Professor John Sloboda

Key details:

Department:
Research
Role:
Research Associate

Professor John Sloboda is Emeritus Professor at the Guildhall School, where he was founder of its Institute for Social Impact Research in the Performing Arts.  He was Principal Investigator on the AHRC-funded project "Music for Social Impact: Practitioners' contexts, work, and beliefs" from 2020-2023, and from 2009-2019 led Guildhall School's "Understanding Audiences" research programme. He is Emeritus Professor at Keele and was a staff member of the School of Psychology at Keele from 1974-2008, where he was Director of its Unit for the Study of Musical Skill and Development, founded in 1991. John is internationally known for his work on the psychology of music. He is a Fellow of the British Psychological Society and has been President of both the Psychology and General Sections of the British Association for the Advancement of Science, as well as President of the European Society for the Cognitive Sciences of Music. He served a 3-year term as founding President of www.simm-platform.eu, an international platform for research into the Social Impact of Making Music. He was the recipient of the 1998 British Psychological Society's Presidents Award for Distinguished Contributions to Psychological Knowledge, and in 2004 he was elected to Fellowship of the British Academy. In 2018, he was awarded an OBE for his services to psychology and music. His books include Handbook of Music and Emotion (co-edited with Patrik Juslin), and Exploring the Musical Mind, both published by Oxford University Press. He continues a close association with Guildhall School, where he is currently co-supervising three doctoral students.

Recent Research Outputs

Music for Social Impact: an overview of context, policy and activity in four countries, Belgium, Colombia, Finland, and the UK

Professor John Sloboda Dr Alessandro Mazzola

Sloboda, John A, and Alessandra Mazzola, et all.. "Music for Social Impact: an overview of context, policy and activity in four countries, Belgium, Colombia, Finland, and the UK." Music for Social Impact: an overview of context, policy and activity in four countries, Belgium, Colombia, Finland, and the UK" Finnish Journal of Music Education 23, 1-2 (2020).

MFSI Download PDF

The audience as artist? The audience’s experience of participatory music

Professor John Sloboda Jutta Toelle

Sloboda, John A, and Jutta Toelle. "The audience as artist? The audience’s experience of participatory music." Musicae Scientiae, (2019).

Journal article Download PDF

Classical music borrowing from other arts: new strategies for audience building through performance

Professor John Sloboda Dr Biranda Ford

Sloboda, John A and Biranda Ford "Classical music borrowing from other arts: new strategies for audience building through performance" In Music, Speech, and Mind, edited by Correra, A.F., 187-212. Curitiba: Brazilian Association of Cognition and Musical Arts, 2019.

Book chapter Download PDF

The SIMM research landscape: An analysis of research presented at SIMM events in 2017, 2018, 2019 : [closing address]

Professor John Sloboda

Sloboda, John A "The SIMM research landscape: An analysis of research presented at SIMM events in 2017, 2018, 2019 : [closing address]" presented at The 4th SIMMposium, Distrital University, Bogota, Colombia, 26-27 July 2019., 2019.

Conference papers Download PDF

The improvisational state of mind: a multidisciplinary study of an improvisatory approach to classical music repertoire performance

Professor David Dolan Professor John Sloboda

Dolan, David and John A Sloboda, et al.. "The improvisational state of mind: a multidisciplinary study of an improvisatory approach to classical music repertoire performance." Frontiers in Psychology, (2018).

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25 years of ESCOM: achievements and challenges

Professor John Sloboda

Sloboda, John A and J. Ginsborg. "25 years of ESCOM: achievements and challenges." Musicae Scientiae , (2018).

Journal article Download PDF

Audience reactions to repeating a piece on a concert programme

Professor John Sloboda

Halpern, Andrea, Chloe H. K. Chan, Daniel M¸llensiefen, and John A Sloboda. "Audience reactions to repeating a piece on a concert programme." Participations: Journal of Audience & Reception Studies 14, 2 (2017), 135-152.

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Opera and emotion: The cultural value of attendance for the highly engaged

Professor John Sloboda

O'Neill, S, J Edelman, and John A Sloboda. "Opera and emotion: The cultural value of attendance for the highly engaged." Participations: Journal of Audience & Reception Studies 13, (2016), 24-50.

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Using digital content to build audiences for live opera

Professor John Sloboda Dr Karen Wise

O'Neill, S., Wise, K., & Sloboda, J. "Using digital content to build audiences for live opera". CreativeWorks London Working Paper . 2016.

Working papers Download PDF

Going to a classical concert: the relationship between audience perceptions of artistic identity and motivation for future attendance

Professor John Sloboda Dr Karen Wise

Wise, K., & Sloboda, J. "Going to a classical concert: the relationship between audience perceptions of artistic identity and motivation for future attendance". CreativeWorks London Working Paper No. 3. 2016.

Working papers Download PDF