Helen F Mitchell
Biographic Data
| ID | 6736396 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Helen F Mitchell |
| GIVEN NAMES | Helen F |
| FAMILY NAME | Mitchell |
| SIGNATURE | MITCHELL H F |
| AFFILIATIONS | The University of Sydney |
| ORCID | 0000-0002-3852-3419 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 15 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 0 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 15 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2006 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2026 |
| H-INDEX | 0 |
The mock concert: How early-career performers decipher and develop stage mastery
Expert performers understand the impact of sight and sound on the concert stage and project performativity to captivate their audiences. Early-career performers embarking on a professional performance career can benefit from experts’ strategies to develop their performance skills and enhance stagecraft. The aim of this study was to develop and trial a mock concert as experiential learning for professional stagecraft. Three early-career pianists p…
‘We hear with our eyes!’ Unlocking tacit knowledge about multisensory music performing
Music performance is now recognised as a multisensory experience where both sound and sight contribute to its transmission and reception. The challenge for music education is to disseminate recent performance science research findings in this area into the curriculum using engaging and meaningful strategies. Practice without access to key research does not adequately prepare future music professionals as critical thinkers about, and evaluators of…
Establishing guiding principles for a music-making intervention for healthy brain ageing
These guiding principles will inform the design and implementation of music-making interventions for older adults with cognitive concerns by incorporating their musical tastes, instrument preferences and group learning formats for healthy brain ageing. These principles can also be used to promote the uptake of music-making in later life
Rent-a-crowd! Understanding how applause magnitude impacts music performance appraisal
Applause is ubiquitous in the reception of music performance. Applause magnitude can reveal and sway audience reactions, and it is critical for musicians and educators to understand how audiences and evaluators respond to this extramusical effect in the appraisal of music performance. This study investigated how listeners respond to applause magnitude and prompted discussions about extramusical effects and social influence. Three applause levels …
Orchestrating gender equality: How Australian female musicians navigate bias and achieve career success
Women’s participation in professional orchestras has changed the gender dynamics in the Australian music workplace. Traditional binary gender bias is pervasive in all industries, but little is known about how women in music navigate misogyny to achieve equality and realise career success. Thirteen Australian female principal players took part in semi-structured interviews to explore their experiences of the Australian musical workplace. Female pr…
‘Imagine you’re in the Opera House … ’ Learning nonverbal communication for the concert stage
Top performers create stage magic through their command of nonverbal communication.While students aspire to the highest levels of performance, they may be unprepared for the intricacies of professional stagecraft.This study trials an experiential learning workshop about optimising nonverbal communication on the concert stage.Five emerging music professionals participated in role-playing exercises on stage entrance and appropriate stage behaviour,…
Performance as theater: Expert pianists’ awareness of sight and sound in the concert
Sight and sound are critical to the reception of music performance. Audiences respond to myriad nonverbal cues to appraise the performance, but little is known about Western classical performers’ approach to commanding attention and achieving performance mastery. This study aims to understand how expert performers conceptualize the audio and visual spectacle in the concert hall, and how they harness nonverbal communication and extramusical cues i…
Perform “like a king”: Novel learning strategies to optimise music students’ concert stage mastery
The role of tertiary music performance education is to prepare students for professional performance. Professional performers demonstrate stage mastery, and their concert preparation transcends the score to equip them for the concert stage. Music educators must translate professionals’ insights into performance education. This study developed, trialled and evaluated two learning modules for performance students, based on expert strategies. In Mod…
Promoting awareness of unconscious gender bias in the evaluation of harp performance
Music is vulnerable to unconscious bias through visual extramusical factors. Traditional male/female gender bias affects instrument choice and impacts performance evaluation negatively. This study investigates gender bias in assessing harp performance. Harp performers (one male, one female) recorded three musical excerpts, all dubbed with the female performer’s audio. Listener-viewers assessed performances on five criteria and were blinded to the…
What makes practice perfect? How tertiary piano students self-regulate play and non-play strategies for performance success
Self-regulated practice is critical to musicians’ development, but it is unclear what components of practice contribute to performance quality. This study aimed to explore tertiary music students’ practice using performance evaluations as indicators of practice efficacy. Five tertiary piano students prepared a quick study task of two pieces for a mock performance, in 2 hours over 2 days. An expert panel evaluated the mock performances and perform…
How to dress to impress: The effect of concert dress type on perceptions of female classical pianists
Audiences expect music performers to follow tacit dress codes for the concert stage. In classical music performance, audiences favor performers in formal dress over casual dress, but it is unclear what constitutes appropriate formal attire. A perceptual study was designed to test for different interpretations of suitable concert dress. Four female pianists in three contrasting black outfits (long dress, short dress, and suit) were video-recorded …
Recognition and description of singing voices: The impact of verbal overshadowing
Verbalizing sound quality of individual music performers presents a challenge to musicians and pedagogues in describing a complex aural phenomenon. Verbal overshadowing (VO) is well documented in psychological literature and can occur when we use words to describe sensory experiences (such as seeing, tasting or hearing). The verbal description impairs later recall of the sensory experience and individuals are less able to identify the original fr…
Remembering, Recognizing and Describing Singers' Sound Identities
Perceiving music performers through sound quality is important for musicians, teachers and every music listener. A performer's musical identity is influenced by the unique sound they create, yet little is known about listeners' mental representation of an individual's sound quality. A verbal overshadowing (VO) effect has been extensively reported in visual recognition, where the act of verbal description distorts subsequent recall, and the same m…
Perceived improvement in vocal performance following tertiary-level classical vocal training: Do listeners hear systematic progress
This study assessed expert listeners' perceptual evaluations of the vocal performances of tertiary level classical singing students over two complete years of training. Fifteen singers sang Caccini's Amarilli, mia bella each year at the start of each academic year of vocal training (Y1, Y2, Y3). Ten expert singing pedagogues assessed a set of each singer's three performances, with performance years presented in randomized order. Listeners first r…
Can experts identify “open throat” technique as a perceptual phenomenon
Singing pedagogues have identified “open throat” as a widely used pedagogical tool in the singing studio and a critical technique to achieve good classical vocal quality. This study is the first to assess the perceptual validity of open throat. Fifteen expert singing pedagogues assessed 48 messa di voce and 24 song samples with six repeats of six advanced singing students under two conditions: “optimal” (O), representing use of maximal open throa…
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Can experts identify “open throat” technique as a perceptual phenomenon
Singing pedagogues have identified “open throat” as a widely used pedagogical tool in the singing studio and a critical technique to achieve good classical vocal quality. This study is the first to assess the perceptual validity of open throat. Fifteen expert singing pedagogues assessed 48 messa di voce and 24 song samples with six repeats of six advanced singing students under two conditions: “optimal” (O), representing use of maximal open throa…
Perceived improvement in vocal performance following tertiary-level classical vocal training: Do listeners hear systematic progress
This study assessed expert listeners' perceptual evaluations of the vocal performances of tertiary level classical singing students over two complete years of training. Fifteen singers sang Caccini's Amarilli, mia bella each year at the start of each academic year of vocal training (Y1, Y2, Y3). Ten expert singing pedagogues assessed a set of each singer's three performances, with performance years presented in randomized order. Listeners first r…
Remembering, Recognizing and Describing Singers' Sound Identities
Perceiving music performers through sound quality is important for musicians, teachers and every music listener. A performer's musical identity is influenced by the unique sound they create, yet little is known about listeners' mental representation of an individual's sound quality. A verbal overshadowing (VO) effect has been extensively reported in visual recognition, where the act of verbal description distorts subsequent recall, and the same m…
Recognition and description of singing voices: The impact of verbal overshadowing
Verbalizing sound quality of individual music performers presents a challenge to musicians and pedagogues in describing a complex aural phenomenon. Verbal overshadowing (VO) is well documented in psychological literature and can occur when we use words to describe sensory experiences (such as seeing, tasting or hearing). The verbal description impairs later recall of the sensory experience and individuals are less able to identify the original fr…
Promoting awareness of unconscious gender bias in the evaluation of harp performance
Music is vulnerable to unconscious bias through visual extramusical factors. Traditional male/female gender bias affects instrument choice and impacts performance evaluation negatively. This study investigates gender bias in assessing harp performance. Harp performers (one male, one female) recorded three musical excerpts, all dubbed with the female performer’s audio. Listener-viewers assessed performances on five criteria and were blinded to the…
What makes practice perfect? How tertiary piano students self-regulate play and non-play strategies for performance success
Self-regulated practice is critical to musicians’ development, but it is unclear what components of practice contribute to performance quality. This study aimed to explore tertiary music students’ practice using performance evaluations as indicators of practice efficacy. Five tertiary piano students prepared a quick study task of two pieces for a mock performance, in 2 hours over 2 days. An expert panel evaluated the mock performances and perform…
How to dress to impress: The effect of concert dress type on perceptions of female classical pianists
Audiences expect music performers to follow tacit dress codes for the concert stage. In classical music performance, audiences favor performers in formal dress over casual dress, but it is unclear what constitutes appropriate formal attire. A perceptual study was designed to test for different interpretations of suitable concert dress. Four female pianists in three contrasting black outfits (long dress, short dress, and suit) were video-recorded …
‘Imagine you’re in the Opera House … ’ Learning nonverbal communication for the concert stage
Top performers create stage magic through their command of nonverbal communication.While students aspire to the highest levels of performance, they may be unprepared for the intricacies of professional stagecraft.This study trials an experiential learning workshop about optimising nonverbal communication on the concert stage.Five emerging music professionals participated in role-playing exercises on stage entrance and appropriate stage behaviour,…
Performance as theater: Expert pianists’ awareness of sight and sound in the concert
Sight and sound are critical to the reception of music performance. Audiences respond to myriad nonverbal cues to appraise the performance, but little is known about Western classical performers’ approach to commanding attention and achieving performance mastery. This study aims to understand how expert performers conceptualize the audio and visual spectacle in the concert hall, and how they harness nonverbal communication and extramusical cues i…
Perform “like a king”: Novel learning strategies to optimise music students’ concert stage mastery
The role of tertiary music performance education is to prepare students for professional performance. Professional performers demonstrate stage mastery, and their concert preparation transcends the score to equip them for the concert stage. Music educators must translate professionals’ insights into performance education. This study developed, trialled and evaluated two learning modules for performance students, based on expert strategies. In Mod…
Rent-a-crowd! Understanding how applause magnitude impacts music performance appraisal
Applause is ubiquitous in the reception of music performance. Applause magnitude can reveal and sway audience reactions, and it is critical for musicians and educators to understand how audiences and evaluators respond to this extramusical effect in the appraisal of music performance. This study investigated how listeners respond to applause magnitude and prompted discussions about extramusical effects and social influence. Three applause levels …
Orchestrating gender equality: How Australian female musicians navigate bias and achieve career success
Women’s participation in professional orchestras has changed the gender dynamics in the Australian music workplace. Traditional binary gender bias is pervasive in all industries, but little is known about how women in music navigate misogyny to achieve equality and realise career success. Thirteen Australian female principal players took part in semi-structured interviews to explore their experiences of the Australian musical workplace. Female pr…
The mock concert: How early-career performers decipher and develop stage mastery
Expert performers understand the impact of sight and sound on the concert stage and project performativity to captivate their audiences. Early-career performers embarking on a professional performance career can benefit from experts’ strategies to develop their performance skills and enhance stagecraft. The aim of this study was to develop and trial a mock concert as experiential learning for professional stagecraft. Three early-career pianists p…
‘We hear with our eyes!’ Unlocking tacit knowledge about multisensory music performing
Music performance is now recognised as a multisensory experience where both sound and sight contribute to its transmission and reception. The challenge for music education is to disseminate recent performance science research findings in this area into the curriculum using engaging and meaningful strategies. Practice without access to key research does not adequately prepare future music professionals as critical thinkers about, and evaluators of…
Establishing guiding principles for a music-making intervention for healthy brain ageing
These guiding principles will inform the design and implementation of music-making interventions for older adults with cognitive concerns by incorporating their musical tastes, instrument preferences and group learning formats for healthy brain ageing. These principles can also be used to promote the uptake of music-making in later life
Psychology (14 works) · Diverse Music Education Insights (10 works) · Neuroscience and Music Perception (10 works) · Art (8 works) · Cognitive psychology (7 works) · Musical (7 works) · Visual arts (7 works) · Perception (6 works) · Communication (5 works) · Computer Science (5 works)