John Sloboda
Quick Facts
Biography
John Anthony Sloboda [1] OBE FBA (born 13 June 1950) is Research Professor at the Guildhall School of Music & Drama where he currently leads research on the Social Impact of Making Music [2].He is also Co-Director of Every Casualty Worldwide, which works towards the aim of ensuring that all lives lost to armed violence, anywhere in the world, are properly recorded.
His academic work has mainly been in music psychology - a subdiscipline which draws together psychologists, neuroscientists and academic musicians. His research interests have focused on the psychological aspects of the study of music performance, the emotional response to music, the functions of music in everyday life, learning and skill acquisition in music, and audience-performer relations in the live concert. He was Professor of Psychology at Keele University, UK until 2008, where he now has emeritus status.He is a former Executive Director of the Oxford Research Group, an NGO that seeks to develop non-violent approaches to national and international security issues, from 2005-2009. He is also one of the founders of the Iraq Body Count Project.In 2004 he was elected a Fellow of the British Academy to dual membership of both the Psychology and History of Music sections.In 2017 he became founding President of www.simm-platform.eu , an international scholarly body for the study of the social impact of Making Music, and is Editor of the book series “Classic European Music Science Monographs” [3].
From 1975 to 1995 he was the founding Director of the Keele Bach Choir, a "town and gown" choir based on the Keele University campus. He a Patron of Spode Music Week, an annual residential Music school that places particular emphasis on the music of the Roman Catholic liturgy.He currently collaborates with the singer Rafael Montero, founder of the early music group El Parnaso Hyspano.
Books
- Acquisition of Symbolic Skills (Proceedings of a NATO Human FactorsProgramme Conference, Keele, July 1982).New York: Plenum Press Inc., 1983. pp 623. (Editor, with Don Rogers)
- The Musical Mind:The Cognitive Psychology of Music. Oxford University Press, 1985. pp291.
- Cognitive Processes in Mathematics. (Selected and edited papers from the first International Keele Cognition Seminar, March 1985).Oxford University Press, 1987.(Editor, with Don Rogers)
- Generative Processes in Music: the Psychology of Composition, Performance, and Improvisation.(Ed.)London: Oxford University Press, 1988.(Editor)
- Cognition and Social Worlds. (selected and edited papers from the second International Keele Cognition Seminar, March 1987).London: Oxford University Press, 1989 (Editor, with Angus Gellatly and Don Rogers)
- Musical Perceptions. New York: Oxford University Press, 1994.pp 290(with Rita Aiello)
- The Origins and Development of Musical Competence.London: Oxford University Press/ Paris: Presses Universitaires de France, 1995. (Editor, with Irene Deliege)
- Perception and Cognition of Music.Psychologists Press, 1997 (Editor, with Irene Deliege)
- Music and Emotion: Theory and Research.Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2001.Pp 487 (Editor, with Patrik N Juslin)
- Exploring the Musical Mind: Cognition: Emotion: Ability: Function.Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2005.
- Beyond Terror:The Truth About the Real Threats to Our World.London: Rider.(with Chris Abbott and Paul Rogers)
- Psychology for Practicing Musicians: Understanding and Acquiring the Skills.New York: Oxford University Press, 2007.(with Andreas C Lehmann and Robert W Woody).
- Handbook of Music and Emotion: Theory, Research, Applications.Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2009.975pp. (Editor, with Patrik N Juslin)