{"id":5352,"date":"2020-10-19T15:50:27","date_gmt":"2020-10-19T15:50:27","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.cardiff.ac.uk\/alumni\/?p=5352"},"modified":"2023-03-22T13:01:52","modified_gmt":"2023-03-22T13:01:52","slug":"phillip-cooke-phd-2008-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.cardiff.ac.uk\/alumni\/2020\/10\/19\/phillip-cooke-phd-2008-2\/","title":{"rendered":"Phillip Cooke (PhD 2008)"},"content":{"rendered":"\r\n
\"\"
Dr Phillip Cooke<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

Phillip Cooke (PhD 2008)<\/span> studied at the School of Music<\/a> and is now Head of Music at the Department of Music at the University of Aberdeen. He credits the teaching opportunities he was given as a PhD student in helping with his future career and giving him the necessary experience needed when applying for positions after graduation. <\/h3>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

My favourite memories of my time at Cardiff are the\r\nopportunities that were available to me as a composer and an academic. I\r\nlearned a lot, but I experienced a lot as well. Working with the BBC National\r\nOrchestra of Wales was a highlight, as was working with various professional\r\nensembles and performers.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

It was also great to be in Cardiff as it grew and became a\r\nglobal city. Seeing new buildings appear and watching the city find its\r\nidentity was a great thing to be a small part of.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

The School of Music gave me a great set of tools to use as a\r\ncomposer, a teacher and an academic, all of which I still use today. The\r\nteaching opportunities I was given certainly helped me become a better\r\nlecturer, and the opportunity to work with great musicians helped me as a\r\ncomposer.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

After graduating I was very lucky to get a Career\r\nDevelopment Fellowship at the Faculty of Music at the University of Oxford. I\r\ncombined it with a Junior Research Fellowship at The Queen\u2019s College, Oxford.\r\nIt was a big change from Cardiff, but another very useful career step.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

I worked in Oxford for five years before moving to Aberdeen. I\u2019ve kept on composing, working with many of the country\u2019s leading choirs and ensembles with lots of recordings, broadcasts and publications.<\/p><\/blockquote>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

I am currently the Head of Music at the Department of Music at the University of Aberdeen<\/a>. No day is the same as another, but since becoming Head, I\u2019ve swapped lecturing for meetings, which is a shame in some ways but it is interesting to be part of the strategic development of the discipline.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

I have also recently been appointed as an external examiner\r\nfor the undergraduate programmes at Cardiff University.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

My advice to current students is that both composition and\r\nacademia are extremely difficult to break into, but that\u2019s ok. Sometimes things\r\nare difficult but, without wanting to sound like a self-help guide, the more\r\ndifficult things you have to overcome the more satisfaction you will gain from\r\novercoming them.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

I would tell my past self to make the most of all the\r\nopportunities available and enjoy having the space and time to really work on\r\nthe thing you love. Once you have a full-time job and children, there isn\u2019t quite\r\nthe same amount of time and space.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

If I had to describe Cardiff University in five words I would choose: inclusive, cosmopolitan, global, memorable and underrated.<\/p><\/blockquote>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

My lasting impression of the university is of a welcoming\r\nplace with wonderful people and a genuinely enjoyable period of my life.<\/p>\r\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Dr Phillip Cooke Phillip Cooke (PhD 2008) studied at the School of Music and is now Head of Music at the Department of Music at the University of Aberdeen. He […]","protected":false},"author":1389,"featured_media":5360,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[69,78,38],"tags":[125],"class_list":["post-5352","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-arts-humanities-social-sciences","category-music","category-our-alumni","tag-music"],"meta_box":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.cardiff.ac.uk\/alumni\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5352","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.cardiff.ac.uk\/alumni\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.cardiff.ac.uk\/alumni\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.cardiff.ac.uk\/alumni\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1389"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.cardiff.ac.uk\/alumni\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5352"}],"version-history":[{"count":10,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.cardiff.ac.uk\/alumni\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5352\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5369,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.cardiff.ac.uk\/alumni\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5352\/revisions\/5369"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.cardiff.ac.uk\/alumni\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/5360"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.cardiff.ac.uk\/alumni\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5352"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.cardiff.ac.uk\/alumni\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5352"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.cardiff.ac.uk\/alumni\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5352"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}