Research and Practice

Research and practice are intentionally intertwined within the Centre, with projects informing, testing, and refining one another across classrooms, communities, and other professional contexts. Across its research projects, the Centre for Music Education and Human Flourishing explores how diverse forms of music-making can support flourishing for learners, educators, and communities, with a strong emphasis on inclusion and access. Work on special schools, severe mental ill health, refugee and asylum-seeker communities, and musicians’ health highlights music’s potential to foster connection, belonging, and ethical, relational practice. Bringing together historical instruments, DJ decks, community song, composition, and co-designed technologies, these projects grow directly out of real classrooms and community settings, opening up new ways for people to learn, create, and flourish through music.

To find out more about the Centre’s current research projects, please use the drop down menu under the ‘Research and Practice’ tab.

Music Education and Human Flourishing Practice Projects

The Centre’s practice projects extend these themes into everyday musical life, creating spaces where people can explore health, identity, and community through doing music together. From gamelan groups and deaf-aware early years sessions, to DJ workshops in schools, podcasts with professional musicians, and wellbeing-focused work with community musicians and student composers, this practice is grounded in collaboration and inclusion, showing what human flourishing can look like in real musical settings. You can read about some of the Centre’s current practice-focused projects below.

The B-side podcast (hosted Dr Marianna Cortesi & Dr Federico Pendenza)

In The B-Side podcast, professional musicians from across the industry share the highs, lows, and hidden costs of working in music, and how these shape their health and wellbeing. The podcast aims to open up conversation about fostering a health- and wellbeing-focused culture in music education and the wider industry.

Gamelan outreach work (facilitated by Emily Crossland, Flash Company Arts, & Will Barnardo)

These Gamelan projects in communities in York, Whitby, and Sheffield invite participants to explore shared music-making, tradition, and creativity in community settings. These responsive groups blend learning repertoire, improvisation, and composition with a focus on wellbeing and social aspects of music making.

Language and Lullabies (co-founded by Dr Jenni Cohen)

Language and Lullabies is a York-based music organisation facilitating inclusive, deaf-aware, child-centred baby/toddler music classes that incorporate high-quality live music and British Sign Language, nurturing early relationships and communication, and bringing joy through shared musical play.

‘I Can Play!’ (facilitated by Dr Jenni Cohen, the National Centre for Early Music, & York Music Education CIC)

‘I Can Play!’ is a programme of specialist music-making workshops for D/deaf children and young people, CODAs (Children of Deaf Adults), and their families at the National Centre for Early Music in York. They create accessible, family-centred spaces where shared music-making can support communication, confidence, and wellbeing.

DJing workshops (facilitated by Dr Pete Dale)

Pete facilitates DJing workshops in secondary schools and other settings around Yorkshire. This has included workshops with York young carers, people with experience of homelessness and several hundred school children in seven different schools in and around Leeds and Yorkshire. Pete is interested in the potential for human flourishing when people get creative with DJ 'controllers' (digital equipment modelled on vinyl DJ decks).

Workshop for student composers on self-reflection (facilitated by Dr Andrea Schiavio, Prof Martin Suckling)

As part of their YIAF project on composers’ self-awareness of their creative and social skills, Andrea and Martin will organise an open workshop in Spring 2026. The workshop will present preliminary insights from their study and explore strategies for creative implementation and reflective practice aimed at supporting self-discovery and artistic flourishing.