Sound and Conservation Tom Binns and Katie Harrison

Tom Binns is the project coordinator and founding director of Glasgow Piano Project CIC. Over the last 12 years this not-for-profit social enterprise has redistributed hundreds of piano donations all over the city, facilitated numerous free public events and even built an auditorium from old pianos in collaboration with the Edinburgh based Pianodrome collective. An important element of the project is to support the next generation of piano tuners with training and access to their workspace in Glasgow. York Consortium for Craft and Conservation (YCCC) have helped fund a recent apprenticeship, providing a pathway to employment while also encouraging other young people to join the profession.  Tom initially trained in Architecture at Glasgow School of Art and went on to study piano at the National Jazz Institute (Strathclyde University) winning the 2006 Celtic Connections songhunter competition. Tom also leads workshops in ‘Listening through the Body - with Art’ after training in Scotland and the Netherlands in Experiential Listening and Focusing with Children.  

Dr Katie Harrison is an Associate Lecturer in History of Art at the University of York, a freelance stained glass consultant and a committee member of the York Consortium for Craft and Conservation (YCCC), as well as a trustee of the YCCC’s charitable arm (YFCC). Katie has a wide-ranging interest in the conservation of cultural heritage. She is a passionate supporter of the provision and promotion of the craft skills needed to create and conserve works of art and architecture. Katie’s research into history and significance of the 15th-century St Cuthbert Window at York Minster has informed the conservation of the window and will be published for the British Academy by Liverpool University Press. Working closely with York Minster’s heritage team, she co-curated the exhibition Light, Glass & Stone: Conserving the St Cuthbert Window, which opened in June 2021 and will remain in place during the current conservation work. Other research interests include the reuse and repurposing of medieval works of art and architecture, and the role of material in storytelling across different media.

Catherine Laws is a Professor of Music at the University of York. A musicologist and pianist specialising in contemporary music, Catherine performs and records regularly, often working closely with composers, theatre makers, and audiovisual artists to create theatrical, multimedia piano performances. Catherine leads the research project ‘Musical Touch and Vicarious Perception’, while other research focuses on the body and identity in musical performance. Recent projects include her multimedia piano performance, HANDS ON! a series of ‘piano films’ developed with filmmaker Minyung Im, and the publication Voices, Bodies, Practices: Performing Musical Subjectivities (Leuven University Press, 2020).