Dr Benjamin Phipps

I teach and research in the areas of music and curriculum/academic development. My expertise in music was foregrounded in my training in Ethnomusicology studying across the areas of jazz, popular music, world music. These studies include specific focus on Hindustani Classical Music, West African Percussion Styles and Japanese traditional musics. I have conducted fieldwork with jazz and popular musicians, particularly in hybrid musical contexts involving the mixing of styles on the urban east coast of Australia. I am particularly interested in what music-making means to the people who make it and how their creative processes develop, for instance, through improvisation and composition over time in relationship to social and cultural contexts. Prior to working in higher education, I worked professionally as a bassist (Acoustic and Electric), in musical contexts such as jazz, pop music, musical theatre and hybrid intercultural collaborations, including leading my own ensembles BandWagon and Strands. I studied a range of musical styles, including jazz with Ron Philpott, Craig Scott and Geoff Kluke, Hindustani classical music with Adrian McNeil and West African Percussion with Tony Lewis. I am also a long term student of the Japanese end-blown flute, the Shakuhachi with Bronwyn Kirkpatrick. I am also a passionate teacher with experience in tertiary education, a high school teaching qualification and hold a Senior Fellowship in the Higher Education Academy.