REF 2014

Music, Drama and Performing Arts

Increased proportion of 4* from 10% to 32% from RAE 2008, with 40% of impact rated 4* (outstanding) and 50% of environment rated 4* (world-leading).

Our research is centered on the creation, performance and effect of music, from Beethoven to K-Pop. It encompasses performance, composition, and technological production, as well as the role of music (classical, popular, world, audio-visual) in lived experience. This is reflected in our four main research groupings: analysis, aesthetics and cognition (cutting across repertoires); audio-visual media (including gaming); composition and praxis; popular music, heritage and the music industry.

Our activities have allowed audiences to gain new perspectives on music through installations staged in collaboration with the BBC, the National Trust, and English Heritage. At the Royal Opera House, one million visitors heard an installation based on our collaboration with the pianist Joanna MacGregor. We have organised major events such as the Open Circuit Festival and concerts in conjunction with the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra.

At the heart of our research is the creation and function of all types of music in contemporary society, whether as an art-form in itself, as an agent of identity or well-being, or through its mediations in culture, industry, and memory.

View our Faculty of Humanities & Social Sciences REF 2014 case study and the full results table.