Austria
University of Music and Performing Arts Graz
With some 2,100 students in Graz and Oberschützen, the University of Music and Performing Arts Graz (KUG for short) is an internationally renowned place of education. It combines high-quality education for artistic and academic professions with the development and unfolding of the arts and with scientific research. In parallel to its regional mission as an Austrian cultural institution, KUG sees itself as a through and through European university with a traditional orientation to Eastern and Southeastern Europe. Since 1969, the Institute for Jazz Research has been concentrating on the expansion of jazz-scientific research in close co-operation with the International Society for Jazz Research. The Institute promotes the science of jazz as an interdisciplinary, independent branch of musicology in teachings and research by taking into consideration the scientific analysis and jazz historiography in the context of jazz-idiomatic music, popular music research, oriental art music, the music of Latin America, of international folk music. One of the most important tasks of the Institute for Jazz Research is the publication of its three series, namely:
Jazzforschung / Jazz Research (edited as a year-book regularly since 1969)
Beiträge zur Jazzforschung / Studies in Jazz Research (edited as an occasional paper since 1969)
Jazz Research News (edited as an occasional paper since 2000)
Denmark
University of Copenhagen
The Department of Arts and Cultural Studies is home to international research and higher education from BA level to PhD level regarding all major art forms. Both our research and education are focused on the history of individual art forms and the practice of art from antiquity to the present day. Various art forms and artistic practices are studied in their interrelation as well as in context with major trends in culture and society in an international perspective. The department aspires to support research and its dissemination, while offering education of the highest quality in a way that contributes to the development and modernisation of the traditional art forms. Another goal of the Department is to provide a framework for the development of academic knowledge, inquiry, and scholastic potential. At the department, students can acquire qualifications either by following a more traditional path or they can combine a study package of their own across the conventional borders of the various academic fields. Great importance is attached to the continuous development of the relations between research, dissemination, and education. This is achieved through active dialogue between the department and social institutions, amongst the researchers, and between the teachers and their students.
The Netherlands
University of Amsterdam
The University of Amsterdam has an outstanding reputation for research at both the national and international level. The quality assessments carried out by formal evaluators, the UvA’s success in competing for national and international research funding and the fact that the UvA is a respected partner in many collaborative international research projects all attest to the quality of its researchers. The University of Amsterdam is a member of the prestigious European League of Research Universities, which also includes the Universities of Leiden and Utrecht.
The Institute of Culture and History (ICH) focuses on the study of European culture from a historical perspective. A common element in the research conducted within the ICG is that texts and artefacts are studied not only in isolation, but also within the context of the historical structures and processes in which they were produced and in which they functioned. Conversely, these structures are used to explain the specific presentation of texts and artefacts. The research field is not limited to certain historical periods or areas.
Norway
University of Stavanger
The Department of Music and Dance (IMD) at the University of Stavanger has a long history dating back to the establishment of the Rogaland Music Conservatory in 1945. Since then the department has been synonymous with high standards in education and the professional accomplishments of its graduates. In recent years, the Department of Music and Dance has developed exciting new programmes in jazz and dance. With this multi-disciplinary approach, IMD has established a uniquely innovative environment within Norwegian higher education. The Department of Music and Dance has more than 200 students pursuing a range of courses in classical music, jazz, voice, music education, dance education and music production and recording. With a core faculty of 30 full-time and 40 part-time instructors, the Department provides a collegiate, professional performing arts environment that emphasizes close contact between students and teachers.
United Kingdom
University of Salford (Lead Institution)
The University of Salford has become one of the leading institutions for interdisciplinary research into music and cultural studies, with its School of Media, Music and Performance providing high level training at undergraduate and postgraduate levels. The School supports two international research centres: the Popular Music Research Centre (PMRC) – which hosts a range of international conferences and promotes the study of popular music in its broadest sense – and the centre for Communication, Culture and Media (CCM), led by Professor George McKay. Over recent years, the collaborative work of the PMRC and CCM has generated a range of world leading jazz research initiatives, including a range of publications (including individual monographs and the Jazz Research Journal, co-edited by Dr Tony Whyton), performance and composition projects, the Jazz Research Study Group (the only group of its kind in the UK), and international conferences including “New Jazz Histories” in 2008 and “Mediating Jazz” in 2009.
Birmingham City University (BCU)
With a focus on innovation, creativity and enterprise, The Birmingham School of Media at BCU offers a wide range of courses, from undergraduate and postgraduate programmes to professional and short courses geared towards the media industry. The developing research culture of the School is reflected and supported by recurring events and integrated research-orientated practice. The school holds institutional memberships with professional organisations including MeCCSA, IASPM, and CIPR, and research staff are involved in collaborative activities with other universities, as well as with media industry partners, particularly small business enterprises and local media producers.
Lancaster University
Lancaster Institute for the Contemporary Arts (LICA) encompasses Lancaster’s teaching and research activities in Art, Design, Music and Theatre Studies. A strong research ethos underpins and shapes what we do. Research activities ensure our contributions are recognised in contemporary practice, theory, and performance. Staff, students, and graduates set agendas in, and make meaningful contribution to, the contemporary arts. LICA offers an enormously rich and thriving interdisciplinary research culture. We have a commitment to contemporary practice and critical thinking in the arts and foster cutting-edge research activity on contemporaneity, interdisciplinarity, and cross-arts practice in the creative arts, media and related industries.
Lancaster is a renowned centre for leading contemporary practice in art, cultural studies, design, film, media, music and performance, and for scholarly and critical research into the historical, social and cultural context of creative practice. Located within a research-led university, it shares a commitment to the intellectual rigour necessary to inform the relationship between practice, criticism and theory.
Rhythm Changes is financially supported by the HERA Joint Research Programme (www.heranet.info) which is co-funded by AHRC, AKA, DASTI, ETF, FNR, FWF, HAZU, IRCHSS, MHEST, NWO, RANNIS, RCN, VR and The European Community FP7 2007-2013, under the Socio-economic Sciences and Humanities programme.