Professor Michelle Phillips is Director of
Creative Manchester and Professor of Music in the School of Arts, Languages and Cultures at the University of Manchester, roles she took up in September 2026. She leads the University’s interdisciplinary Creative Manchester research platform, bringing together researchers, cultural organisations and communities. Her research interests include music perception, audience responses to live and recorded performance, neurological responses to music, and the experience of time during music listening.
Previously, Michelle was Professor and Head of Enterprise (Academic) at the Royal Northern College of Music. Her research on music and time includes investigating how musical expectation and predictability influence perceived duration. She is co-editor of
Music and Time: Psychology, Philosophy, Practice and joint Editor-in-Chief of the journal
Psychology of Music.