Music Theory in Higher Education with Professor Ian Pace

Music Theory in Higher Education with Professor Ian Pace

Professor Ian Pace is a concert pianist, Trustee of the Society of Music Analysis, and Professor of Music, Culture and Society at City St. George’s University in London. We discuss the teaching of music theory and composition technique at the university level. Both Professor Pace and I are speaking in a personal capacity rather than speaking on behalf of the institutions that we work for. We explore the benefits of studying music theory, the function of keyboard skills, and Ian's ideas for a Practice Excellence Framework which could, in theory, help to reimagine how music composition is approached at the HE level. Here are some links that Professor Pace has asked me to share in the description of this podcast:General: repository of articles is at https://openaccess.city.ac.uk/view/creators_id/ian=2Epace=2E1.html ; blog at https://ianpace.wordpress.com/ ; Substack (which is taking over from the blog) at https://substack.com/Specific: Oxford talk on music and HE: https://openaccess.city.ac.uk/id/eprint/30326/Article advocating the Practice Excellence Framework: https://openaccess.city.ac.uk/id/eprint/29674/My recent ‘The Art of Judgment’: https://openaccess.city.ac.uk/id/eprint/37497/ and https://openaccess.city.ac.uk/id/eprint/37498/

Dr Robert Laidlow on AI and Music

Dr Robert Laidlow is a composer and researcher who is currently the AI and music fellow at King’s College London. He read Music at Emmanuel College, Cambridge, before studying at the Royal Academy. From 2018-2022 he was the PRiSM PhD Researcher in Artificial Intelligence in association with the BBC Philharmonic at the Royal Northern College of Music and from 2022-2025 he was a Career Development Fellow in Composition at Jesus College, Oxford. https://www.robertlaidlow.co.uk/https://www.tomharrisoncomposer.com/

John Lunn Interview

John Lunn is a two-time Emmy award winning composer for film and television from Scotland. He is best known for his collaborations with filmmaker Julian Fellowes, including Belgravia and the mighty Downton Abbey. He has also composed several scores for films based on books by Charles Dickens and Terry Pratchett. He has received several BAFTA and IVOR award nominations throughout his illustrious career, and ClassicFM have called his iconic theme for Downton Abbey one of the greatest television themes of all time.  We discuss John’s music for Downton Abbey and how he got started as a composer following his studies at the University of Glasgow.

Jim Johnston Interview

Jim Johnston is a composer and record producer whose music has been heard by millions of people all over the world. His music currently has an average of 800,000 monthly listeners on digital streaming platforms.He is a 13-time winner of the prestigious BMI FILM & Television AWARD, with more than 5,000 compositions registered with BMI. He has sold more than seven million CDs and his album WWE The Music vol.5 displaced The Beatles to take the #2 slot on the Billboard album charts.From 1985 to 2017 he was the musical director and composer for WWE. He composed and produced the iconic themes for stars such as Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson, Stone Cold Steve Austin, Triple H, The Undertaker and many more . He has composed scores for multiple film projects, six of which were recorded with full orchestra at Abbey Road and Air Studios in London.We discuss Jim's music for WWE, including the films that he scored for WWE Studios such as "Legendary" and "The Chaperone".

Nick Petrillo Interview

Nick Petrillo is a composer, arranger, orchestrator, and pianist based in New York.