This is episode 3 in a special series for miaaw.net about social practice programmes and projects at Guildhall School of Music and Drama from the 1970s-2020s.

The series is hosted by Jo Gibson (Research Fellow, Institute for Social Justice, York St John University) and Sophie Hope (co-lead of the De-centre for socially engaged practice and research at Guildhall School of Music and Drama).

EPISODE 03 | MARCH 27 | 2026

Jo Gibson | Sophie Hope

In this episode we meet John Sloboda (Emeritus Professor at Guildhall School of Music & Drama and Director of the Institute), Imogen Flower (researcher and evaluator), Toby Young (Professor of Composition at Guildhall School) and Maia Mackney (Public Engagement and Evaluation Manager at Guildhall School).

We talk about their involvement in The Institute for Social Impact Research in the Performing Arts at Guildhall School which ran from 2019-2023. We find out more about how and why it started, its framing within the Research Excellence Framework, critical insights into debates about social impact, evidence and impact agendas and the burgeoning role of practice-research at Guildhall School. Thanks go to all our podcast contributors and to Rachel Kellet who couldn’t join us for this episode and everyone else who was part of Institute’s work.

Music for Social Impact research project

https://www.gsmd.ac.uk/research-engagement-services/research/externally-funded-research/music-for-social-impact

SIMM platform https://www.simm-platform.eu/

COMA – contemporary music for all https://www.coma.org/

Embracing the Messiness: A Creative Approach to Participatory Arts Evaluation article by Maia Mackney and Toby Young (2021) https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/09548963.2021.2000330

Whose social impact is it anyway? Directionality and the potential of affect in community music article by Impogen Flower (2024) https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/pdf/10.1080/09548963.2024.2424580

Karen Wise and Cressida Lindsey music therapy evaluation in schools ResearchWorks event

https://www.gsmd.ac.uk/whats-on/researchworks-evaluating-music-therapy-designing-meaningful-and-flexible-protocol-for

Strengthening Music in Society conference report (2021)

https://www.gsmd.ac.uk/sites/default/files/2022-04/Strengthening_Music_in_Society_-_conference_report_April_2022.pdf

Introducing the De-Centre podcast on Miaaw.net https://www.miaaw.net/e/introducing-the-de-centre/