Staff profile

Chen Li is a postgraduate student in the Music Department. In 2015, Chen graduated from the Capital Normal University in China. She is now studying on the taught postgraduate programme in Durham, with her major project focusing on the sociology of music.

Chen began to learn dancing and piano from a very young age and began to learn vocal music from high school. During her undergraduate course, she focused on music education, particularly, vocal music education. In 2012, when she was still a freshman, she led the singing of the mezzo-soprano part in the “Songs of Glory” Vocal Concert of her university. Chen’s undergraduate thesis entitled “A brief discussion on the creative characteristics and singing style of Schubert’s art songs ‘dreams of spring’” explored the performing practice of “dreams of spring” among Chinese vocal performers.

For her Master’s, Chen intends to explore a new area the sociology of music and she intends to undertake a dissertation that will mainly focus on why there is a necessity of reinterpreting the relationship of revolutionary songs and the society of China during the new-democratic revolution (1919-1949) and the communist revolution (1949-1956)under the umbrella of music sociology.

• Chinese music in the twentieth century
• Chinese military songs and revolutionary songs
• The relationship between music and society
• Music philosophy