepherded programs in the USA at Hospitals, Cancer Institutes and Hospice settings for over ten years. He is the founder and director of the American non profit “American Institute for music and Healing” (AIMH). At the AIMH, Shannon has partnered with Dr. Jacqueline Huntly, MD, MPH, to further grow the work and abilities of the musicians in this arena of Mind/Body Medicine. Together, Shannon and Huntly created the “Awakening the Musician’s Inner Gift” and “Nurturing the Inner Spirit/Healer” workshops. Jacqueline Huntly MD, board certified in Preventive Medicine and a Fellow in Integrative Medicine, was inspired to work with Peter Shannon because of his passion for finding a way to mesh the power of music, mind/body medicine and the art of healing, which resonated deeply with her own background and practice in preventive medicine and healing.
Peter Shannon is an Irish Research Council funded scholar, and is in the final year of his PhD under the supervision of Professor Lorraine Byrne Bodley at Maynooth university.
Franz Schubert: a composer’s ability to heal. (A conductor’s reading of Schubert’s Ninth symphony through the prism of Hans Georg Gadamer)
Schubert’s C major symphony (D. 944), composed while he was in remission from syphilis, represents not only a hugely positive work of ‘heavenly length’, but also a reluctance to return to his “Unfinished symphony”, written while the composer was plagued with the disease. Mind-Body medicine explores how our mind can influence our body and how healing systems can be used to fight disease, illness and pain. Could an analysis of Schubert’s C major symphony be shown to have had a healing effect on the composer, and what might such an analysis look like? Is it possible to isolate illness in Schubert's Unfinished symphony?Motivated by philosopher Hans Georg Gadamer’s radical viewpoint that everything we understand is language based, and from my own experiences as an orchestral conductor, where gesture is consolidated and reinforced with the spoken word, I will show how Schubert’s last 2 symphonies can be used to give us a better understanding of music and healing, and develop a more practical application of music in a healthcare setting.
Society for Musicology in Ireland conference paper presentations 2021.
Schubert Society UK paper presentation 2021.
Compassionate Mind Foundation (Compassion Focused Therapy) Conference 2021
IRC PhD Doctoral Scholar
Society for Musicology in Ireland