Biography
Chris Collins is Head of the School of Language, Literature, Music and Visual Culture. The multidisciplinary nature of the School is reflected in his own areas of interest, encompassing music, literature, performance art, theatre, European studies and modern languages.
Chris is an authority on the life and work of the Spanish composer Manuel de Falla (1876-1946). His research encompasses a wide range of methodologies, including documentary research, formal analysis, inter-art relations, reception history, and cultural studies. He also works on early 20th-century music more broadly, and has a sideline in popular music research, focusing especially on the period from the mid 1960s to the early 1980s.
Chris has taught and given public lectures on all periods of music history, and has delivered specialised courses on topics ranging from musicological methodology to conducting, and from Wagner to Kate Bush and Björk. He is a highly experienced orchestral, choral and operatic conductor, and over the past 20+ years has directed performances of repertoire ranging from Monteverdi (born 1567) to Mared Emlyn (born 1988). He currently directs the University of Aberdeen Symphony Orchestra.
Chris was formerly Head of the School of Music and Media at Bangor University where he oversaw programmes in music, film, journalism, drama, media studies and production, delivered in both English and Welsh (Chris is a fluent Welsh-speaker). He is active as a campaigner for music education at all levels, and is a vociferous advocate for the UK music industry. He was President of the Independent Society of Musicians in 2020-21. He is a Board member of Aberdeen Performing Arts, a member of the Culture Aberdeen Executive Committee, and is a member of the Strategic Group for the Big Noise programme in Torry, Aberdeen. He is currently Chair of the QAA Subject Benchmark Statement review group for Music.
Chris’s spare time is spent walking, cycling, reading, playing the piano and listening to music.
