I studied Systematic Musicology, Historic Musicology and Journalism at the universities of Hamburg (Germany) and Salamanca (Spain). Under the supervision of Albrecht Schneider I completed a doctoral dissertation on melodic memory and obtained my PhD from the University of Hamburg in 2005. From 2006 to 2009 I was a Research Fellow in the computing department at Goldsmiths College, University of London in the Intelligent Sound and Music Systems (ISMS). In 2009 I became a lecturer in Goldsmiths' psychology department at Goldsmiths and was part of the Music, Mind and Brain research group. I was appointed professor of psychology in 2018. Until 2024 I was co-director and director of the Master's course in Music Mind and Brain at Goldsmiths. From 2010 to 2016 I was also working as Scientist in Residence with the London-based advertising agency DDB UK.
In 2016 I received the Anneliese Maier award from the German Humboldt foundation which helped to fund the LongGold project, a longitudinal study on the development of musical abilities and their relationship to cognitive and psycho-social skills. From 2022 to 2025 I was a guest professor at Jazeps Vitols Latvian Academy of Music in Riga, mainly supervising PhD students and working on musical talent development in adolescence.
In my non-academic work, I have been working as a freelance expert witness on music copyright cases for numerous music publishers, labels, law firms, and in court since 1999. I'm a co-founder of musikgutachten.de, a consultancy for music copyright affairs. From 2000 until 2006 I was a project manager and business development manager for PhonoNet GmbH, a technical subsidiary of the German Association of the Music Industry.
