LIMRI Workshop: Interdisciplinary Conversations on Expert Performance
Wednesday 29 April 2026, 2–6 pm
Hosted by the Centre for Digital Music at the QMUL Mile End Campus.
The first themed research event of LIMRI will be an afternoon workshop that explores the many ways we can understand expert performance in music. Bringing together researchers and practitioners from fields including performance science, design engineering, music computing, and recording practices, the event will invite diverse perspectives on how musical expertise is developed, expressed, studied, captured, and modelled.
The workshop will include 5 talks and a panel discussion, followed by an informal reception and networking.
Invited speakers
- Prof Elaine Chew (King’s College London)
- Prof Andrew McPherson (Imperial College London)
- Dr Mira Benjamin (City St George’s, University of London)
- Dr George Waddell (Royal College of Music / Imperial College London)
Schedule
- 1:30 doors open
- 2:00 welcome + intro
- 2:10 2 presentations
- Andrew McPherson: Enacted, not extracted: designing and performing with music-analytical concepts.
- Elaine Chew: I can capture expert performance and musician physiology, so now what? – Dissecting empirical traces of expert performance.
- 2:50 short break
- 3:00 2 presentations
- Mira Benjamin: Three phenomenotechnical illuminations: Windfell.
- George Waddell: Under the spotlight: developing and studying expertise in performance environments.
- 3:40 short break
- 3:50 panel discussion
- 4:40 closing remarks + announcements + walk to reception/music space
- 5:00 reception + networking + some music
- 6:00 adjournment + (optional) head to a pub nearby
Description of the four talks can be found here.
On the day practicalities
The talks and panel will take place in the David Sizer Lecture Theatre, which is located on the ground floor of the Bancroft Building (#31 on campus map).
There will be no catering for refreshments and coffee/tea during the short breaks between the talks and panel. All attendees can use the Ground Cafe (#33 on campus map) or the Graduate Centre Foyer cafe (#18 on campus map, there’s a small chance it might be closed), paying with regular bank card, both at a minute’s walk from the workshop space (TBC).
The reception and networking will take place in spaces of the C4DM Studios (#15 on campus map). Some drinks (non-alcoholic and alcoholic) and snacks will be provided, courtesy of C4DM. Thank you!
We will not be making lanyards for the occasion. We take the view that single-use lanyards are simply awful. You get this piece of plastic, can’t return it, can’t re-use, and can’t recycle it. Why not bring a lanyard from your own institution, or from a recent conference. Call it a conversation starter! QMUL members will be wearing their lanyards (blue or multi-colour strap), so we should be easy to identify.
Organising team
- Lead: Charalampos Saitis
- LIMRI team: Oded Ben-Tal, Diana Omigie, Mark Gotham
- Local support: Alvaro Bort