Professor Adam Ockelford and Derek Paravicini visit Queen Anne's School

An evening with Professor Adam Ockelford and Derek Paravicini

On Tuesday 29 November, Queen Anne’s School hosted the incredibly talented Professor Adam Ockelford and Derek Paravicini for an evening of music and psychology.

Professor Ockelford presented an insightful lecture into the psychology of music and how we compare notes. This was followed by a truly impressive display of musical talent by Mr Paravicini, who is blind and has autism, and can recognise over 500 pitches. Mr Paravicini perfectly replicates any song that he listens to on the piano. Audiences were treated to a vast range of music genres and QAS students played their own choice of compositions for Derek to play.

About Derek Paravicini- From Ted Talk - Speakers

Derek Paravicini weighed half a kilogram when he was born, prematurely at just 25 weeks. Growing up blind and with severe autism, Paravicini had trouble communicating, but was fascinated by sound. He began teaching himself how to play the piano and, by 4-years-old, had taught himself an incredible catalogue of songs that he played with unusual technique. Soon, Paravicini began studying with Adam Ockelford, a teacher at the Linden Lodge School for the Blind in London, who saw in him the marks of a highly inventive musician. Paravicini gave his first concert at age 7 and, two years later, played the Barbican Hall.

Now in his thirties, Paravicini has continued to grow as a performer, with the ability to reimagine complex pieces of music even after only hearing them once. He was featured in the series Extraordinary People in the United Kingdom and, in the United States, on Stan Lee's Superhumans, which verified his musical ability and confirmed his savantism. Paravicini has also worked with composer Matthew King. The two have played improvised pieces on BBC Radio and collaborated on Blue, the first concerto ever composed for someone with learning impairment.

About Professor Adam Ockelford

Adam has had a lifelong fascination for music, as a composer, performer, teacher and researcher. While attending the Royal Academy of Music in London, Adam started working with children with special needs- a number of whom, he noticed, had special musical abilities too - and he became interested in how we all intuitively make sense of music, without the need for formal education. Adam pursued this line of enquiry, and gained a PhD in music at Goldsmith’s College in London in 1993, in which he set out his ‘zygonic’ theory of musical understanding. This theory has proved a valuable tool in music theory and analysis, in investigating musical development, and exploring interaction in music therapy and education.

Adam is Secretary of the Society for Education, Music and Psychology Research  (‘SEMPRE’), Chair of Soundabout, an Oxfordshire-based charity that supports music provision for children and young people with complex needs; and founder of The AMBER Trust, a charity that supports visually impaired children in their pursuit of music.

Research Interests

Adam’s research interests are in music psychology, education, theory and aesthetics -

particularly special educational needs and the development of exceptional abilities;

learning, memory and creativity; the cognition of musical structure and the construction of

musical meaning. He welcomes enquiries from PhD students with any of these or related

areas of interest.

Research Projects

Sounds of Intent - investigating early music development in children with severe, or

profound multiple learning difficulties: a model, curriculum framework and interactive

resources and assessment materials for teachers - in partnership with the Royal National

Institute of the Blind (Sally Zimmermann) and the Institute of Education, University of

London (Graham Welch and Evangelos Himonides), with financial support from the

Esmée Fairbairn Foundation, the QCA and the AMBER Trust. The current phase of work

is due to conclude in 2012.

Focus on Music - investigating musical development in children with identified syndromes:

(i) Septo-Optic Dysplasia and Optic Nerve Hypoplasia, (ii) Retinopathy of Prematurity,

and (iii) Leber’s Congenital Amaurosis, in partnership with Goldsmith’s College (Linda

Pring), with support from the AMBER Trust, Soundabout and SEMPRE. Concluding in 2012.

Fragments of Genius - exploring the skills of musical savants and the consequences for our

understanding of learning, memory and creativity, in partnership with Goldsmith’s College

and the IoE, with support from the AMBER Trust and SEMPRE. Due to conclude in 2015.

Music in Mind - investigating and modelling how musical structure and content relate to

musical meaning. Ongoing.

Adam is series editor (with Ian Cross and Graham Welch) of ‘SEMPRE Studies in the

Psychology of Music’, Ashgate, publication commencing 2008.