Dr Terry Clark

DMus, ArtDip, MMus, BMus

Research and Knowledge Exchange Fellow

Doctoral Supervisor

Terry Clark is Research Fellow in Performance Science within the Centre for Performance Science at the Royal College of Music and an honorary Research Fellow at Imperial College London. Terry’s research focuses on the assessment and development of performance skills, experiential learning, and stress measurement and management.

At present, Terry is working with Imperial College Business School and Enterprise Lab to develop research and pedagogical initiatives focused on the use of interdisciplinary experiential learning to facilitate the development, real-world application, and assessment of business and entrepreneurship skills.

Terry manages the CPS’s Performance Simulators, one of which is based at the RCM and the other at Imperial’s Enterprise Lab. These interactive learning facilities allow participants to gain greater self-awareness and command of factors that contribute to impactful performances, communication, and presentations.

Terry completed a Bachelor of Music in flute performance at the University of Calgary, followed by an Artist Diploma and Masters of Music in flute performance at the University of Western Ontario, both in Canada. For his thesis project he worked with a sport psychologist and investigated imagery use by musicians. This led on to doctoral training at the Royal College of Music where Terry examined the role of mental skills in musicians’ development, training, and practice and performing activities.

Terry has held post-doctoral appointments in dance science at Trinity Laban Conservatoire for Music and Dance and in performing arts health in the University of Calgary’s Faculty of Medicine. From 2012-2015, Terry was a member of the Dance/USA Taskforce on Dancer Health, and from 2014-2016 he was a member of BAPAM’s Education and Training Advisory Group.

Terry is a LAHP (London Arts & Humanities Partnership) doctoral student supervisor, currently supervising the work of Cobi Ashkenazi and Rebecca Herman.

Selected publications

Williamon A, Clark T, & Küssner M (forthcoming), Learning in the spotlight: approaches to practising, profiling and enhancing performance skills, in J Rink, H Gaunt, & A Williamon (eds.), Musicians in the Making: Pathways to Creative Performance, Oxford University Press.

Perkins R, Reid H, Araújo L, Clark T, & Williamon A (2017), Perceived enablers and barriers to optimal health among music students: a qualitative study in the music conservatoire setting, Frontiers in Psychology, 8 (968), 1-15 [DOI].

Chomiak T, Pereira FV, Clark T, Cihal A, & Hu B (2015), Concurrent arm swing-stepping (CASS) can reveal gait start hesitation in Parkinson’s patients with low self-efficacy and fear of falling, Aging Clinical and Experimental Research, 27, 457-463 [DOI].

Clark T & Williamon A (2015), Applications within performance psychology, in M Raab, B Lobinger, S Hoffmann, A Pizzera, & S Laborde (eds.), Performance Psychology: A Scientific Guide across Perception, Action, Cognition, and Emotion (pp. 45-63), Academic Press.

Clark T, Gupta A, & Ho C (2014), Developing a dancer wellness program employing developmental evaluation, Frontiers in Psychology, 5 (731), 1-9 [DOI].

Clark T, Lisboa T, & Williamon A (2014), An investigation into musicians’ thoughts and perceptions during performance, Research Studies in Music Education, 36, 19-37 [DOI].

Clark T, Lisboa T, & Williamon A (2014), Learning to be an instrumental musician, in I Papageorgi & G Welch (eds.), Advanced Musical Performance: Investigations in Higher Education Learning (pp. 287-300), Ashgate.

Clark T, Holmes P, Feeley G, & Redding E (2013), Pointing to performance ability: examining hypermobility and proprioception in musicians, in A Williamon & W Goebl (eds.), Proceedings of the International Symposium on Performance Science 2013 (pp. 605-610), European Association of Conservatoires.

Find out more about Terry. Visit website

Faculties / departments: Research, Academic staff