Biography
Job title: Lecturer
Courses taught: BA (Hons) Acting, BA (Hons) Actor Musician
Specialisms: Voice, conducting, music & wellbeing, performance psychology
Instruments taught: Voice
Michael Bonshor is Professor of Voice, Wellbeing and Performance Psychology at Leeds Conservatoire, where he teaches solo voice and ensemble singing on the BA Acting and BA Actor Musician courses. He has also enjoyed teaching on the Conservatoire's MA in Musical Direction.
Michael holds several other academic positions, including his roles as Course Director of the MA in Music Psychology in Education, Performance and Wellbeing at The University of Sheffield; Lecturer on the MA in Music Education at University College London; and Visiting Lecturer at the Royal Welsh College of Music and Drama.
For his MA in Music Psychology at The University of Sheffield, Michael completed an original research project on managing performance anxiety in adult singers, and for his PhD he focused on exploring confidence-building strategies for singers and conductors. Michael's book, The Confident Choir: A Handbook for Leaders of Group Singing, is based on his research findings, and was published by Rowman Littlefield International in 2017.
Michael has a background as a classically trained singer with international contracts, followed by a portfolio career as a voice teacher, accompanist, conductor, and workshop leader. This professional experience has inspired Michael's research interests, and his research findings contribute to his teaching philosophy and practice. His work has been published in peer-reviewed journals and books, presented at international research conferences and in practical workshops, and featured in international print and broadcast media.
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For his choral research, Michael was awarded a postdoctoral Early Career Fellowship at the Institute for Musical Research, Royal Holloway, University of London. For his research into wellbeing among brass band players, he received a Gerry Farrell Travelling Scholarship from the Society for Education, Music and Psychology Research. |
