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Professor Catherine Tackley (née Parsonage) was appointed at the University of Liverpool in August 2016 as Head of the Department of Music, a position she held for six years. During this time, she oversaw the expansion of the Department including the development of new facilities, most notably the Tung Auditorium in the Yoko Ono Lennon Centre which opened in 2022. She was winner of Inspirational Leader of the Year at the University of Liverpool Staff Awards in 2022. She currently holds a Major Research Fellowship from the Leverhulme Trust for the project ‘The British Dance Band: Music and Musicians in the Mainstream’ and is currently on research leave until Autumn 2025. Catherine completed a PhD on early jazz in Britain at City University London and began her academic career at Leeds College of Music, latterly in the role of Head of the Centre for Jazz Studies UK. Catherine joined The Open University (OU) as Lecturer in Music in July 2008, was appointed Senior Lecturer in February 2011 and Professor in April 2016. Following several years as Director of Research for Music, Catherine became Head of the Music Department at the OU between 2014-2016. She also served as Interim Associate Dean (Research) in the Faculty of Arts. She is now a Visiting Professor at the OU and is the supervisor of PhD students in the areas of jazz, popular and improvised musics and musical theatre, particularly focussing on history and performance practice. Catherine is a Vice President of the Royal Musical Association, a member of the UK Government’s Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport inaugural College of Experts and a member of the AHRC Peer Review College. She is a member of the editorial boards of the Popular Music, Journal of the Royal Musical Association, Studies in Musical Theatre and Music Education Research. She was co-founder and co-editor of the Jazz Research Journal (Equinox). Catherine is recognised internationally as an expert on British jazz, contributing chapters on this subject to major publication projects on dance bands worldwide, history of jazz in the European Union, and women in European jazz funded by UNESCO. She has also curated events in partnership with museums and institutions; most notably Rhythm and Reaction: The Age of Jazz in Britain at Two Temple Place in association with The Arts Society in 2017. She has also been interviewed for several BBC television documentaries, acted as an advisor for TV period drama and is heard regularly on BBC Radio 3 and 4. Catherine was formerly a member of the National Jazz Archive Board of Trustee between 2019 and 2025. She is active as a conductor and instrumentalist in both classical and popular styles and is founder and Musical Director of Dr Jazz and the Cheshire Cats Big Band. Photograph © Liverpool University |
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