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Cameron Gardner  BMus, MA, PhD SFHEA

Dr Cameron Gardner

BMus, MA, PhD SFHEA

Senior Lecturer, Director of International Engagement, Officer for Equality, Diversity and Inclusion

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Available for postgraduate supervision

Overview

I am a Senior Lecturer in Music and oversee at the School of Music the portfolios for International Engagement and Equality, Diversity and Inclusion. In 2023, I received the award of Senio Fellow of the Higher Education Academy.

 

I am a nationally recognized music educationist, theorist and analyst, with over twenty years of experience of teaching, leadership and administration in Higher Education. Appointed as International Director in 2014-15, I combine this with other roles to shape policies and programmes within the School and University and to develop a profile abroad, with guest lecturing. Since 2019, I have participated in national debates on teaching and responded to consultation documents as a member of MusicHE, the UK’s subject association for tertiary-level music institutes, and currently represent Higher Education for the National Arts & Education Network for Wales. 

 

I am passionate about teaching and inspiring students to reach their potential, whether through the application of music theory to demystify a composition, critical skills to aid academic research or workshop activities to develop pedagogy. Committed to opportunities for all, whether home or international learners, I have created the MA pathway in Music Education, Year of Study Abroad degrees, and led and, between 2019-2022, co-led in curating international partnerships. Across UG and PG curricula I have coordinated, since 2014, members of staff – from early-career lecturers to professors – in various modular teams.

 

As International Director and Co-Director, I have made a significant contribution to developing a portfolio of overseas partnerships. This includes agreements for staff/student exchanges for UG degree entry, either at year 2 with South China Normal University or year 1 with Ningbo Zhicheng School, and an MA between one taken in China, with Xiamen Univeristy and Beijing Normal University. Of the 34 partners available to MUSIC since 2017, I have strongly contributed to securing 27 by completing all sections required from the School in the agreement administration, and continue to promote and give advice on places to staff and current and prospective students. I continue to oversee and lead an in-school international team in international student mobility and recruitment, and international staff exchange. Since 2016, I have hosted and directed seven visits from partner institutes.

 

As part of the Admissions team (2016-23), my involvement in Open and UCAS Days has evolved to include online provision and interviewing overseas applicants and providing audition reports for 2+2 applicants from South China Normal University (36 in total since 2018-19, most of whom became personal tutees). My role has also extended to hosting Discovery Days for prospective students with disabilities and Joint Honours Open Days and co-setting up music modules for the University’s International Study Centre. 

 

Since 2021, I have developed a portfolio of primary and secondary schools in Wales and England to provide students with regular widening participation and outreach opportunities. These mostly centre around the Paul Robeson ambassadorship scheme I created in 2022, whereby four undergraduates across Years 2 and 3 receive funding from the Paul Robeson Wales Trust to address, through workshops, talks and performances, MUSIC’s and the University’s EDI objectives. Such engagement helps to preserve the cultural and social legacy of Robeson, an Afro-American singer, actor and civil rights activist who campaigned with miners in South Wales during the inter-war years and extends to events for Black History Month and International Women’s Day. Further collaboration has involved working with the National Music Service of Wales and ‘Passport to the City’ (the Levelling Up programme within Cardiff Council committed to widening access for schoolchildren to world-class institutes in Cardiff).   

Since 2021-22, I have also created and chaired MUSIC’s EDI committee. This committee is responsible for implementing recommendations of the School’s Equality, Diversity, and Inclusion Action Plan and annually reviews progression against the Action Plan. The latter builds upon the previous Racial Equality Working Group, including my survey of race equality activity in research, teaching and pastoral work of staff from 2013-20.

Outside the University, I continue to work with the BBC as a guest speaker on Radio 3, including the first BBC National Orchestra of Wales concert at St David's Hall without social restrictions since covid, and consultant for filmed news items, including a talk between the concert violinist Randall Goosby and music students on ethnicity in music.  

 

 

Publication

Research

As a musicologist, my research lies in theory, analysis and early nineteenth-century repertoire. My published essays on Schubert’s piano sonatas have contributed to the learning and teaching of nineteenth-century harmony and instrumental forms. My outputs also integrate methodologies from tonal, narrative and literary theories so that analysis, and the teaching thereof, can engage with different criteria to illuminate a musical form. I have published in the Eighteenth-Century Music journal and contributed chapters to The Unknown Schubert (Ashgate, 2008) and Rethinking Schubert (OUP, 2016), and peer review for Musicology Australia and Nineteenth-Century Music Review. More recently, I have drawn upon over two decades as a practitioner in pre-tertiary education to build research activity in music pedagogy. 

Teaching

Undergraduate Teaching:

 

·       I supervise final-year dissertations

·       Formal Functions in the Classical Tradition

 

 

Postgraduate Teaching:

 

·       I coordinate the MA pathway in Music Education: including modules Theory and Practice of Teaching Music, Teaching Music: Developing Curricula and Directing Ensembles, and Music Education Portfolio

·       I supervise MA dissertations

·       MA Research Skills

 

 

Postgraduate Research:

 

·       I am currently supervising a PhD candidate in Music Education

·       I act as an assessor for PGR annual reviews as well as PhD Examiner

·       I am currently secondary supervisor for a PhD candidate in Composition

 

 

Music Education Seminars:

 

Since 2023-24, I have directed extra-curricular talks and workshops, including as guest speakers:

 

·       Alison Watson née Bowring (RWCMD) and Rachel Starritt

·       Enlli Parri (WNO and NAEN)

·       Yajie Ye (KCL)

Biography

 

Education and Qualifications:

 

·       2021: English for Academic Purposes (Oxford TEFL)

·       2006: PhD ‘Towards a hermeneutic understanding of Schubert’s 1825 Piano Sonatas: constructing interpretation from expressive opposition’ (Cardiff)

·       2000: MA distinction (Birmingham Conservatoire)

·       1998: BMus first-class honours (Birmingham Conservatoire)

 

 

Honours and awards

 

·       Senior Fellowship of the Higher Education Academy (March 2023)

·       CUSEIP: ‘Integrating the student in the development of an MA pathway and UG module in Music Education’ (September 2022)

·       CUSEIP: ‘Students filming students: creating video interviews of student experience of study abroad’ (September 2018)

·       School of the Year (November 2017)

·       CUSEIP: ‘The student as co-partner: creating videos to enhance learning and teaching’ (September 2017)

·       Cardiff University Outstanding Contribution Award (September 2016)

·       Cardiff University Research Studentship (Eleanor Amy Bowen Award for postgraduate study related to piano repertoire) (2001 – 2004)

 

 

Professional memberships

 

·       Member (elected) and Higher Education Link, National Arts and Education Network (Wales)

·       Member (elected) and Welsh Representative, MusicHE

 

 

Academic positions

 

·       2023 – present: Senior Lecturer in Music, Cardiff University

·       2020 – present: EDI lead and Disability officer

·       2015 – present: Director of International Engagement (including co-directing in 2019-22)

·       2017 – 19: Unfair Practice Coordinator

·       2016 – 2023: Deputy Undergraduate Admissions Tutor

·       2014 – 2023: Lecturer in Music, Cardiff University

·       2006 – 2014: Lecturer in Music, Royal Welsh College of Music and Drama

·       2002 – 2014: Tutor, Junior School of Royal Welsh College of Music and Drama  

 

 

Committees and reviewing

·       Member, Postgraduate Research Board of Studies | MUSIC (2024 – present)

·       Member, Outreach Working Group | MUSIC (2023 – present)

·       Member, Black History Month Working Group | University (2023 – present)

·       Member, Cross-College Directors of International Forum | University (2023 – present)

·       Member, Scholarship Forum | MUSIC (2023 – present)

·       Member, Disability Contacts | University (2020 – present)

·       Chair, EDI committee | MUSIC (2022 – present)

·       Chair, International Team | MUSIC (2022 – present)  

·       Member, Programme and Partner Standing Panel | ASQC (2022 – present)

·       Member, Education Partnership Sub-Committee | ASQC (2022 – present)

·       Member, International Mobility Group | AHSS (2022 – present)

·       Member, AHSS leads for International Directors | AHSS (2022 – present)

·       Member, AHSS EDI Committee | AHSS (2021 – present)

·       Member, School Management Board | MUSIC (2021 – present)

·       Member, Contingency Planning Group | MUSIC (2020 – 2021)

·       Member, First-Year Programme Review Committee | MUSIC (2019 – 2021)

·       Lead Mentor | MUSIC – Guizhou Exchange Programme (2018 – 20)

·       Member, Unfair Practise Committee of Enquiry | Registry (2017 – 19)

·       Member, Learning and Teaching Committee | MUSIC (2016 – present)

·       Member, Undergraduate Board of Studies | MUSIC (2014 – present)

·       Member, Undergraduate Examination and Year Boards | MUSIC (2014 – present)

·       Member, Postgraduate Board of Studies | MUSIC (2014 – present)

·       Member, Postgraduate Examination and Year Boards | MUSIC (2014 – present)           

·       Personal Tutor (2014 – present)

 

 

Supervisions

I welcome enquiries about postgraduate research/doctoral studies on music pedagogy and theoretical-analytical topics applied to early nineteenth-century repertoire.

 

I am currently second supervisor for a composition thesis integrating Western instrumentation and traditional Mongolian musical cultures and recently for a thesis completed on the historical implications of fingering in performing Chopin’s Op. 10 Études. I will soon supervise a multidimensional study on the potential for learning different musical disciplines to aid the development of leadership skills for mature students enrolled onto Continuing and Professional Education in China.