Adam Hart is lecturer in music technology at the University of Salford. He has a background in secondary education and audio programming, and his research interests involve digital technology, musical communication and creative pedagogy. His PhD project, ‘A constructivist approach to developing interactive digital technologies for musical learning’, was awarded a scholarship by the Arts & Humanities Research Council and resulted in two peer-reviewed open access publications.

As a postdoctoral researcher, Adam has developed a children’s music composition app, ‘Paynter’ (named after composer and educationalist John Paynter), aimed at facilitating exploratory, collaborative and multisensory approaches to music-making. In spring 2019, he worked alongside Alan Williams, professor of collaborative composition at the University of Salford, to conduct a series of music sessions at a local primary school. In these sessions, two classes of pupils at key stages 1 and 2 used the app to write music for a group of visiting musicians from the BBC Philharmonic Orchestra, who then performed the pieces in concert alongside the pupils.

Adam is currently conducting further research into pedagogical musical communication with digital technologies, focusing on communicative barriers and special educational needs. He intends to make Paynter available as a freeware resource for classroom music composition.