Biography

Peter Morris studied conducting and piano at both the Royal Northern College of Music and the Royal Academy of Music, where he won the Music Criticism prize in his first year. Later, assuming joint careers in IT and Music, Peter worked in several senior commercial positions including Director of IT within a FTSE 100 group, Director of Development for a major international ISP and Head of Technology for the Royal Opera House. Peter was nominated for the Smithsonian Humanities Award in 1997 for his contribution to IT.

Peter spent many years in Human Computer Interaction with recent research in the use of the Internet for the European Union and developing benchmarks for interface design in commerce applications for the Bailiwick of Guernsey. He was a regional specialist in Artificial Intelligence systems and knowledge acquisition for IBM, an area in which he delivered papers internationally. After working in IT for 25 years, Peter returned to the academic world, initially joining the Digital World Research Centre at the University of Surrey.

Whilst pursuing a commercial career, Peter continued to work professionally in music, as a freelance pianist and conductor, as Musical Director for theatre productions across Britain, mainland Europe and the United States, as a composer and arranger mainly for musical theatre and as teacher of piano and singing. His compositions have been heard from the West End to Hawaii.

Research Interests

A specialist in music technology and functional and applied music, in particular researching the use of music in Hollywood cartoons and humour in music.  Other areas of interest include Musical Theatre (especially Sondheim), theories in and around Learning and Teaching and the use of technology for continuous formative assessment.

Teaching

HE1 Sound Design

HE2 Electronic & Experimental Music

HE2 Synthesis & Sampling

HE2 Creative Applications of Digital Multimedia

HE2 Film Music

HE3 Creative Applications of Digital Multimedia 2

Extra curricular training in Logic Pro and Reaktor

Departmental Duties

Peter has served as both Programme Director and Admissions tutor for Creative Music Technology on which he leads on the technical modules, and lectures on electronic music, film music and music for other functional music (documentary, computer games etc). 

From 2012, Peter is the Director of Learning and Teaching in the School of Arts, with responsibility for with responsibility for quality standards, new L&T methods and implementation of new programmes. Specialist areas include sound design for film, electronic music, music and technology, music software (including Logic Pro and Reaktor), musical theatre, especially Sondheim, and the sociology of music.