Dr Andrea Schiavio
Senior Lecturer

Profile

Biography

Andrea received his PhD in Music from the University of Sheffield (2014), studying musical skill acquisition and development through the lens of embodied cognitive science. After his doctoral studies, he continued this research as postdoctoral fellow in the USA (School of Music, Ohio State University), Turkey (Department of Psychology, Bosphorus University), and Austria (Institute for Music Education, University of Music and Performing Arts Graz) gaining relevant interdisciplinary experience.

From 2017 to 2022, he was based at the Centre of Systematic Musicology of the University of Graz. Here he was PI of a “Stand Alone” project funded by FWF, the Austrian Science Fund, between 2019 and 2022. This grant (€ 441,042.00) allowed him and his collaborators to explore innovative ways to conceptualise, assess, and enhance musical creativity in diverse pedagogical and performative settings. In 2017 he was awarded a “Lise Meitner” Fellowship by FWF (€ 148,480.00) to conduct research on musical participation in teaching and learning, helping to shed new light on the intersubjective nature of music pedagogy.

Andrea is currently President of ESCOM (the European Society for the Cognitive Sciences of Music), and one of three founders and Editors of the newly established book series Music as Art and Science (OUP). In addition to a recently published co-authored monograph for MIT Press (Musical bodies, musical minds. Enactive cognitive science and the meaning of human musicality), his work appears in venues such as Music Perception, Scientific Reports, Psychology of Music, Phenomenology and the Cognitive Sciences, Journal of Research in Music Education, and The Oxford Handbook of Musical Performance, among others. He joined the University of York in 2022 as a Lecturer in Music Education.

Departmental roles

• Deputy Chair of Research
• Scholarship Committee

Research

Overview

Andrea’s professional interests lie in: (i) the role of action and interaction in musical experience, (ii) the psychology of musical creativity and education, (iii) the acquisition and development of musical skills, (iv) the links between perception, emotion, culture, and music cognition, (v) the philosophical foundations of music psychology, and (vi) the collaboration of science and humanities in music research.

Publications

Selected publications

For a complete, up-to-date, list, please visit my personal website

• Schiavio, A., Vuoskoski, J., & Kim, Y. (Eds., under contract). Music and the Cognitive Humanities. Interdisciplinary insights. Oxford University Press.

• Schiavio, A., Witek, M., & Stupacher, J. (2024). Meaning-making and creativity in musical entrainment. Frontiers in Psychology, 14:1326773. Meaning-making and creativity in musical entrainment

• Kempf, A., Benedek, M. & Schiavio, A. (2024). An observation of a negative effect of social cohesion on creativity in musical improvisation. Scientific Reports, 14, 2922. An observation of a negative effect of social cohesion on creativity in musical improvisation

• Antović, M., Küssner, M., Kempf, A., Omigie, D., Hashim, S. & Schiavio, A. (2024). “A huge man is bursting out of a rock”. Bodies, motion, and creativity in verbal reports of musical connotation. Journal of New Music Research. online first, A huge man is bursting out of a rock

• Di Stefano, N., Ansani, A., Schiavio, A., & Spence, C. (2024). Prokofiev was (almost) right: A cross-cultural investigation of auditory-conceptual associations in Peter and the Wolf. Psychonomic Bulletin & Review. online first, A cross cultural investigation of auditory conceptual associations in Peter and the Wolf

• Schiavio, A., Biasutti, M., Kempf, A., Popescu, T., & Benedek, M. (2024). The Processes and Relationships in Composers Scale. Construction and psychometric analysis of a new self-assessment inventory. Music Perception, 41(3), 217–231. The Processes and Relationships in Composers Scale

• Reybrouck, M., & Schiavio, A. (2024). Music performance as knowledge acquisition. A review and preliminary conceptual framework. Frontiers in Psychology, 5:1331806.  Music performance as knowledge acquisition

• Schiavio, A., Popescu, T., Kempf, A. & Timmers, R. (2023). Distinguishing between musical excepts learned by novices individually or in pairs. Psychology of Music. online first: Distinguishing between musical excerpts learned by novices individually or in pairs

• Schiavio, A., van der Schyff, D., Antonini Philippe, R., & Biasutti, M. (2023). Music teachers self-reported views of creativity in the context of their work. Arts and Humanities in Higher Education, 22(1), 60–80. Music teachers' self-reported views of creativity in the context of their work

• Nijs, L., Bremmer, M., van der Schyff, D. & Schiavio, A. (2023). Embodying dynamical systems in music performance. Music Performance Research, 11,58–84. Embodying dynamical systems in music performance

• Curwen, C., Timmers, R., & Schiavio, A. (2023). Action, emotion, and music-colour synaesthesia. An exploration of sensorimotor and emotional responses in synaesthetes and non-synaesthetes. Psychological Research. online first: Action, emotion and music-colour synaesthesia

• van der Schyff, D., Schiavio, A., & Elliott, D. (2022). Musical Bodies, Musical Minds. Enactive Cognitive Science and the Meaning of Human Musicality. MIT Press. 

• Schiavio, A., Ryan, K., Moran, N., van der Schyff, D., & Gallagher, S. (2022). By myself but not alone. Agency, creativity, and extended musical historicity. Journal of the Royal Musical Association, 147(2), 533-556. By Myself but not alone. Agency, Creativity and Extended Musical Historicity

• Schiavio, A., Moran, N., van der Schyff, D., Biasutti, M., & Parncutt, R. (2022). Processes and experiences of creative cognition in seven Western classical composers. Musicae Scientiae, 26(2), 303–325. Processes and Experiences of Creative Cognition in Seven Western Classical Composers

• Schiavio, A., Biasutti, M., & Antonini Philippe, R. (2021). Creative pedagogies in the time of pandemic. A case study with conservatory students. Music Education Research, 23(2), 167–178. Creative pedagogies in the time of pandemic

• Schiavio, A., Stupacher, J., Xypolitaki, E., Parncutt, R. & Timmers, R. (2021). Musical novices perform with equal accuracy when learning to drum alone or with a peer. Scientific Reports, 11, 12422.
  doi: Musical novices perform with equal accuracy when learning to drum alone or with a peer.

• Schiavio, A., & Benedek, M. (2020). Dimensions of musical creativity. Frontiers in Neuroscience, 14, 578932.
  doi: Dimensions of Musical Creativity.

• Schiavio, A., Stupacher, J., Parncutt, R., & Timmers, R. (2020). Learning music from each other. Synchronization, turn-taking, or imitation? Music Perception, 37(5), 403–422. Learning music from each other.

Teaching

Undergraduate

• Solo Project

Postgraduate

• Philosophy and Psychology of Music Education
• Music and Human Flourishing
• Independent Study Module

External activities

Overview

Selected current and recent activities

• President of ESCOM - European Society for the Cognitive Sciences of Music
• Vice-President of SIM - Society for Interdisciplinary Musicology
• Scientific Committee Member of ICMPC - International Conference on Music Perception and Cognition
• Associate Member of Music Mind Machine Research Centre, The University of Sheffield
• Deputy Editor of Musicae Scientiae
• Associate Editor of the Journal of Cognition
• Associate Editor of Performance Science (Frontiers in Psychology).
• Series Editor of “Music as Art and Science” (Oxford University Press)
• Associate Editor of Journal of Interdisciplinary Music Studies