Professor Michael Clarke

National Teaching Fellow 2011 Professor Michael Clarke has worked at the University of Huddersfield for 24 years, playing a significant role in the development of Music Technology in the institution to become a degree course in its own right and a strong area for research with an international reputation. A composer, Michael is involved in the development of software for sound synthesis and to enhance teaching and learning. Three of the software projects he has led have won European Academic Software Awards: in 1994 in Heidelberg for SYnthia (Synthesis Instruction Aid), in 2000 in Rotterdam for Calma (Computer Assisted Learning for Musical Awareness) and in 2004 in Neuchâtel for Sybil (Synthesis by Interactive Learning). Common to all these projects is a concern to enable students to learn through practical interaction with sound within a carefully structured environment. SYnthia used computer control of an external synthesiser to facilitate the learning of the technical aspects of sound synthesis in a creative environment. Calma, funded by an FDTL award, was designed to provide a more musical approach to aural training. Sybil replaced SYnthia, taking advantage of new technological developments to manipulate sounds within the computer. It has also become the basis for further developments and Michael is currently developing Interactive Aural Analysis, a new approach to the study of music that places the emphasis on aural experience and interaction with the music. Rather than simply reading text, students can hear the analysis in sound and engage with it interactively. Michael previously served on the advisory panel of the Computers in Teaching Initiative in Music and for a year as Co-Director of Palatine, the Subject Centre for Dance, Drama and Music. He has been Music Co-ordinator for the International Computer Music Association and is a member of the Peer Review College of the AHRC having also been a panel member. At Huddersfield he founded the Centre for Research in New Music (CeReNeM) and he currently serves on the committee for the National Association for Music in Higher Education.