Academic interests
I am interested in the nature of musical absorption and what it does to our consciousness. Therefore I work with some of the best "classic" and experimental musician in the world doing in depth interviews and also physiological measures. The backbone of my investigations, however, are philosophical or phenomenological. This is because experiences of absorption essentially are experiences of altered senses of self and consciousness. To understand absorption, we therefore need strong theories of what it means to be a self, what it means to be in command of one's actions (the sense of agency) and what it means to let go of control and yet maintain the highest level of mastery over one's playing. I examine these questions through my interviews and quantitative data from the perspective of phenomenology, enactivism, embodied cognition, social ontology, psychology of music and expertise theories. At RITMO, I work with my colleagues to apply this knowledge and skillset to concert research with chamber musicians and symphony orchestras, investigating the experiences and physiological patterns of musicians and their audience.
Courses taught
I lecture in the philosophy of music, psychology of music, philosophy of mind, ethics, phenomenology and qualitative research methods.
Background
Besides my work at RITMO, I am currently a Cesar Nombela researcher at the department of philosophy and letters, Universidad Autonoma de Madrid.
I hold a BA in Liberal Arts from Soka University of America (2008), an MA in Philosophy from the University of Liverpool (2009), an MA in Philosophy specialized in phenomenology and philosophy of mind from the University of Copenhagen (2012) and a PhD on "The Phenomenology of Expert Musicianship" from the Center for Subjectivity Research, University of Copenhagen (2015). Since then I've held post doctoral positions at the Interactive Minds Centre, University of Aarhus and at the Department of Psychology, University of Copenhagen, at RITMO, and I have been an associate professor at the department of sports science and biomechanics at the University of Southern Denmark.
Partners
I collaborate with a number of artists as well as cultural and academic institutions. To mention a few: The Danish String Quartet, The Danish National Center for Art and Mental Health, “Live Music in Schools” Denmark, The Center for Subjectivity Research, The Tokyo Fuji Art Museum, The Min On Concert Association in Tokyo, The Rhythmic Music Conservatory in Copenhagen, The Grieg Academy Music Therapy Research Centre in bergen, The Institute for Daisaku Ikeda Studies in Education at DePaul University, Chicago