The seminar will explore perspectives on audiences in jazz and contemporary music from practice-led modes of enquiry to research into sustainable performance spaces post-covid.

The speakers are:

Tony Dudley Evans

Nicholas Gebhardt

Lee Griffiths

Melinda Maxwell

About the speakers:

Tony Dudley-Evans is a promoter and jazz adviser to the Jazzlines programme at Town Hall/Symphony Hall Birmingham and programme adviser to the Cheltenham Jazz Festival. Tony has been involved with the Cheltenham Jazz Festival since its inception, initially as Chair of the Jazz Advisory Group, then as artistic director and, finally, in recent years, as Programme Advisor. In addition to his work as a respective promoter and programmer, Tony is an active member of the BCU Jazz Research Cluster.

Nick Gebhardt is Professor of Jazz and Popular Music Studies and Associate Dean (Research & Innovation) for ADM. His work focuses on jazz and popular music in American culture and his publications include Going For Jazz: Musical Practices and American Ideology (Chicago), Vaudeville Melodies: Popular Musicians and Mass Entertainment in American Culture, 1870-1929 (Chicago) and the co-edited collection The Cultural Politics of Jazz Collectives: This Is Our Music (Routledge). In 2014, he co-founded the new Routledge book series Transnational Studies in Jazz, which provides a platform for rethinking the methodologies and concepts used to analyse jazz.

Lee Griffiths is an M4C-funded doctoral researcher working on the relationship between verbal language and improvised music, focusing particularly on jazz and jazz-influenced music since the 1960s. Lee’s approach draws upon historical, philosophical, and artistic research to investigate specific intra-actions between words and improvised music, and challenges dominant notions of words and music that have tended to pre-figure our understanding of these relationships. Lee aims to make available new insights and approaches for contemporary artists and scholars working with verbal language and improvised music.

Melinda Maxwell is an internationally renowned oboe player, improviser, composer and educator. Melinda is Principal oboe of the Birmingham Contemporary Music Group and the Endymion Ensemble. She has played as frequent guest Principal with many orchestras and ensembles; including and continuing with the London Sinfonietta with whom she has worked for over thirty-five years. Melinda is currently completing her PhD at BCU.

The event will be hybrid, in-person with an option to join online. Please book here for in person, or here for online.