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The Singing in Balance Convention Update

Hello! Emily here! Exciting news! The Singing in Balance Network is currently in the process of organising a Convention about accessible and inclusive singing practice. It is shaping up to be a brilliant event, and we would love you to be a part of it. The Singing in Balance Convention (SiBCon) is happening on 9–10 September 2026 at The Priory Street Centre in York. It is a two-day gathering for group singing practitioners and researchers to come together, share their insights into inclusive and accessible group singing practice, and have some great conversations that can help us develop our knowledge and practice in the UK. We are currently inviting contributions from practitioners and researchers, so if any of the following sounds like you, we would love to hear from you: You work with a choir or singing group. You work in a social or healthcare setting. You're based at a university or conservatoire, or are an independent researcher. You have experience leading singing groups wit...
Recent posts

Psychology of Music Masters at the University of Sheffield

Hello all! Emily here. I am a proud graduate of the Master’s programme in Psychology of Music at the  University of Sheffield . I have recently been invited to write a piece reflecting on my experience of the course and post-course life.  The fact that I remain based in Sheffield and continue to work within the Music Department five years later speaks volumes about the quality of teaching, the depth of expertise, and the genuine care shown by professors, lecturers, and support staff in enabling each student to gain the most from their studies. I can say with confidence that I would not be where I am today without having undertaken this Master’s programme. I completed the Masters Programme in Summer 2022. For my collaborative dissertation (supervised by Prof Renee Timmers), I was partnered with Mir Jansen, the Arts Coordinator at Arts in Health (Sheffield Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust), an organisation who provide craft activities for hospital staff, patients and vis...

SiBCon - Call for Contributions Extension

The deadline for SiBCon contributions has been extended until April 15th, 2026.  P lease fill in  this Google Form  to submit. For more information, please visit  Singing in Balance - The Convention  or join our Google Group  Singing in Balance Convention - Google Groups

Singing in Balance Convention 2026!

We are excited to invite you to join us on September 9th-10th for the first Singing in Balance Convention (SiBCon)!  This event aims to bring together group singing practitioners and researchers to change the face of accessible and inclusive singing by sharing research and practice. It is an opportunity to spark conversations, learn from each other and develop connections through our shared interest in accessible singing practice and research.  The two-day convention will consist of workshops, flash talks, themed sessions, demonstrations and discussions with opportunities for networking throughout. The convention will include leaders in the field representing practice and research.  If you would like to get involved, please check out our website  Singing in Balance  and join our Google Group  Singing in Balance Convention - Google Groups . You can also reach us via: Email -  singinginbalance@gmail.com Instagram - @singing_in_balance Facebook - Singing ...

Singing in VR Study - ISO Participants

We are looking for people interested in participating in a study on the psychosocial effects of Singing in Virtual Reality (VR)! If you are between 18-60 years old, not currently involved in a musical group, and interested in singing and/or VR, we would love to have you involved in this study. This study involves filling questionnaires on your wellbeing, self esteem, and social connectedness before, during, and after participating in a VR singing experience over the course of 2 weeks. You may or may not be asked to sing. Your data will be anonymised and there will be no recordings taken of your participation. What’s in it for you? By participating in this study, you will receive a £15 Love2Shop gift card and have an opportunity to use a PICO 4 Ultra VR headset. Interested in getting involved? Fill out the form below for more information! SingVR: Interest Form - Google Forms If you have any questions, please get in touch with the lead researcher, Dana Greaves, at dana.greaves@york.ac.u...

An Update: Emily Cooper

 AN UPDATE Hello everyone! Emily here with an update about my PhD journey! The past few months have been very busy! In January I went part time for my PhD as I have also taken up a job working at Sheffield Cathedral as their Music and Liturgy Administrator. This has been a great decision as I now have more time and flexibility to complete all the research projects I want to conduct. In June I submitted my 'Relax, Breathe and Sing' paper to the Music and Science SAGE peer-reviewed journal, co-authored with my supervisor, Prof Renee Timmers, Mir Jansen and Helen Lyle - I'm hoping this will be approved soon! I will update on this blog when that happens. This was a fantastic project involving people with Chronic Health Conditions who have experience of breathlessness. In the meantime, if you want to read up on some work I already have published, you can read this paper I published last year which is a shortened version of my Masters Dissertation:  https://journals.sagepub.com/d...

Pan-European Voice Conference - Spain

Pan-European Voice Conference - Spain Good evening everyone! Emily here with another Singing in Balance Blog post. We have all been very busy over the summer working on our projects (hence lack of blog post - sorry!)  I'm very pleased to say that Bruna, Dana and I are officially nearing the end of the first year of our PhDs! I can't believe how the time has flown and how much we have already managed to achieve both individually and as part of a team! Huge shoutout to our supervisors and project partners for supporting us thus far. I can't wait to see what we achieve this year. Two weeks ago, Dana and I attended the 15th Pan-European Voice Conference (PEVOC) .  The conference was attended by voice scientists, clinical staff (speech and language therapists and ENT doctors), voice teachers, researchers, and students from 38 different countries. PEVOC was hosted by Hotel Santemar in Santander, Spain and the programme was VERY extensive, including a wide variety of oral present...