Carolyn Collins

Carolyn Collins is a doctoral student at UCL Institute of Education. She holds dual Bachelor degrees in music performance from Adelaide University, South Australia, and dual Masters degrees in music and music education from the Southern Methodist University, Dallas, Texas. Prior to entering into research, Carolyn taught music in the United States and Australia through the International Baccalaureate Programme at both the Middle Years and Diploma levels. Professionally, Carolyn has worked as an instrumental teacher, a freelance choir director, a performer, a musical director, and a classroom music teacher. She has prepared choruses for major choral/orchestral works, opera scene programmes and opera performances. Carolyn has also prepared choirs and individual musicians for competition, recordings and masterclasses. In addition, she has performed and toured as a member of the National Youth Choir of Australia and the Adelaide Chamber Singers, and attended the Australian National Youth Music Camp for composition. Carolyn is the recipient of a Queen’s Trust award, an Australia Council for the Arts grant, was awarded a Meadows Foundation scholarship, received the Lloyd Pfautsch award from the Southern Methodist University; and was awarded two Alcuin Fellowship grants.. Carolyn’s research interest in music composition stems from her time teaching composition to secondary school students where she noted certain inconsistent anomalies in the way music composition was perceived as an artistic pursuit. In addition, Carolyn observed numerous ways her students acknowledged and overcame challenges in reaching their creative goals, and how those experiences shaped their perception of composing music. Her doctoral research follows the lived experiences of four individuals who completed GCSE music in England.

special interests

Harmonic singing, semiotics of renaissance choral music, collaborative learning in the music classroom, care ethics in the classroom, distance music learning via digital technology, narrative inquiry

thesis title

The lived experiences of composing music within the English secondary school context

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