George Waddell is Performance Research and Innovation Fellow at the Royal College of Music (RCM). He is also Area Leader in Performance Science for the RCM BMus programme and an honorary Research Associate at Imperial College London. His research focuses on understanding and optimising how performers learn, perform, and are evaluated, including how technology can be leveraged to capture and enhance these processes.
George works with experts across fields to examine parallels in performance practice and to develop and deliver bespoke performance training to students and professionals, including stage presentation skills, managing performance anxiety, and working creatively under pressure. As Area Leader in Performance Science, he oversees a range of RCM BMus modules, ensuring that students benefit from the latest research and scientific knowledge in their training. He designs and leads courses on scientific research methods, the psychology of performance, enterprise and innovation, professional skills, and musicians’ health and wellbeing. He drives the development and testing of new technologies to simulate and enhance performance and led software development for the RCM Performance Laboratory. He is a coauthor of the research methods textbook Performing Music Research and has served as a consultant on numerous external research projects.
George holds a PhD in Performance Science from the RCM. He completed his BMus and MMus in piano performance at Brandon University. He was awarded the Brandon University Gold Medal for the MMus degree and holds an ARCT Diploma from the Royal Conservatory of Music, Toronto. He is an Associate Editor for Frontiers in Psychology: Performance Science and on the editorial board for the Journal of Piano Research.