Christopher Wiley

Christopher Wiley completed his BA(Hons) in Music at St Anne’s College, University of Oxford in 1998 and his MMus at the University of Surrey in 2000. His PhD dissertation, Re-writing Composers’ Lives: Critical Historiography and Musical Biography, undertaken at the University of London and funded by the Arts and Humanities Research Board, provides a critical examination of musical biography through comparative studies of texts on several canonical composers.

Chris joined the University of Surrey in September 2013 as Senior Lecturer and Director of Learning & Teaching in the School of Arts. Prior to this position, he was Director of Undergraduate Studies (2009–13) and Director of the MA Programmes (2005–09) in the Department of Music at City University London. He has also taught at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama, the Open University, and Royal Holloway.

Chris is the author of articles published in the journals The Musical Quarterly, Music and Letters, Comparative Criticism, and Arts & Humanities in Higher Education, in addition to several book chapters. He has delivered papers on historical, critical, and educational topics at many international and interdisciplinary conferences, including the Keynote Address at a four-day Biennial Conference of Musicology hosted by the University of Arts, Belgrade.

Chris’s teaching crystallizes around Western art-music of the last three centuries, popular music studies, film and television music, critical musicology, music theory, and musical theatre, and he has acted as a supervisor at all levels from undergraduate dissertations to doctoral research. His continuing commitment to teaching of the highest quality has been widely recognized; he became a Distinguished Educator with Turning Technologies in 2012 (the first ever appointment from the Arts and Humanities) and was awarded a National Teaching Fellowship in 2013.

Chris frequently provides information and expert comment to the media in the areas of popular music, classical music, and music education. He is much sought after as a public speaker, including pre-performance talks for Glyndebourne opera and the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra. He is Publicity Officer for Retrospect Opera.

In 2014, Chris completed the degree of MA in Academic Practice at City University London. He is a Senior Fellow of the Higher Education Academy.