Research

The social psychology of orchestral performance

Cayenna's research is focused on the social-psychological and socio-political aspects of orchestral music-making -- from the intricacies of co-performer communication in modern and historically informed contexts, to the politics of participation and orchestras' geo-political significance.

This has ranged from investigating the moment-by-moment decision- making of orchestral musicians during rehearsal and performance, to researching the social and political implications of Afghanistan’s orchestral activities.

She explores these questions through a blend of practice-based research and empirical investigation -- combining her work as a conductor and performer with her academic foci.

A hallmark of her work has been to develop new technological solutions for addressing methodological hurdles in orchestral research, such as gaining access to performers thoughts and experiences while engaged in the act of performance and capturing micro-timing data from large numbers of orchestral players simultaneously.

Research Projects

The Orchestras of Afghanistan

LEVERHULME EARLY CAREER RESEARCH FELLOW, UNIVERSITY OF SHEFFIELD

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In her Leverhulme Early Career Research Fellow research at the University of Sheffield, Cayenna is currently combining her interests in the sociology of orchestral practices with their international forms.

She is working collectively alongside scholars and musicians from Afghanistan now living in exile to produce the first book which will focus exclusively on the historical and contemporary activities, practices and meaning-making of the orchestras of Afghanistan.

Part of this work includes ensuring that the orchestral music of Afghanistan continues to flourish at a time where such music-making is censored in the country. The Orchestral Music of Afghanistan: Looking Forward is an initiative featuring the new compositions of Afghan composers, creating greater access to this incredible musical world for composers and listeners alike.

Transforming 19th-Century Historically Informed Practice

POSTDOCTORAL RESEARCHER, UNIVERSITY OF OXFORD

This 4-year AHRC-Funded interdisciplinary research project at the University of Oxford led by professional violinist, Claire Holden, was aimed at expanding the musical resources available to historically informed performers of 19th-century repertoire though historical research and experimentation.

One major strand of this research involved experimental approaches to 19th-century orchestral style through a professional performance and recording project Accordes! Cayenna, along with music psychology Professor Eric Clarke, developed new ways of capturing micro-timing data from all members of a 22-member string orchestra and comparing that data with player experiences and audience perceptions in a variety of conditions. You can read about their research methods here.

More information is available on the project website as well as links to the final recordings. Full project findings are forthcoming.

Tracking Authorship and Creativity in Orchestral Performance

DOCTORAL RESEARCH, UNIVERSITY OF OXFORD

MERID (Media Enabled Research Interface and Database) developed in partnership with members of the Cornell Computer Science Department.

After completing her masters' degrees in percussion performance and orchestral conducting, and working in the industry as the Music Director of two regional civic orchestras for seven years, Cayenna returns to university to pursue a systematic study of the dynamics of orchestral music-making. After a third master's degree in 'reading and writing', as she often calls her Master of Studies in musicology, she undertook her doctoral research at the University of Oxford under the supervision of Professor Eric Clarke.

Cayenna's interest was to better understand how musicians conceptualised their own creative inputs into orchestral performance. Over the course of a three-part qualitative study including questionnaires and interviews and involving the development of a new online video-stimulated recall tool (MERID) to help orchestral musicians report on specific experiences in the rehearsal and performance process, she was able to obtain near to real-time data about what musicians are thinking, feeling and responding to when they perform.

'What this work revealed was the extremely complex, contingent and precarious meshwork of influences and action which musicians are constantly negotiating to determine exactly both how to characterise and precisely when to play their parts. Decisions which are influenced far beyond the visible hierarchies many people take for granted.'

Cayenna's theory of orchestral performance will be published in an upcoming co-authored chapter with Eric Clarke later in 2023.

If you can't wait, you can read the full 459-page(!) thesis here.

Publications

Orchestral Performance, Ensemble Creativity & Conducting Studies

Ponchione-Bailey, Cayenna, and Eric F. Clarke. “Agency, Creativity and (Inter)action in Orchestral Performance.” Making Music Together: Analytical Perspectives on Musical Interaction, edited by G. Michaelson and C. Stover, Oxford University Press, 2026.
Ponchione-Bailey, Cayenna. “Re-examining Orchestral Research: The Formulation of a New Field of Orchestral Studies.” Music Research Annual. Forthcoming.
Ponchione-Bailey, Cayenna, and Eric F. Clarke. “Technologies for Investigating Large Ensemble Performance.” Together in Music: Participation, Coordination, and Creativity in Ensembles, edited by Renee Timmers, Freya Bailes, and Helena Daffern, Oxford University Press, 2021.
Palmer, Fiona M., Jennifer Traill, and Cayenna Ponchione-Bailey. “Positioning ‘Conducting Studies’ in 2020: Where Are We and Where Can We Go?” Music Performance Research, vol. 10, 2020, pp. i–viii. https://doi.org/10.14439/mpr.10.1.
Ponchione-Bailey, Cayenna, Fiona M. Palmer, and Jennifer Traill, editors. Music Performance Research: Oxford Conducting Institute Special Edition. Vol. 10, 2020.
Ponchione-Bailey, Cayenna. “The Body Orchestral: The Embodied Process of Orchestral Performance.” Collaborative and Distributed Processes in Contemporary Music-Making, edited by Linda Redhead and Richard Glover, Cambridge Scholars Publishing, 2018, pp. 66–83.
Ponchione-Bailey, Cayenna. Tracking Creativity and Authorship in Orchestral Performance.DPhil thesis, University of Oxford, 2017.

Historically Informed Orchestral Practice & Nineteenth-Century Performance

Clarke, Eric F., and Cayenna Ponchione-Bailey. “String Sound in the Round: Methods, Outcomes and Implications of Experimental Approaches to Nineteenth-Century String Playing.” Practice in Context: Historically Informed Practices in Nineteenth-Century Instrumental Music, edited by C. Holden, Eric F. Clarke, and Cayenna Ponchione-Bailey, Oxford University Press, 2025.
Holden, Christopher, Eric F. Clarke, and Cayenna Ponchione-Bailey, editors. Practice in Context: Historically Informed Practices in Nineteenth-Century Instrumental Music. Oxford University Press, 2025.
Ponchione-Bailey, Cayenna, and Eric F. Clarke. “Digital Methods in the Study of the Nineteenth-Century Orchestra.” Nineteenth-Century Music Review, 2020, pp. 1–32. https://doi.org/10.1017/S1479409819000661.

Music, Society & the Classical Music Profession

Ponchione-Bailey, Cayenna. “Discrimination in Evaluation: A Call for Greater Attention to Issues of Racial Discrimination in Experimental Musical Performance Evaluation Research.” Music & Science, vol. 8, May 2025.
Ponchione-Bailey, Cayenna. “Everyday Bridges.” Voices for Change in the Classical Music Profession: New Ideas for Tackling Inequalities and Exclusions, edited by Anna Bull, Laudan Nooshin, and Christina Scharff, Oxford University Press, 2023, pp. 228–233.
Ponchione-Bailey, Cayenna. “Tár: Busting the Myths the Film Perpetuates of the All-Powerful Maestro.” The Conversation, Jan. 2023.
Ponchione-Bailey, Cayenna. “Hope Is Essential.” The Guardian, July 2022.
Ponchione, Cayenna. “Exploring a Metamorphosis: Identity Formation for an Emerging Conductor.” Arts and Humanities in Higher Education, vol. 12, 2013, pp. 181–193.