The Royal Irish Academy of Music welcomes the appointment of Professor Denise Neary, Doctoral Studies Coordinator, as President-Elect of the Society for Musicology in Ireland for the 2027–2030 term.
She will begin serving immediately as President-Elect and will assume the presidency at the handover to the new SMI Council during the 2027 plenary conference.
Professor Neary brings significant leadership experience to this national role. She has served on five previous SMI Councils, including two terms as Treasurer, contributing to the organisation’s strategic development and financial stewardship. Her sustained commitment to the Society reflects a deep engagement with musicological research and collaboration across Ireland.
At RIAM, Denise plays a central role in shaping doctoral studies, supporting emerging researchers, and strengthening the institution’s research culture. Her appointment as President-Elect signals both national recognition of her work and the strength of RIAM’s contribution to music scholarship.
This appointment marks an important moment for the SMI as it looks ahead to its next phase of activity. Under Denise Neary’s leadership, the Society is well placed to deepen its impact, support its members, and advance the study of musicology across the island.
RIAM congratulates Professor Neary on this achievement and looks forward to the contribution she will make in this role.
Denise Neary is currently the Doctoral Studies Coordinator for the Doctor in Music Performance programme at the Royal Irish Academy of Music, having previously been Senior Lecturer in Music, Canterbury Christ Church University, UK. At the RIAM Denise is responsible for the guidance and academic supervision of doctoral students and delivering modules in research methods and musicology. She organises the guest lecture series at the RIAM featuring eminent international scholars and musicologists.
Denise has been a council member of the Society for Musicology in Ireland since 2009 and Honorary Treasurer of the Society from 2015 to 2021. She is a member of the RILM National Committee of Ireland and a founding member and member of the steering committee of Performance Research Ireland and, with colleagues in Finland, Lithuania and the UK, the international ‘Doctors in Performance’ festival conference. In 2020 she was appointed as an advisory board member for Irish Musical Studies.
Denise’s research focuses on music in Ireland and Britain from the seventeenth to the nineteenth centuries. In particular, her work has examined music in late seventeenth- and eighteenth-century Dublin churches and evaluated cathedral music in England in the eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries. She is also interested in the development of artistic research in music in Ireland.