Staff Profile
Imogen Gunner
Lecturer in Folk and Traditional Music
- Email: imogen.gunner@ncl.ac.uk
- Telephone: +44 (0) 191 208 5609
- Address: International Centre for Music Studies (ICMuS)
M1.36 Armstrong Building
Newcastle University
Newcastle upon Tyne
NE1 7RU
England
Background and Context
Imogen Gunner is Lecturer in Folk and Traditional Music and is a fiddle player, composer, and educator. Her music has been performed and broadcast on radio and TV in the UK, Ireland, America and Europe. She joined ICMuS at Newcastle University in 2020.
Having grown up in the UK and South Africa, Imogen left school at 17 to pursue a career in the performing arts. She toured the UK, Europe and USA with English pop/punk/folk bands Shelley's Children (a John Peel favourite), collaborating with pop producer Martin Rushent (Human League) among others, as fiddler, singer, improviser and lyricist. Following a move to Ireland, Imogen re-entered the education system on an access course, as a mature student. As an undergraduate at UCC (Cork) she joined Fiddlesticks, with Liz Doherty before completing her undergraduate degree in music, at the National University of Ireland, Maynooth. There, she specialised in traditional music with Fintan Vallely and ethnomusicology with Adrian Scahill.
Imogen was awarded an MA in ethnomusicology and M.Ed in music education from the University of Limerick. There, her deep interest in folk and traditional music and song, collaborative composition, ethnomusicology, community music and music education were fostered by Prof. Mícheál O’Súilleabháin, Jean Downey and Aileen Dillane.
With 19 years of teaching experience in H.E, Imogen specialises in areas of women and creative practice, Irish music, composition, collaborative ensembles, performance, pedagogy, ethnomusicology, and community music. Imogen has facilitated directed small and large ensembles and choirs, was music director of the Royal Irish Academy of Music's first traditional music ensemble the Royal Folk. She is founder and musical director of the NU Folk Collective at Newcastle.
She has presented her MA research on compositional processes in isicathamiya (a form of South African acapella song and dance), at SEM USA. Imogen has presented more recent research, on Mná Caointe - Keening Women of Ireland, at the Women in the Folk conference, University of Sussex (2018). Following collaborations on children’s songwriting projects with Poetry Ireland’s Poet in Residence, Catherine Anne Cullen, Imogen and Catherine presented their work at the Women and Traditional/Folk Music Symposium, at NUI Galway (2019).
External Appointments and Activities
Activism and Gender Equality
As a member of FairPlé, Ireland's grassroots feminist organisation, campaigning for gender equality in folk and traditional music, Imogen presented work to representatives of the 26 member states at the EU Commission in Brussels (2019). She contributed to, and co-edited the published policy recommendation report - Gender Equality: Gender Balance in the Cultural and Creative Sectors (2020). Imogen presented the chapter 'An End to Sexual Violence' at the ‘HÄN – Equality, Culture, Women’ conference, as part of the International Gender Equality Awards, in Tampere, Finland. In 2020 Imogen joined Ireland's SoloSirens conference as a panel member and performer, presenting on the subject of EU level policy interest and activity in gender equality in the arts. In 2021, Imogen collaborated with Jane Nolan, on the formation of Forward NE, the music network for women and gender minorities in the North-East of England. Imogen is proud to be an advisor to Esperance, the English gender equality collective.
Artist Residencies, Collaborative Composition, Community Music, Music and Theatre
Since 2006 Imogen has held a range of visiting artistic and teaching positions, including Artist in Residence with County Limerick, Artist in Schools with County Kildare, Artist in Residence with Dublin City Council, has collaborated with award-winning children's music and theatre organisation - Ceol Connected on a range of children’s music and theatre projects; for the National Concert Hall, Dublin and Cross-Culture festival, Warsaw, Poland. She has devised intercultural schools workshop series Bosangani (be together) with Congolese musicians and performers across schools in Ireland. More recently, Imogen and has worked with students on her HE community music modules, on placements with refugees and asylum seekers in Mosney Accommodation Centre, County Meath; one Ireland’s Direct Provision centres, akin to the historic and notorious system of Magdelene Laundries.
Imogen has collaborated with Scottish composer Phamie Gow, for a specially commissioned piece and project with Irish composer Kevin O’Connell, featuring students and professional traditional musicians, at RIAM Dublin. Since 2016, Imogen has collaborated with poet Catherine Ann Cullen on a series of music and songwriting residencies, with inner city school children in Dublin, funded by Ireland’s Business to Arts organisation.
Imogen has performed at Ireland’s national theatre - the Abbey Theatre, on Frank McGuinness’ play Donegal, on fiddle, harp, accordion and mandolin (2016). Also on fiddle, she joined John Sheahan (Dubliners) at the New Theatre, Dublin (2019). In 2021, Imogen joined a cast of musicians and actors to collaborate on English composer and songwriter Maz O’Connor’s new folk opera, the Wife of Michael Cleary, on harp and fiddle. The piece, currently in R&D stage, is based on the life of Bridget Cleary (1869-1895) and was workshopped and performed at Cecil Sharp House, London (2021).
Roles and responsibilities at ICMuS:
Lecturer in Folk and Traditional Music Acting Degree Programme Director for W344 Folk Degree (S1 2021-22) UG and PG Chair of Personal Extenuating Circumstances (PEC) Committee for ICMuS
Funding and Awards
2021 - Iland Memorial Award - For thesis/creative practice based PhD project - “’Our lovely mouths, gagged with pollen’ (Cixous, 1976): ‘A Bhean Údaí Thall', Reasserting the Feminine Through Song” (£80,000)
2021 - Pioneer Award (HaSS) - to facilitate the running of CoLab Composition Lab 2021-22, a cross genre, collaborative composition programme in online, hybrid and face to face formats (€2500)
2021 - School of Arts and Cultures, Newcastle University - Funding to run pilot project of CoLab Composition Lab (£1800)
2021 - Pioneer Award (HaSS) - with Dr Jane Nolan MBE, of Forward NE, new, North East based networking initiative advancing the cause of gender equality in the music industry. (€1000)
2019 - Culture Ireland International Performance Bursary - Awarded for performance of the Little Dove in New York (€2000)
2017 - Business to Arts Award (Ireland) Docklands Art Fund, for schools residency project with Catherine Ann Cullen for ‘Street Songs and Sea Shanties of the 21st Century’ (€4500)
2015 and 2016 - Artist Residency, Dublin City Council
2015 - Williamson Foundation for Music Award (USA) - Awarded for participation as a string teacher, in Sierra String Camp, California- €2000
2011 - Culture Ireland International Performance Bursary - Awarded for performance at Musica Celtica, Italy and Forli Folk Festival Italy (€4500)
2009 - Arts Council of Ireland - Awarded for specialised ensemble direction at Berklee College of Music, Boston, USA (€5000)
Qualifications
2022 - PhD (currently enrolled), Newcastle University
2004 - M.Ed - Professional Master of Education (Music), University of Limerick
2003 - MA Ethnomusicology, University of Limerick
2001 - BAMus, National University of Ireland, (NUI) Maynooth
Vocational Training/Qualifications
2021 - Sexual Violence Disclosure Training, Dublin Rape Crisis Centre
2019 - Foundation in Focusing, British Focusing Association
2018 - Child Protection Training, Dublin City Council
1996 - HND in Irish Traditional Music Performance, BCFE, Dublin
Professional Affiliations and Membership
FairPlé - Irish grassroots organisation, campaigning for gender equality in folk and traditional music
Irish Musicians Rights Organisation (IMRO)
Teaching Council of Ireland - Full membership
Current and Past Research
Imogen's broad research interests focus on the relationships between gender, traditional music, and composition, both in terms of representation and creative practice. Much of her work has been as a creative practitioner - a multi instrumentalist, composer and performer. Her early research and explored creative compositional processes and identities in South African isicathamiya. More recently, her work has focused on areas of societal attitudes to gender equality, relating to global arts participation and practice, arts policies and their impact on gender equality. Of particular interest is the safeguarding of women and girls, and the role that creative practice plays in reasserting societal norms with regards representation of women.
Imogen's PhD research explores constructions and experiences of femininity through a critical reading and creative response to the story and song ‘A Bhean Údaí Thall’, in its translated English and global variants. The final submission comprises two elements: a thesis contextualising and historicising ‘A Bhean' and a portfolio of instrumental and vocal compositions, reimagining and giving voice for the first time, to the female protagonists within the text. Melodic inspiration draws from collections of Irish and English traditional tunes, reflecting the duality of her professional and personal histories in both Ireland and England, and the similarities and differences between their indigenous musical traditions.
Imogen is interested in traditional song and music as a memory bank of the past, a way of examining class, gender relations, social mobility and education, and reimagining lives of protagonists by using oral histories and unpublished personal accounts.
Compositional Projects at ICMuS
CoLab Composition Lab
Imogen is currently involved in a number of compositional research projects at Newcastle University - CoLab Composition Lab, was piloted over the pandemic, supported by PG Research Assistants Suze Terwisscha Van Scheltinga and Marrianne Hume, as an online collaborative composition forum. Weekly sessions gave opportunities for composers from across the ICMuS community, from diverse backgrounds and genres, the opportunity to collaborate in speed-composition sessions. The project will run in Semester 2 (2022) in an alternately hybrid and in person format.
Tune Club and NU Folk Collective
Tune Club was set up by Imogen in 2021 to explore community-building through informal, in-person, regular sessions where each week, a member of the folk music community at ICMuS would teach and share their repertoire with the rest of the group. Facilitated with the help of MMus PGs Bruce Lambelle-Rudd and Bob Downham, Tune Club has taken a compositional focus and has led to the formation of the NU Folk Collective, a new 15 piece, multi instrumental ensemble. Directed by Imogen and with membership from students and staff, the NU Folk Collective showcases compositions from members of the group, arranged for the large ensemble. Upcoming events include performances at Tusk North, a 2 day festival held in the Lit and Phil, Newcastle, March 4th-5th 2022, the postponed ICMuS Carol concert (date tbc) and the 20th anniversary celebrations of the Folk Degree, Kings Hall, Newcastle University, 23rd April 2022.
Areas of current research and article/paper presentation preparation:
- Online collaborative composition as a community building creative practice during the pandemic.
- Women, class and representation in contemporary creative musical practice
- Irish women, Keening and cultural representation, from the aran islands, to JM Synge and Vaughan Williams
Undergraduate and Postgraduate Teaching
Imogen delivers provision in creative practice - composition, instrumental, and song based projects, interdisciplinary creative projects, areas of ethnomusicology touching on gender and traditional music, socio and historical contexts of Irish and diasporic traditional instrumental music and song.
Undergraduate modules:
In 2020- present, Imogen has been module leader and contributed to the team taught modules:
• Folk Music, Gender and Identity - MUS3088
• Traditions of These Islands - MUS1096
• The Folk Revival - MUS3044
• Supervisor on Major and Minor Specialist Study dissertations
• Composition and Arrangement in Folk and Traditional Music - MUS2050
• Supervisor on Specialist Study Composition projects MUS3012 and MUS3016
Masters Supervision
Imogen has supervised masters students in elective projects for modules specialising in composition and performance, and for dissertations in the areas of:
• Approaches to composition in traditional music - involving instrumental, song-based and interdisciplinary creative projects.
• New traditional music for instrumental ensembles
Extra-curricular activities based at ICMuS (see research section)
CoLab Composition Lab
Tune Club
NU Folk Collective
- Ghekiere I, Gunner I, Llobet-Franquesa M, Richardsdottir A, Vaccaro P. An End to Sexual Violence in Gender Equality: Gender Balance in the Cultural and Creative Sectors. European Union Commission, 2020. Voices of Culture.
- Gunner I. An End to Sexual Violence. In: Hän - Equality, Culture and Women - conference held as part of International Gender Equality Awards. 2019, Tampere, Finland.
- Gunner I, Gunner L. Where’s it Gone, Freedom? Composing Isicathamiya in Post-Apartheid South Africa in the Age of 9/11. In: Benedict Carton, John Laband, Jabulani Sithole, ed. Zulu Identities: Being Zulu, Past and Present. Kwa Zulu Natal, South Africa: UKZN Press, 2009, pp.424-438.
- Gunner I. Turned Away - on The Doolough Famine Walk - Music From A Dark Lake. Dublin: Afri (Action From Ireland), 2017. CD.
- Gunner I. Turned Away. . Dublin, 2015.
- Gunner I. Imogen Gunner, Solo, at Solosirens Symposium. 2020. Dublin, broadcast internationally: Solosirens Symposium.
- Gunner I, Barnes P, Glasheen R, Nolan R, Lyons N. The Wife of Michael Cleary. Composer: Maz O’Connor, Director: Tinuke Craig, Movement Director: Martin Bassindale, Dramaturg: Alan Flanagan, Producer: Jessie Anand. 2021. Camden, London: Cecil Sharp House.
- Gunner I. Turned Away - The Doolough Famine Walk, County Mayo, Ramblings, BBC Radio 4 Documentary. London: BBC Radio 4, 2017. Radio Documentary.