Do you want to turn your PhD into music?
In partnership with the Dundee Science Centre and Royal Conservatoire of Scotland.
The Music Centre is looking for PhD students who are interested in collaborating with a postgraduate composer at the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland to make a new work to be performed in response to the environment and exhibits of the Dundee Science Centre.
The project is called Intersections and aims to highlight the differences and similarities between research approaches within and across the arts and sciences. It is open to PhD students from any discipline and there is no requirement to have any musical expertise. All you need is an interest in connecting with a creative artist.
Over the past several years PhD students from nearly every School across the University have participated. If you want to take part, you will attend an online introduction session on Friday 7 November at 1300 with the composers from the Royal Conservatoire to introduce your research and hear about their creative practice. There will then be further meetings between you and “your” composer to discuss your work and theirs, with the aim of finding a way of using music to express, narrate, embody, sonify, evoke or portray your research. This process will help you as a researcher reflect on your own processes and assumptions. Based on your exchanges with your composer, they will create a musical expression of your research.
This year for the first time we are partnering with the Dundee Science Centre where the final concert will take place. The concert will be on Wednesday 6 May 2026 by student and staff musicians from St Andrews and the RCS. This year we are looking for the creative collaborations between researchers and composers to relate or respond to the performance environment and exhibits of the Dundee Science Centre.
To take part, please complete this form here by Wednesday 15 October. There is a selection process undertaken by the staff of the RCS, Music Centre and Dundee Science Centre. Previous concerts can be seen here. The project is open to students from any school at any stage of completion.