With think tanks such as the USC Annenberg Inclusion Initiative and organisations such as UK Music shining a light on diversity in the music industry, in honour of International Women’s day this Sunday we’re celebrating some of our own staff and students here at Kent’s Centre for Music and Audio Technology.
Dr Ruth Herbert
Lecturer in Music & Director of Research
Ruth is a music psychologist and performer with diverse research interests in the fields of music in everyday life, music, health and wellbeing, music and consciousness (including ASC and Trance), sonic studies and music education. As a professional pianist, Ruth has performed with various ensembles, notably recording soundtracks for silent films commissioned by the British Film Institute (BFI) with the piano trio Triptych, subsequently touring these works at major venues in the UK and USA (e.g. Barbican and Lincoln Centres).
In 2018 Ruth, along with colleague Rich Perks, won the University of Kent’s Humanities Faculty Teaching Prize (1st) for: The Integration of Peer-Review, Reflective Feedback, and Reflexivity into the Teaching and Assessment of Music Performance.
Anna Neale
Lecturer in Music
Anna Neale is a singer/songwriter, producer, composer, session vocalist, voice over artist and lecturer in music. Anna has toured the world, released three albums and an EP independently, written songs for other artists, radio and TV advertising, and provided vocals for many TV animations, songs and adverts. Anna’s latest album ‘Wide Sky’ features performances from Syrian musicians, as well as singers from English National Opera (ENO). Anna is an elected member of The Ivors Academy Songwriter Committee, is on the Musician’s Union Writer’s committee and is a mentor for the SheGrows mentoring scheme in partnerships with the Musicians Union and SheSaidSo.
Dr Jackie Walduck
Lecturer in Music
Jackie Walduck is a composer and vibraphone player, whose work explores the meeting points between composition and improvisation, and their impact on ensemble performance. She has performed across the UK, Europe and in the Middle East, with musicians as diverse as the Philharmonia, Sinfonia Viva, Kala Ramnath, and the Royal Army Band of Oman. She composes and leads The Academy of St Martin in the Fields’ orchestra with homeless men and women, The Seymore Orchestra. Her collaborative film score for The Dress (Maggie Ford) was premiered at Cannes Film Festival (2008).
In 2019, she received a Students’ Union ‘Above and Beyond’ award in 2019 for her teaching. In the same year, she became a Senior Fellow of the Higher Education Academy.
Caitlin Fox
Music Performance and Production Student
Caitlin is a bassist and vocalist currently in her second year of the Music Performance and Production degree. Alongside her studies Caitlin is a volunteering rep for GK Unions [the student union] as well as a Student Ambassador for CMAT. This year, Caitlin has been working as a teaching assistant in a local academy, facilitated by the University as part of her Ambassador work, supporting the music teachers and mentoring the students studying level 3 music. She is planning to begin her teacher training when she finishes her undergraduate degree next year.
Read the full interview with Caitlin about her experiences here.
Esther Kiburi
Graduate Teaching Assistant & PhD Candidate
Esther sees herself as a Socio-Sonic artist, with a mission of using her artistry to make a difference within her immediate environment. She is currently pursuing a practice-as research PhD focused on developing a creative multi-modal framework for the presentation of academic research. To test out this framework, she will be looking at how space – digital, artistic and geographical – has been used to highlight gendered sexual harassment of women within the public transport system in Nairobi, Kenya.
Alice Heggie
Recruitment and Outreach Administrator
Alongside our academic staff, some of our administrative staff are also musicians. Before joining the University, Alice was a regular performer at festivals and in venues across London and the South East, showcasing her own brand of contemporary folk music. Alice now enjoys supporting the Centre in organising activities to support and encourage young people to extend their musical journey into higher education.