George Waddell is Performance Research and Innovation Fellow at the Royal College of Music. He is also Area Leader in Performance Science for the BMus programme and an honorary Research Associate in the Faculty of Medicine at Imperial College London. His research focusses on understanding and optimising how performers learn and are evaluated, including decision-making among judges, the development of evaluative skills, and how technology can be used to enhance how performance is assessed and learned.

George works closely 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 BMus RCM 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, musicians’ health and wellbeing, and the science and practice of performance evaluation. He is a coauthor of the research methods textbook Performing Music Research (Oxford University Press) and serves as a consultant on 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 (Canada) while studying psychology. He was awarded the Brandon University Gold Medal for the Master of Music Degree, was a recipient of the Manitoba Graduate Scholarship, and holds an ARCT Diploma from the Royal Conservatory of Music in Toronto. He is a Consulting Editor for the journal Musicae Scientiae and an Associate Editor for Frontiers in Performance Science.

Email: george.waddell@rcm.ac.uk

Current projects

Healthy Performer
HEartS Professional
MedTech SuperConnector
Songs from Home
Time to Decide

Publications

Book

Williamon A, Ginsborg J, Perkins R, & Waddell G (2021), Performing Music Research: Methods in Music Education, Psychology, and Performance Science, Oxford University Press [ISBN 9780198714545] [WEBSITE].

Articles and chapters

Forthcoming

Shaughnessy C, Perkins R, Spiro N, Waddell G, & Williamon A (forthcoming), Cultivating progressive development in the cultural industries: challenges and support needs identified by the creative workforce in the United Kingdom, Cultural Trends [DOI]. 

Perkins R, Spiro N, & Waddell G (2023), Online songwriting reduces loneliness and postnatal depression and enhances social connectedness in perinatal mothers: randomised controlled trial, Public Health, 72-79 [DOI].

Spiro N, Shaughnessy C, Waddell G, Perkins R, Campbell A, & Williamon A (2023), Modelling arts professionals’ wellbeing and career intentions within the context of COVID-19, PLOS One, 18 (e0292722), 1-22 [DOI].

Spiro N, Yang J, Shaughnessy C, Churan L, Perkins R, Waddell G, & Williamon A (2023), Work and wellbeing among arts professionals in China during COVID-19 (August 2020 and October 2021), Social Sciences and Humanities Open, 8 (100691), 1-9 [DOI].

2022

Fernandez de Canete C, Pineda I, & Waddell G (2022), Music as a Medium of Instruction (MMI): a new pedagogical approach to English language teaching for students with and without music training, Language Teaching Research, 1-27 [DOI].

Ramirez R & Waddell G (2022), Technology-enhanced learning of performance, in GE McPherson (ed.), Oxford Handbook of Music Performance, Vol 2 (pp. 528-552), Oxford University Press [ISBN 9780190058869].

Shaughnessy C*, Perkins R*, Spiro N, Waddell G, Campbell A, & Williamon A (2022), The future of the cultural workforce: perspectives from early career arts professionals on the challenges and future of the cultural industries in the context of COVID-19, Social Sciences and Humanities Open, 6 (100296), 1-12 [DOI]. *Joint first authors

Waddell G & Williamon A (2022), Measuring the audience, in S Lee (ed.), Scholarly Research in Music: Shared and Disciplinary-Specific Practices (2nd edition; pp. 217-227), Routledge [ISBN 9780367722180].

2021

Dalmazzo DC, Waddell G, & Ramirez R (2021), Applying deep learning techniques to estimate patterns of musical gesture, Frontiers in Psychology, 11 (575971), 1-15 [DOI].

2019

Giraldo SI, Waddell G, Nou I, Ortega A, Mayor O, Perez-Carrillo A, Williamon A, & Ramirez R (2019), Automatic assessment of tone quality in violin music performance, Frontiers in Psychology, 10 (334), 1-12 [DOI].

Waddell G, Perkins R, & Williamon A (2019), The Evaluation Simulator: a new approach to training music performance assessment, Frontiers in Psychology, 10 (557), 1-17 [DOI].

Waddell G & Williamon A (2019), Technology use and attitudes in music learning, Frontiers in ICT, 6 (11), 1-14 [DOI].

2018

Giraldo S, Ortega A, Perez A, Ramirez R, Waddell G, & Williamon A. (2018). Automatic assessment of violin performance using dynamic time warping classification, in Proceedings of the 26th Signal Processing and Communications Applications Conference (IEEE), 1-3 [DOI].

Waddell G, Perkins R, & Williamon A (2018), Making an impression: error location and repertoire features affect performance quality rating processes, Music Perception, 36, 60-76 [DOI]

2017

Margoudi M, Waddell G, & Oliveira M (2017), Co-creating a gamified solution for music learning, in M Pivec and J Grundler (eds.), Proceedings of the 11th European Conference on Games Based Learning (Reading, Academic Conferences and Publishing International Ltd.), 420-428, ISBN 9781510850446.

Waddell G & Williamon A (2017), Eye of the beholder: stage entrance behavior and facial expression affect continuous quality ratings in music performance, Frontiers in Psychology, 8 (513), 1-14 [DOI] [VIDEO].

Waddell G & Williamon A (2017), Measuring the audience, in S-H Lee (ed.), Scholarly Research for Musicians (pp. 148-155), Routledge.

2016

Margoudi M, Oliveria M, & Waddell G (2016), Game-based learning of musical instruments: a review and recommendations, in T Connolly and L Boyle (eds.), Proceedings of the 10th European Conference on Games Based Learning (Reading, Academic Conferences and Publishing International Ltd), 426-433, ISBN 9781911218098.

2015

Waddell G (2015), Review of Expressiveness in Music Performance: Empirical Approaches Across Styles and Cultures (OUP, 2014), Psychology of Music, 43, 909-912 [DOI].