She is director of the Grieg Research School in Interdisciplinary Music Studies, which provides research education in the west coast region for doctoral candidates in the fields of music therapy, musicology, artistic practice and music education. She gained her PhD in music from the University of Liverpool, UK in 1995. Her research is interdisciplinary and has focused on issues of gender and music, popular music and embodiment. As a musician she specializes in collaborative devising projects often working with dance and film.