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Thursday, 25 July 2002

Musicians ride a roller-coaster of emotions before, during and after their stage appearances. But how much is the self intertwined with these performances? And how much is identity linked to the emotions experienced in musical performance?

These and other fascinating questions will be explored at a public seminar presented by University of Adelaide researcher Ms Gemma Munro on Tuesday 30 July (Schulz Building, Level 11, Room 1107, 7.30pm). The seminar, Accounting for Emotions in Musical Performance, has been organised jointly by the University of Adelaide and the Musicological Society of Australia, SA Chapter, and is open to all (gold coin donation).

A PhD student with the Department of Psychology, Ms Munro is one of the few researchers in the world exploring the social psychology of musical performance. Last year she won the Naomi Cumming Postgraduate Musicology Prize, and earlier this year received scholarships to present her research at two major European conferences on music psychology.

The invitation to present next week's seminar was part of the Naomi Cumming Postgraduate Musicology Prize, an annual award that recognises excellence in musicology research and professional practice. It commemorates one of Australia's leading young musicologists, who died from stroke in 1999, aged only 38.

Ms Munro has interviewed 28 performers - mainly singers - for her research, questioning them on such issues as identity, self-fulfilment and performance anxiety.

"Singing is particularly tied up with identity because there's nothing between the performer and the audience," says Ms Munro. "Musical performance is seen as a performance of the self. In my research, I am taking a close look at the language that performers use when speaking about musical performance, and at how this language constructs their identities as performers".