Maya Ann Morris is a South-Wales based PhD Music student at Cardiff University, undertaking research into the pianism and pedagogy of Alfred Cortot (1877­–1962). Her project is supervised by Professor Caroline Rae and Dr. Rachel Moore, and funded through a Cardiff University Studentship award. She completed both her BA and MA degrees in Music at Cardiff University and was awarded the John Morgan Lloyd prize for meritorious final-year students at the end of her undergraduate degree. Alongside her research, Maya is an active conductor, pianist and alto within her local community, holding the position of Musical Director at Bargoed Male Voice Choir since the beginning of 2022. She also directs and sings with the Valleys’ Chamber Choir, which she co-founded in 2024.

Günseli Naz Ferel (she/they) is a PhD student in Music at City St George’s, University of London. Her research centres electronic dance music cultures through the lens of affect theory with a focus on experiences of migration, feelings of belonging and being at home. Some of her areas of interest are sociology of affect and music, ethnographically-informed composition, electronic dance music cultures, producing sonic stories for live performances and radios, sound foraging and manipulation and opening up spaces for solidarity in music scenes. Together with her research endeavours, she creates as a sound artist, DJ and radio host. Her previous research experience includes an MA degree at Bogazici University and her thesis was an ethnography focusing on the organisational and discursive dynamics of the underground music organisations in Turkey.

Yajie Ye is a London-based conductor and PhD researcher at King’s College London. Her practice-based research explores conducting strategies in recording production, focusing on group creativity and distributed leadership in contemporary music-making through the integration of ethnographic fieldwork. She completed an MPhil in Conducting Practice at the University of Glasgow and a BMus in Composition at Cardiff University. Yajie was a conducting fellow at the Cortona Sessions for New Music in Italy (in 2023). She received conducting scholarships from the Divertimento and the Mostly Modern Festival (in 2024). She also won the Second Prize in the Conducting Category of the Gabriel Fauré Music World Competition and the First Prize in the Choral Director Award at the 9th Chorus Competition of South China Normal University. Additionally, she was selected for the Young Conductor’s Scheme Workshop, collaborating with the Crouch End Festival Chorus. Yajie is currently the music director of Pavilion Ensemble and has conducted various ensembles in workshops and concerts, including the American Modern Ensemble (US), Opéra de Baugé (France), Hard Rain Soloist Ensemble, and the Derbyshire City & County Youth Wind Band. As a mezzo-soprano, she held choral scholarships with the University of Glasgow Chapel Choir and the London Oriana Choir. Additionally, she served as an editor at eSharp Journal.

Yihan Jin is a Wales-based pianist. She is currently pursuing a PhD in Music Performance at Cardiff University under the supervision of Professor Kenneth Hamilton and Professor Caroline Rae. Before starting her PhD, she earned a Master of Performance with distinction from the Royal College of Music and a Bachelor of Music from Cardiff University. Her research focuses on the performance history of pianistic approaches to Prokofiev’s Piano Sonatas.

Yihan has performed at numerous venues in the UK, including the Amaryllis Fleming Concert Hall, Shrewsbury St. Chad’s Church, and Haslemere Methodist Church, and internationally at the City Hall of Paris, Regional Conservatory of Versailles, Médiathèque de l’Europe, and Guangdong Opera House VFun Concert Hall. She has also given solo and chamber concerts at Cardiff University Concert Hall and premiered works by Sir Peter Maxwell Davies at the university’s International Study Day.

As a collaborative pianist, Yihan has extensive experience working with chamber groups, solo instrumentalists, singers, orchestras, choirs, composers, and visual artists.

Elizabeth Walsh is a PhD in Music student at the University of Aberdeen. She is supervised by Chris Collins and Matthew Machin-Autenrieth and is the recipient of the Derek Ogston Postgraduate Music Scholarship. Her research re-examines the historiography of twentieth-century Spanish composer Joaquín Turina (1882-1949), particularly his marginalisation from Spanish and international musicological discourse. Elizabeth holds a BA(Hons) in Spanish and Latin American Studies from Aberystwyth University and an MPhil in Music from Corpus Christi College, University of Cambridge. Her interests lie more generally in twentieth-century Spanish music, history and culture and she previously carried out research on Manuel de Falla, Spanish musical nationalism and flamenco. Elizabeth is also a violinist, studying most recently with Yuri Torchinsky, and a former member of the National Youth Orchestra of Wales and the Hallé Youth Orchestra. She was the MCR/Postgraduate Music Committee Representative for Corpus Christi College, Cambridge and a member of the Local Organising Committee for the 2025 BFE/RMA Research Students’ Conference.

Cassandra Fenton (she/her) is a PhD Music student at the University of Bristol, where she is researching notated chants in English pontifical manuscripts produced between the 10th and 13th centuries. Her research is co-supervised by the University of Exeter and funded by the South, West, and Wales Doctoral Training Partnership. Originally from the United States, Cassandra completed an MPhil in musicology at the University of Bristol in 2022, MSt in musicology at the University of Oxford in 2019, and BA with joint honours in Music and History at Sweet Briar College in 2018, where she was awarded the Anne Gary Pannel Taylor Graduate Fellowship in History. Alongside her research, Cassandra is an active member of Bristol’s Centre for Medieval Studies and the SWW DTP student committee. 

Maureen works closely with students who wish to organise RMA-supported study days to develop ideas and plan events. (mwolloshin1@gmail.com)

Dan Elphick is a Lecturer in Musicology at Royal Holloway, University of London. His research and teaching focus on questions of music and politics from the 19th-century to the present, with a particular focus on music of Russia, the Soviet Union, and Poland, as well as issues of music analysis and its role alongside musicology. Dan is a member of the Centre for Russian Music at Goldsmiths, University of London, and sits on the Editorial Board for DSCH, the Shostakovich journal. Dan’s first book, Music Behind the Iron Curtain: Weinberg and his Polish Contemporaries is available from Cambridge University Press. Alongside his research, Dan is passionate about music education at all levels from pre-school to postgraduate research, and has worked with groups including the SMA and RMA on their education and outreach projects. (communications@rma.ac..uk)