Sara Mcguinness Profile Photo

Dr Sara McGuinness

Associate Professor
London College of Music
sara.mcguinness@uwl.ac.uk

Dr Sara McGuinness specialises in practiced-based research, performance, and sound recording, with a focus on Congolese and Cuban music.

She has been a professional musician working on the UK Salsa scene for more than 20 years and entered the world of UK-based Congolese musicians in 2005. She brought together Latin and Congolese musicians to form a band as her practice-based PhD research into the dynamic relationship between the two musics.

Sara teaches Performance and Recording at LCM and the School of Oriental and African Studies, and travels regularly to the Sahara desert in SW Algeria to deliver sound recording training to the people of Western Sahara displaced into refugee camps there.

She has also taught in the National Conservatoire in Bamako, Mali, runs a Cuban Big Band here in the UK and teaches regular music courses in Cuba.

Through her extensive work with musicians around the world, Sara actively explores the inextricable links between music, culture and identity. She travels both as a musician and a teacher, promoting the empowerment of musicians through technology and skills.
on her PhD research project.

  • Qualifications

    BA Sound Technology (Imperial College, London), PgDip Music (Middlesex University), MMus (Dist.) (School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London), PhD Music (School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London)

  • Memberships

    The Performing Rights Society (PRS)
    The Mechanical Copyright Protection Society (MCPS)(PRS)
    Musicians Union
    Senior Fellow of the Higher Education Academy (SFHEA)

Teaching

I have worked extensively with musicians around the world, exploring the links between music, culture and identity. My specialisms are practice-based research, performance and sound recording, with a focus on Congolese and Cuban music. I have also taught in the National Conservatoire in Bamako, Mali, run a Cuban Big Band here in the UK and teach regular music courses in Cuba.

Research

  • Research and publications

    Research

    McGuinness, S. (2012) Doctoral thesis: Grupo Lokito: A practice-based investigation into the contemporary links between Congolese and Cuban popular music, School of Oriental and African Studies.

  • Conferences

    Conference papers and/or presentations

    McGuinness, S. (2013) Trans-Atlantic groove: Musical Commonalities in Cuban Son and Congolese Rumba; study day on Music around the Atlantic Rim, British Forum For Ethnomusicology, Cardiff University, Wales.

    McGuinness, S. (2012) Congolese music making in London: A process of integration and separation, African Studies Association UK Conference, Leeds University, Leeds, UK.

  • Research degree supervision

    Secondary Supervisor

    Forget Me Not: Distinguishing popularity from legacy and equality for black women in the American pop music industry. (Brittany Blackwell )

    Developing movement skills in performing arts: an investigation to stimulate a more creative, imaginative and sensitive movement skill engagement through a democratically orientated approach. (Paula Scales)

    Music of the Middle Passage and Beyond. (Dwight Pile-Gray)

    The role of gesture and non-verbal communication in popular music performance, and its application to curriculum and pedagogy. (Liz Pipe) - awarded August 2018

Courses taught on