Music Research Seminar: Dr Georgia Volioti (University of Surrey)

The pursuit of originality in classical music performance is usually placed high on professional artists’ agenda. Originality (or related terms) is frequently encountered in music criticism. Performers are invariably expected to offer at least some freshness of perception on a piece, for which many performance renditions already exist. This prerequisite for originality (whether defined as deviation from a norm or an occurrence that hasn’t happened previously) presents an unusual challenge for performers’ creativity when considering how creativity is defined. Although creativity is not a unitary concept, researchers concur that creative outcomes must be both original (even surprising) and of value (appropriate aesthetic quality) within a given field. For classical performance it has been postulated theoretically that originality and value co-vary; however, little empirical testing of this inter-relationship exists in different musical contexts.

In this research seminar, following a synopsis of the rationale and methodology of this study, I present findings of expert listeners’ evaluations of originality of professional classical piano recordings. In both musical genres tested (Grieg and Webern), both older and more recent styles were consistently rated, overall, high for ‘originality’ and ‘quality’, regardless of date of recording or performer. In both musical genres, there was a strong positive significant correlation between the scores of ‘originality’ and ‘quality’. ‘Technique’ was the least well correlated, with either originality or quality, but was one of the highest average scores (out of 8 evaluative criteria examined), suggesting that although a good technique is expected at high level performing, this criterion alone may not be as strongly linked to the discernment of originality. Inter-rater reliability coefficients (Cronbach's alpha) for the sub-groups ‘pianists’ and ‘non-pianists’ yielded values above 0.8, suggesting good agreement among these experts.

I conclude this research seminar with a discussion of the broader implications of these findings for performance evaluation in educational contexts and the training of advanced performers. Although originality is culturally expected (implicitly or explicitly) in the arts, how to cultivate it in educational settings, such as in performance pedagogy, remains challenging. This study suggests the need to understand what originality is by separating it from other evaluative criteria of performance, in order to identify it when it occurs.

About Georgia Volioti 

I am a Senior Lecturer in Music at the University of Surrey with interdisciplinary research interests in music performance studies, music psychology and music education. Drawing from empirical methodologies (quantitative and qualitative research methods), psychology, sociology and cultural-historical contextual study, my research investigates both technical and expressive dimensions of performance (mainly western 'art' music), listeners' aesthetic responses and evaluations of performance, creativity in performance, musicians' learning behaviours (self-regulation, self-efficacy) and, more broadly, the role of culture in shaping music practices. My research interests include:

• Music Performance Studies: performance practice (especially piano repertoire); performance historiography; cultural memory and identity in performance; the media and materiality of recording technologies; cultural responses to the legacy of recordings; landscape and music; visual culture and music; the music of Edvard Grieg; analysis and modelling of expressive performance parameters (research methods include principal component analysis, self-organising maps, clustering, and correlation statistics). 
• Music Psychology: expressive gesture in performance; listening practices; musical development and self-regulated learning; musicians' self-efficacy; creativity, originality and value in performance; evaluation of music performance.
• Music Education: listening pedagogies; recording studio pedagogies; technology, gender and education; transitions in higher music education; inclusion in music education; music careers and employability in HE. 

My book (co-edited with Daniel Barolsky) Recorded Music in Creative Practices: Mediation, Performance, Education is published by Routledge (2024) in the series SEMPRE Studies in the Psychology of Music. I am currently co-editing (with equal contribution to the project) a special journal issue (titled 'On Music') of Performance Research (Taylor & Francis). I am also co-organising, with Professor Sue Miller, the conference 'Broadening Music Performance: New Approaches and Possibilities for Higher Music Education' (University of Surrey, Guildford, 26-27 June 2025). 

I have published sole-authored full-length studies in leading peer-reviewed journals, including The Musical Quarterly and Music & Letters (Oxford University Press journals), The Journal of Musicological Research (Taylor & Francis), and Musicae Scientiae (SAGE ESCOM journal). My research explores diverse topics ranging from performance practice and cultural memory in performance to interdisciplinarity in music studies (book chapter in Remixing Music Studies Routledge) and performers' learning and self-regulation (research articles in Musicae Scientiae and Research Studies in Music Education (SAGE SEMPRE journals)). My scholarly review articles have been published in the top peer-reviewed journals Psychology of Music, Musicae Scientiae, Empirical Musicology Review and Nineteenth-Century Music Review.