The AHRC Research Centre for Musical Performance as Creative Practice (CMPCP) will be launched in October 2009. Its five-year research programme will focus on live musical performance and creative music-making. The new Centre will undertake five research projects with associated workshops, and a Performance Studies Network will enable collaborative research between scholars and performers from around the world. Visiting Fellowships and two doctoral studentships will also be awarded.

The Centre for Musical Performance as Creative Practice will address such questions as:

How is musical performance creative, and what
knowledge is creatively embodied in musical
performance?

How does music in performance – and indeed the
very act of performance – take shape over time?

How does understanding musical performance as
a creative practice vary across different global
contexts, idioms and performance conditions (such as solo and ensemble, in the rehearsal room,
recording studio and concert hall)?

CMPCP will follow on from the existing AHRC Research Centre for the History and Analysis of Recorded Music (CHARM), both of which are funded by the Arts and Humanities Research Council. It will be based at Royal Holloway, University of London in partnership with King's College London, the University of Oxford and the University of Cambridge. One of the research projects will take place at the Royal College of Music.