Biography

Dr Eugene Seow is a Singapore-based higher music education lecturer, practice-led researcher, dissertation and project supervisor, and drummer-percussionist. His work examines how contemporary musicians develop musical judgement, aural fluency, ensemble coordination, structural listening, and practice-led artistic knowledge across higher education and professional music contexts.

​

His research and teaching centre on musical judgement, aural fluency, ensemble pedagogy and cognition, rhythm pedagogy, curriculum design, and assessment validity. Across these areas, he is particularly interested in how musicians develop groove fluency, role awareness, evaluative judgement, and the ability to translate embodied musical knowledge into teachable, assessable, and researchable forms.

Dr Seow lectures in Contemporary Music at LASALLE College of the Arts, where his work includes contemporary musicianship, main study and ensemble teaching, and dissertation supervision across music and arts education. He also lectures in the School of Arts Management at the Nanyang Academy of Fine Arts, contributing to Arts Ecosystem 1 and Academic and Digital Skills.

At Singapore Raffles Music College, he teaches and supervises across undergraduate and postgraduate programmes in pedagogy, professional practice, curriculum, assessment, performance, and practice-led research. He is also Ensemble Tutor for NUS Voices at the National University of Singapore Centre for the Arts and contributes occasional guest teaching at the Yong Siew Toh Conservatory of Music. His additional university arts work includes drum-set tutoring with the Nanyang Technological University Cultural Activities Club and completed interdisciplinary facilitation within the University of the Arts Singapore IN-depth programme.

Dr Seow’s editorial and advisory work reflects his wider interest in standards, assessment, curriculum quality, and evaluative judgement. He serves as Associate Editor for the Higher Education section of Frontiers in Education and as an Advisory Board Member for Media Discourse and Society.

​

His recent research appears in Music Education Research, Jazz Education in Research and Practice, College Music Symposium, and other international higher music education and artistic-research contexts. A monograph on decolonising aural skills in higher music education is under contract, alongside ongoing work on assessment, plural listening, embodied facilitation, ensemble cognition, and contemporary curriculum design.

His research programme develops across three connected strands:

• musical judgement, aural fluency, and decolonising listening practice;

• ensemble pedagogy, groove fluency, and role-based learning;

• assessment validity, evaluative judgement, and embodied learning in higher music education.

As a rhythm-section multi-instrumentalist, Dr Seow draws on professional practice across drum kit, percussion, electric bass, contemporary piano, composition, arranging, and ensemble direction. This practitioner foundation informs his teaching of groove, time-feel, ensemble role, sound, touch, structural listening, and contemporary musicianship.

His performance and creative work has included professional contexts such as the Malaysian Philharmonic Orchestra with the Julian Chan Jazz Orchestra, Esplanade, Dewan Filharmonik PETRONAS, Lincoln Center, and festival appearances across Asia, Europe, and the United States. He is also a Rohema Ambassador and Pantheon Artist for snare drum and cymbals, and is supported by FATfreq for in-ear monitoring and hearing protection. These relationships support his work across drum kit, percussion, cymbal development, brush technique, contemporary ensemble practice, performance, and higher music education.

Dr Seow holds a Doctor of Music Education from Liberty University, a Master of Music from the Aaron Copland School of Music at Queens College, City University of New York, and a Bachelor of Music from Berklee College of Music. He is a Fellow of the Higher Education Academy and a Fellow of the London College of Music.

Across teaching, supervision, research, and professional practice, his work connects artistic practice with higher music pedagogy, curriculum, and assessment. His central concern is helping musicians produce work that is musically alive, contextually grounded, and defensible within contemporary higher music education.