Dr Richard Powell
Lecturer

Profile

Biography

I am a teacher and researcher in the areas of music education, musicology and music analysis. I studied at the University of York as both an undergraduate and a postgraduate; with my doctoral thesis Articulating Time: Listening to Musical Forms in the Twenty-First Century I explored the ways in which composers across the last two centuries – contemporary and canonic – have engaged with issues of temporal perception through structural approaches to sound.

In my recent teaching, I have become particularly active in the area of music education. Since 2016, I have taught on the MA in Music Education: Instrumental and Vocal Teaching, and in January 2022 I took over leadership of the programme from its founder Dr Elizabeth Haddon, holding this role until September 2025 academic year. I have previously led undergraduate modules focusing on critical approaches to nineteenth-century music, and on the exploration of critical musicology and its applications to listening and performance. I currently contribute to the undergraduate core module Analyse This! Critical Approaches to Music 2 and teach regularly on various critical and analytical topics for the MA Musicology. I will be assuming programme leadership of the BA in Music from the start of the 2025/26 academic year, and I will also be running a new undergraduate module ‘Dancing about architecture’: Writing about music.

As a researcher, I am currently exploring ways in which the use of analytical strategies might inform and enrich pedagogical approaches, and the relationship between the language used in instrumental teaching and tutor books. I am a co-author for three chapters in Instrumental Music Education (ed. Haddon, forthcoming with Bloomsbury). My work on the music of John Adams has been published in Contemporary Music Review, and with Professor Tim Howell I co-authored a chapter on timescale and environment in the music of Hans Abrahamsen and Kaija Saariaho for The Nature of Nordic Music (ed. Tim Howell, 2020 with Routledge), a book project for which I also acted as assistant editor. My most recent work includes a contribution considering symphonic works by Thomas Adès and Sibelius for Thomas Adès Studies (ed. Edward Venn & Philip Stoecker, Cambridge University Press, 2021), and an article exploring Adès’s orchestral work Dawn (2020) for TEMPO (due 2021).

In addition to working as a freelance violinist and instrumental teacher, I also regularly produce concert programme notes for a variety of ensembles and organisations around the UK.

Departmental roles

● Programme Leader, MA in Music Education: Instrumental and Vocal Teaching (2022–25)
● Programme Leader, BA in Music (from September 2025)
● Co-leader of Contemporary Practices research cluster
● Contemporary Music Research Collective co-convenor
● School of ACT Marketing Committee

Research

Overview

● Analysis of musical form and timescale
● Instrumental and vocal teaching
● Approaches to music analysis within pedagogy
● Language of teaching
● Contemporary music
● Exploring connections between old and new music

Publications

Selected publications

Book chapters:

● Co-author for three chapters in Instrumental Music Education (ed. E. Haddon, forthcoming with Bloomsbury)

• Chapter 2 (with N. Norton, J. Poole, F. Pendenza and S.N. Iranzad): ‘Unseen influences’: The effects of philosophy and biases on approaches to instrumental and vocal teaching
• Chapter 3 (with M. Cortesi, N. Ansari, R. Lynch, and J. Cohen): Considering the effects of the instrumental/vocal music teachers’ personality and persona on student–teacher relationships
• Chapter 18 (with E. Haddon, P. Sharpe, F. Pendenza and S.N. Iranzad): The language of tuition books

● Powell, R. (2021). Closing the circle? Tevot and the question of symphonic resolution. In, eds E. Venn & P. Stoecker (eds.), Thomas Adès Studies. Cambridge University Press. https://doi.org/10.1017/9781108761451.007

● Howell, T. & Powell, R. (2020). ‘Telling the Time: Communication and Temporality in Nordic New Music’. In T. Howell (ed.), The Nature of Nordic Music (pp.193–218). Routledge. https://doi.org/10.4324/9781315462851

Journal articles:

● Powell, R. (2021). ‘A new Dawn? Thomas Adès and the case of musical simplicity.’ TEMPO, 75(298), 52–62. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0040298221000395

● Powell, R. (2014). ‘Accessible Narratives: Continuity in the Music of John Adams’. Contemporary Music Review, 33(4) (2014): 390–407. https://doi.org/10.1080/07494467.2014.977028

Reviews:

● Powell, R. (2023) Book review: Sound teaching: A research-informed approach to inspiring confidence, skill, and enjoyment in music performance. Music Education Research, 25(1), 118–120. https://doi.org/10.1080/14613808.2022.2146355

● Powell, R. (2022). First performances: ChamberMade, Vic Hoyland's 75th Birthday Concert, St Michael le Belfrey, York, 25 September 2021. TEMPO, 76(300), 90–92. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0040298221000966

Thesis:

● Powell, R. (2017). Articulating time: Listening to musical forms in the twenty-first century. University of York, PhD. Available at: http://etheses.whiterose.ac.uk/17150/ 

Teaching

Undergraduate

● Programme leader: BA in Music (from September 2025)

• Module leader: ‘Dancing about architecture’: Writing about music
• Teaching contributions: Analyse This! Critical Approaches to Music 2

Postgraduate

● Programme leader: MA in Music Education: Instrumental and Vocal Teaching
(January 2022–September 2025)

• Module leader: Effective Pedagogy
• Module leader: Enhanced Student-centred Teaching

● Teaching contributions to MA modules:

• Case Studies in Music History 2
• Critical Musicology: Theories and Approaches
• Research Skills for Musicians

● PhD supervision
● Thesis advisory panel member and internal examiner for PhD and MA by Research