Dr Sophie Boyd is a cultural geographer and interdisciplinary researcher and practitioner specialising in the health and wellbeing impacts of group singing. With a particular research interest in singing and breath, Sophie was awarded a PhD from the University of Glasgow in 2021 for her practice-led Human Geography thesis ‘Singing bodies: cultural geographies of song and health in Glasgow’. Sophie has been working on Scotland’s Singing for Health Network at the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland since 2021, where she has been developing accessible knowledge exchange to communicate the role of singing for health and the need for sustainable social prescription. The project’s current funding from the University of Glasgow’s Founders Fund for Creatives explores training opportunities for medical students in order to incorporate singing for health into curricula.
Dr Brianna E. Robertson-Kirkland is a Lecturer in Historical Musicology at The Royal Conservatoire of Scotland. From 2019-2023 she was the Lead Research Associate for the AHRC-funded project ‘The Edited Collection of Allan Ramsay’ at the University of Glasgow. She has been a Visiting Fellow at Chawton House (2017) and the University of Sydney (2017 & 2019) with her most recent visit culminating in several practice-based, collaborative performances between Scotland’s Concerto Caledonia and Melbourne’s Evergreen Ensemble. Her research has fed into the historically led album Curious Caledonians (2020). Recent publications include Venanzio Rauzzini and the Birth of a New Style in English Singing Scandalous Lessons (2022) and Allan Ramsay’s The Tea Table Miscellany co-edited with Professor Murray Pittock (2023).
In addition to historical studies, she has also led singing for health groups, including the Hamilton-based dementia inclusive singing group, Musical Memories. Dr Robertson-Kirkland received funding to set up Scotland’s Singing for Health Network and more recently received funding from the Founders Fund for Creatives to develop new training for medical students on singing for health.
