Dr Alana Blackburn

Senior Lecturer in Music - Faculty of Humanities, Arts, Social Sciences and Education; School of Humanities, Arts, and Social Sciences

Alana Blackburn

Phone: +61 02 6773 4240

Email: alana.blackburn@une.edu.au

Twitter: @alanablackburn

Biography

A highly regarded recorder player performing as a soloist and ensemble musician throughout Australia, New Zealand and Europe; Alana has performed with a number of ensembles including The Royal Wind Music, The New Dutch Academy, Salut! Baroque, The Bell Shakespeare Company, Pinchgut Opera, The Sydney Consort, The Tall Poppeas and The Sydneian Bach Choir. As a soloist, she has performed concerti with The Early Music Ensemble of the Sydney Conservatorium, The Manly-Warringah Symphony Orchestra, Coro Innominata and The Bourbaki Ensemble; she has also teamed up with other Australian artists Rosalind Halton (Harpsichord), Riley Lee (Shakuhachi), Neal Peres da Costa & Daniel Yeadon (continuo), Ben Carey (sound technologist), and commissioned a number of composers, exploring the use of recorders and electronics in performance. A graduate of both Sydney and Amsterdam Conservatories, she performs both early and contemporary music, and has performed in some of the world's greatest recital and concert halls including; the Sydney Opera House, Wigmore Hall (UK), Amsterdam Concertgebouw (NL), and Konzerthaus Berlin (GR), appeared on six CDs, and performed live on radio broadcast in Australia, New Zealand, Germany and The Netherlands.

In addition to performance, Alana combines arts management with creative practice, investigating the internal and external influences on artist careers and ensembles.

Qualifications

PhD (UNE), Grad. Cert. Higher Education T&L (Deakin), MArtsMgt (UNE), MMus (Performance) (USyd), BMus (Conservatorium van Amsterdam), BMus (Hons) (Performance) (Usyd), LMusA, AMusA.

Awards

School of Arts Excellence in Teaching Award (2017)
PVCR Completion Scholarship (2016)
Keith and Dorothy Mackay Postgraduate Travelling Scholarship (2015)
Excellent Paper Award – Paper presented at ICOFE, Hong Kong (2014)
Australian Postgraduate Award (2014-2017)
University of Sydney Postgraduate Award (2005-2006)

Teaching Areas

Performance
Music Theory/Musicianship
Music History
Studio Pedagogy
Ensemble Leadership

Research Interests

French and Italian Baroque ornamentation and performance practice
Contemporary composition for recorder blending Eastern and Western aesthetic and technique
Contemporary performance improvisation with computer programming
Web technology and music e-learning
Leadership, group processes, and decision making within chamber music ensembles
Portfolio careers and arts management

Recent Grants:

2020 Create NSW Project Grant

2020 ASCILITE D2L Research Grant

2019 Early Career Researcher Grant (UNE HASSE)

2017 School of Arts International Travel Conference Grant (UNE)

Research Supervision Experience

Publications

Commercial CD Recordings:

Salut! Baroque (2014). Celebrating 20 Years [CD]. Sydney: Salut! Baroque
Ben Carey (2014). Derivations: Human-Machine Improvisations [CD]. Sydney: Integrated Records 888174580005
The Royal Wind Music (2013). Angeli, Zingare & Pastori [CD]. Amsterdam: Lindoro NL-­‐ 3018
The Royal Wind Music (2012). Del Canto Figurado [CD]. Amsterdam: Lindoro MPC-­‐123
The Royal Wind Music (2012). En er Mundo [CD]. Amsterdam: Lindoro NL-­‐3014
Salut! Baroque (2012). Concorde of Sweete Sound [CD]. Sydney: Salut! Baroque

Edited Book Chapter:

Blackburn, A (forthcoming). The impact of group identity on the social dynamics and sustainability of chamber music ensembles. In R. Timmers, H. Daffern & F. Bailes (eds) Together in Music: Participation, coordination, and creativity in ensembles. University Oxford Press.

McGrath, N., & Blackburn, A. (2014). Educating the ‘Net Generation’: Enhancing Student Engagement with Web 2.0 Tools and Mobile Technology in Music Education. In K. Li & K. Yuen (Eds.), Emerging modes and approaches in open and flexible education (pp. 343-352). Ho Man Tin, Kowloon Hong Kong: Open University of Hong Kong Press.

Journal Articles:

Blackburn, A. & Hewitt, D. (2020). Fostering Creativity and Collaboration in a Fully Online Tertiary Music Program. International Journal on Innovations in Online Education 4(2). DOI: 10.1615/IntJInnovOnlineEdu.2020035099

Blackburn, A. (2017). Performing online: Approaches to teaching performance studies in higher education within a fully online environment. Australian Journal of Music Education 51(1). pp. 63-72.

Conference Papers (selection):

Blackburn, A. (2016, July). The role repertoire choice has in shaping the identity and functionality of a chamber music ensemble. Proceedings of the International Conference on Music Perception and Cognition. (pp. 583-587), San Francisco, CA, USA.

Blackburn, A. & McGrath, N. (2014). Anytime, Anyplace, Anywhere: New Media and Virtual Tools Offer Constructivist Learning in Online Music Education. In Proceedings of The World Conference on E-Learning in Corporate, Government, Healthcare, and Higher Education 2014 (pp. 223-226). Chesapeake, VA: AACE. New Orleans, LA, USA.

Whale, S., McGrath, N., Cluley, T., McClenaghan, L., & Blackburn, A. (August 2013). Moving Online: A Best Practice Approach to Achieving a Quality Learning Experience for Online Education. International Conference of Open and flexible Education, Hong Kong, 2014.

Conference Presentations (selection):

Blackburn, A. (2017). The impact of group dynamics on audience perception of a chamber music performance. Paper presented at the 3rd Conference of the Australian Music & Psychology Society (AMPS) incorporating the 5th International Conference on Music and Emotion, Brisbane, Australia.

Blackburn, A. (2016). The modern chamber musician’s identity: Individual perspectives of the qualities and characteristics of contemporary ensemble musicians. Paper presented at the 39th Musicological Society of Australia International Conference 2016, Adelaide, Australia.

Blackburn, A. (2015). Creating Harmony: exploring the organisational factors of contemporary chamber music ensemble. Paper presented at the 38th International Conference of Students of Systematic Musicology 2015, Leipzig, Germany.

Blackburn, A. (2015). Developing a professional identity and maintaining success within self-managing chamber music ensembles. Paper presented at the Musicological Society of Australia International Conference 2015, Sydney, Australia.

Blackburn. A., & Carey, B. (2012). "­_derivations" [performance]. Interactive: The Australasian Computer Music Conference 2012, Griffith University: Brisbane.

Other Written Work:

Blackburn, A (2020). Blokfluit 2.0 - Blokfluitles online. Blokfluitist 12(3). pp. 16-18.

Blackburn, A. (2018). Instrument of torture? In defence of the recorder. 
The Conversation, v.Arts + Culture, issn:2201-5639

Blackburn, A (2018) . The gig economy is nothing new for musicians – here’s what their ‘portfolio careers’ can teach us. The Conversation, v.Business + Economy, issn:2201-5639

Clinical Skills and Experience

Memberships

Consultancy Interests

Community and Advocacy Organisation Collaborations

Further Information

Creative Outputs:

Blackburn, Alana; Lawrence, Sarah  (2020). [Live performance via social media]. Fragments, Figures, Fables

'Permafrost' by Donna Hewitt, January 2019 Tilde New Music Festival, Melbourne (WP)

Blackburn, A (2018). The Sound of Silence. [Performance] Art of Management and Organisation Conference. Brighton University, Brighton, United Kingdom.

Blackburn, A (2018). Musical and Non-Musical communication: Which informs Which? [Performance] Festival Conference of Music Performance and Artistic Research. Lithuanian Academy of Music and Theatre, Vilnius, Lithuania.

'Codextant: Medieval Immersions in New England' by Eve Klein, June 2015 Sydney Vivid Festival (WP)
Between the Palms of the Hands by Eve Klein, June 2015 Sydney Vivid Festival (WP)
'Lumina' by Amanda Cole, June 2015 Sydney Vivid Festival (WP)
'

_derivations' by Benjamin Carey, August 2012 New Music Network Mini Series
'Tic' by Anthony Leigh Dunstan, August 2012 New Music Network Mini Series (WP)