Dr Franziska Schroeder

About Franziska

Originally from Germany, Franziska is based at the Sonic Arts Research Centre, Queen’s University Belfast where she holds the post of senior lecturer in music and sonic arts.

Franziska trained as a contemporary saxophonist in Australia, and in 2006 completed her PhD at the University of Edinburgh, where her research focused on performance, digital technologies and theories of embodiment.

She has published widely in diverse international journals and has given several invited keynote speeches on the topic of performance and emerging technological platforms.

Franziska has published a book on performance and the threshold, a book on user-generated content and a volume on music improvisation. She performs as saxophonist in a variety of contexts and has released several CDs on the Creative Source label, as well as a recording on the SLAM label with a semi-autonomous technological artifact. In 2015 she released an album on the pfmentum label with two Brazilian musicians, and 2016 saw the release of a Bandcamp album with her female trio Flux.

Throughout 2018 Franziska is leading a research team at Queen’s University on a project that investigates immersive technologies in collaboration with disabled musicians and Belfast’s only professional contemporary music ensemble, the Hard Rain Soloist Ensemble (HRSE). As part of this team, Franziska designed a new VR narrative work entitled “Embrace”. This piece critically investigates ideas of disability, identity, and empathy. “Embrace” is the first showcase piece created at the Sonic Arts Research Centre within its newly established research group “SARC_Immerse”, a group that has positioned itself as leading in the field of high-quality audio use in virtual environments. 

Franziska leads the Performance without Barriersresearch group, a group of PhD and post-doctoral students investigating inclusive music technologies: http://performancewithoutbarriers.com/

At Queen’s University Belfast Franziska teaches students in improvisation, digital performance and critical theory.