Professor Christopher Collins

Biography

Chris Collins is Dean of the School of Business and Law at AFG College with the University of Aberdeen in Qatar.

Formerly he was Head of the School of Language, Literature, Music and Visual Culture, and before that he was Head of the School of Music and Media at Bangor University. He is a Board member of Aberdeen Performing Arts, and was Chair of the latest revision of the QAA Subject Benchmark Statement for Music (2025). He was President of the Independent Society of Musicians in 2020-21.

Chris's research areas are broad, encompassing music, literature, performance art, theatre, European studies and modern languages. He is an authority on the life and work of the Spanish composer Manuel de Falla (1876-1946). His research encompasses a wide range of methodologies, including documentary research, formal analysis, inter-art relations, reception history, and cultural studies. He also works on early 20th-century music more broadly, and has a sideline in popular music research, focusing especially on the period from the mid 1960s to the early 1980s.

Chris has taught and given public lectures on a wide range of topics, and has delivered specialised courses on topics ranging from musicological methodology to conducting, and from Wagner to Kate Bush and Björk. He is a highly experienced orchestral, choral and operatic conductor, and over the past 20+ years has directed performances of repertoire ranging from Monteverdi (born 1567) to Mared Emlyn (born 1988).

Chris’s spare time is spent walking, cycling, reading, playing the piano and listening to music.

External Memberships

• Chair, Subject Benchmark Statement Review Panel for Music, QAA (2024-25)
• Scottish representative, MusicHE (2023-24)
• Executive Committee member, Culture Aberdeen (2022-25)
• Research network member, 'Inter-art Connections: Music and Literature in the Spanish Silver Age' (based at Universidad Complutense de Madrid) (2020- )
• Member of Royal Musical Association EDI Working Group (2020-22)
• Strategic Group member, Big Noise Torry (2020-24)
• Member of Editorial Board, Musicología, Universidad de Granada (2022- )
• Member of Advisory Board, Epistolario Manuel de Falla, Universidad de Granada (2019- )
• President, Independent Society of Musicians (2020-21)
• Ordinary Member of Council, Royal Musical Association (2017-20)
• Expressive Arts Advisor, Curriculum Reform, Welsh Government (2016-18)
• Contributing author of Music Benchmark Statement, QAA (2016 and 2019)
• Trustee, Codi'r To – Sistema Cymru (2016-22)
• External Examiner for Music and Drama programmes, Bath Spa University programmes at ESART Barcelona (2016-20)
• Member of Editorial Board, Quodlibet (2015- )

Research Overview

• Manuel de Falla
• Music in Spain and France, c. 1880-1939
• Music in the Nordic countries, c. 1890-1930
• Popular music and culture in Britain, c. 1960 onwards 
• Sketch studies
• Interart studies (words, music, dance, visual art, theatre)
• Music pedagogy

Current Research

Chris is currently writing a monograph on unity of form and content in canonic music-theatre works of the early twentieth century, and is preparing a new edition of Falla's published writings in collaboration with Elena Torres Clemente (Universidad Complutense de Madrid). He is also a contributor to the ongoing critical edition of the correspondence of Manuel de Falla. He is pleased to supervise research students in areas relating to his own specialist interests.

Knowledge Exchange

Chris has spoken widely about his work, including broadcast interviews on BBC Radio Wales and at international conferences and festivals, ranging from Festival No. 6 in Portmeirion, North Wales, to the China-Shanghai International Arts Festival.