Bio: Lara Pearson is a music researcher and Professor for Ethnomusicology at the University of Cologne. Starting in March 2026 she will also hold the position of Research Professor at the University of Oslo as she leads SongGesture, a project funded by the Research Council of Norway. Her work explores gesture, vocalization and interaction in music-related contexts and is highly interdisciplinary, combining methods from gesture studies, ethnomusicology, computational musicology and human movement science.
Research Interests
? Co-singing gesture; music and bodily movement
? Music as interaction; audiency and performance
? South Indian, Karnatak music; improvisation; music notation
Publications (selected)
Pearson, L., Nuttall, T., & Pouw, W. (2025). The Co-Structuring of Gesture-Vocal Dynamics: An Exploration in Karnatak Music Performance. Cognitive Science, 49(11), e70137. https://doi.org/10.1111/cogs.70137?
Nuttall, T., Serra, X., & Pearson, L. (2025). Svara-Forms in Carnatic Music: Contextual Influences on the Performance of Svara. 2025 IEEE International Conference on Acoustics, Speech, and Signal Processing Workshops (ICASSPW), 1–5. https://doi.org/10.1109/ICASSPW65056.2025.11011084?
Pearson, L., & Pouw, W. (2022). Gesture–vocal Coupling in Karnatak Music Performance: A Neuro–bodily Distributed Aesthetic Entanglement. Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences. https://doi.org/10.1111/nyas.14806?
Pearson, L. (2022). Inscription, Gesture, and Social Relations: Notation in Karnatak Music. In E. Payne & F. Schuiling (Eds.), Material Cultures of Music Notation: New Perspectives on Musical Inscription. Abingdon: Routledge. https://doi.org/10.4324/9780429342837-13?
Pearson, L. (2021). “Improvisation” in Play: A View through South Indian Music Practices. In A. Bertinetto & M. Ruta (Eds.), The Routledge Handbook of Philosophy and Improvisation in the Arts (pp. 446-461). Abingdon: Routledge. https://doi.org/10.4324/9781003179443-35
Pearson, L. (2016). Coarticulation and Gesture: An Analysis of Melodic Movement in South Indian Raga Performance. Music Analysis , 35 (3), 280-313. https://doi.org/10.1111/musa.12071?
Pearson, L. (2013). Gesture and the Sonic Event in Karnatak Music. Empirical Musicology Review, 8 (1), 2-14. https://doi.org/10.18061/emr.v8i1.3918?