Dr. Lara Pearson

Research Areas
- South Indian music
- Music, movement, gesture, and the body
- Aesthetics and affect in social context
- Notions of improvisation and composition
Vita
Academic Education
2012–2016 | Doctor of Philosophy at the University of Durham, UK with a thesis on gesture in South Indian art music |
2011–2012 | MA in Ethnomusicology (with Distinction) at Goldsmiths, University of London |
Career
Since 2018 | Researcher at the Max Planck Institute for Empirical Aesthetics, Music Department | |
2016–2017 | Postdoctoral fellow at Eberhard Karls Universität Tübingen | |
2013–2017 | Part-time teacher at the University of Durham, UK | |
2008–2011 | Fieldwork and practical music studies in South India |
Publications
Edited volumes
Hamilton, A., & Pearson, L. (Eds.), (2020). The Aesthetics of Imperfection in Music and the Arts: Spontaneity, Flaws and the Unfinished. London: Bloomsbury Academic. ISBN: 9781350106055
Journal Articles and Book Sections
Pearson, L., & Pouw, W. (2022). Gesture–vocal coupling in Karnatak music performance: A neuro–bodily distributed aesthetic entanglement. Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences. https://doi.org/10.1111/nyas.14806
Pearson, L. (2022). Inscriptions, Gesture, and the Self: Notation in Karnatak Music. In E. Payne & F. Schuiling (Eds.), Material Cultures of Music Notation: New Perspectives on Musical Inscription. Abingdon: Routledge. https://doi.org/10.4324/9780429342837-13
Pearson, L. (2021). Cultural Specificities in Carnatic and Hindustani Music: Commentary on the Saraga Open Dataset. Empirical Musicology Review, 16(1), 166-171. http://dx.doi.org/10.18061/emr.v16i1.7974
Wald-Fuhrmann, M., Pearson, L., Roeske, T., Grüny, C., & Polak, R. (2021). Music as a trait in evolutionary theory: A musicological perspective. Behavioral and Brain Sciences,44, E93. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0140525X20001193
Pearson, L. (2021). “Improvisation” in Play: A View through South Indian Music Practices. In A. Bertinetto & M. Ruta (Eds.), The Routledge Handbook of Philosophy and Improvisation in the Arts (pp. 446-461). Abingdon: Routledge. https://doi.org/10.4324/9781003179443-35
Pearson, L. (2020). A Socially Situated Approach to Aesthetics: Games and Challenges in Karnatak Music. In A. Hamilton & L. Pearson (Eds.), The Aesthetics of Imperfection in Music and the Arts: Spontaneity, Flaws and the Unfinished (pp. 61-72). London: Bloomsbury Academic. https://doi.org/10.5040/9781350106086.0016
Jacoby, N., Margulis, EH, Clayton, M., Hannon, E., Honing, H., Iversen, J., Klein, TR, More, SA, Pearson, L., Peretz, I., Perlman, M ., Polak, R., Ravignani, A., Savage, PE, Steingo, G., Stevens, CJ, Trainor, L., Trehub, S., Veal, M., & Wald-Fuhrmann, M. (2020) , Cross-cultural work in music cognition. Music Perception, 37 (3), 185-195. https://doi.org/10.1525/mp.2020.37.3.185
Pearson, L. (2018). Cultural Heritage, Sustainability and Innovation in South Indian Art Music. In B. Norton and N. Matsumoto (Eds.), Music as Heritage: Historical and Ethnographic Perspectives . Aldershot: Routledge. http://dx.doi.org/10.4324/9781315393865-12
Pearson, L. (2016). Coarticulation and Gesture: An Analysis of Melodic Movement in South Indian Raga Performance. Music Analysis , 35 (3), 280-313. https://doi.org/10.1111/musa.12071
Pearson, L. (2013). Gesture and the Sonic Event in Karnatak Music. Empirical Musicology Review , 8 (1), 2-14. https://doi.org/10.18061/emr.v8i1.3918
PhD thesis
Pearson, L. (2016). Gesture in Karnatak Music: Pedagogy and Musical Structure in South India. (PhD), University of Durham. http://etheses.dur.ac.uk/11782/
Conference Papers (selected)
Pearson, L. (2019, Sept. 26-28). An aesthetics of movement in Karnatak music: Conceptualizing music through the body . Paper presented at the Conference on Interdisciplinary Musicology (CIM19), Graz, Austria.
Pearson, L. (2019, Sept. 3-9). Gestural interaction in South Indian vocal lessons: Forging common ground through the body . Paper presented at the European Seminar in Ethnomusicology (ESEM) 2019, Durham, UK.
Pearson, L. (2019 July 11-17). Gesture in Karnatak music: Technologies, data, and analysis . Paper presented at the International Council for Traditional Music (ICTM) world conference, Bangkok, Thailand.
Pearson, L. (2019, May 31-June 2). Oscillations, finger stresses, and slides: Gestural affordances and the Karnatak style . Paper presented at the Tenth International Conference on Music and Sonic Art (MuSA), Karlsruhe, Germany.
Pearson, L. (2018, June 26-29). Gesture, segmentation, and meaning in South Indian raga performance . Paper presented at the Analytical Approaches to World Music (AAWM) conference, Thessaloniki, Greece.
Pearson, L. (2018, April 20-22). Notation, gesture, and identity in South Indian art music . Paper presented at Material Cultures of Music Notation: An Interdisciplinary Conference, Utrecht, The Netherlands.
Pearson, L. (2018, April 12-15). Cultural activism in South India: Protesting social inequality within and through Karnatak music. Paper presented at the British Forum for Ethnomusicology (BFE) Annual Conference, Newcastle, UK.
Pearson, L. (2017, July 13-14). Gesture as thought in South Indian raga performance . Paper presented at the Royal Musical Association Music and Philosophy Study Group (RMA MPSG) conference, London.
Pearson, L. (2017 April 3-5). Gesture in Karnatak vocal lessons: Cross-domain mapping and gestural indexing . Paper presented at the Society for Education, Music and Psychology Research (SEMPRE) conference, Hull, UK.
Pearson, L. (2015, Aug 17-22). Hand gestures in South Indian vocal lessons: The exploitation of cross-domain mapping as a pedagogic tool . Paper presented at the European Society for the Cognitive Science of Music (ESCOM) conference, Manchester, UK.
Pearson, L. (2014 Nov. 13-16).Gesture in Karnatak music pedagogy: Typologies, ethical constraints, and cross-modal interaction . Paper presented at the Society for Ethnomusicology (SEM) annual conference, Pittsburgh, USA.
Pearson, L. (2014, Sept. 9-12). Deviation from standard melodic formulas by an expert performer: An analysis of Karnatak raga alapana . Paper presented at Perspectives on Musical Improvisation II (POMI II), Oxford, UK.
Awards & Grants
Awards & Grants
2017 | Aubrey Hickman Award given by SEMPRE (Society for Education, Music and Psychology Research) |
2015 | Martin Hatch Award given by the Society for Asian Music |
2014 | iARC (Institute of Advanced Research Computing) Digital Humanities Durham Postgraduate Research Award |
2014 | Durham University Arts and Humanities Faculty Postgraduate Research Award |
2014 | ERASMUS Mobility Award to conduct motion analysis at the University of Oslo |
2013 | SEMPRE (Society for Education, Music and Psychology Research) Gerry Farrell Travel Award for fieldwork in India |
2012–2015 | Arts and Humanities Research Council Doctoral Studentship Award |
Projects
- Musikalische Bewegung: Die Erfahrung und Ästhetik von Bewegung in der südindischen Raga-Musik
Die Verbindung von Musik und Bewegung kann im täglichen Leben beobachtet werden: Zum Beispiel bei der Neigung von Menschen, sich zu Musik zu bewegen und Bewegungsbegriffe zu verwenden, wenn über Musik gesprochen wird. Als Reaktion darauf haben ...