Well, it is the time of year where everything is put on hold –  so I can wade through dozens of student essays and creative projects. However, last week, I took a break from marking madness and presented two at two conferences in a week – both related to my research project for the Higher Education Academy on the relationship of Higher Education and Live Music in Wales.

The first conference was at Kingston University, and entitled 21st Century Musician: Essential Skills for Making Music Today. It was hosted by Moke bass player Alex Evens – and featured a really interesting range of academic and music industry speakers. As you will see from the programme – my paper was followed by a talk by Sandy Swaw – a lovely lady – who provided an interesting insight into her career in the music industry.

After getting home for one night, I set off for Leeds for the two day Live Music Exchange conference. As you will see from the programme, this event was more directly related to live music, and for me the initiatve is really making a contribution to the ways in which the live music industry can work with academics such as myself. I will upload my  paper at a later date, but for the moment, the event confirmed that as a nation, Wales could learn much from what is taking place in Scotland – and this is something I intend to explore more after I have completed my live music research for the Higher Education Academy.

With this project I am currently documenting the critical report – so more info on this later.