DrNicole Forsyth

• Australian music history and heritage - Sound of Place (site and people situated music in context)
• Historically Informed Performance 19th & early 20th century Australia - domestic, women.
• String education - historically informed performance
• String education within music education- outer suburban and regional/remote environments, low socio-economic communities.
• String education within music education - First Nations and Pasifika students
• String education - neuro-diverse students
• Australian new music

Nicole's Creative Australia funded research on the music manuscripts of the World War 2 Dunera refugees is putting sound back into these previously only seen and read histories, showcased in 2024-2025,  as The Dunera Mass - part of the State Library of NSW’s Dunera:Stories of Internment major exhibition program.

In 2023  The Dunera Mass was a sold out and acclaimed part of Canberra International Music Festival, former Artistic Director Roland Peelman A.M featuring Luminescence Chamber Singers; and with Orange Regional Museum and Conservatorium of Music Enemy Aliens:The Dunera Boys in Orange 1941, which won a 2023 Museums and Galleries NSW IMAGINE award for Public Engagement: Small Organisations.

 In 2026 Nicole’s work on the music of Dunera and Queen Mary refugees in Australia will continue with staff & affiliates of Monash University including Dr Anna McMichael, Dr Seumas Spark & Ms Kate Garrett. Her research on Dunera refugee composer Max-Peter Meyer will be included as a chapter in Monash University Publishing  Interned: Quandries of Refuge, Migration and Exile in Australia forthcoming early 2027. Creative Australia has kindly provided further funding in 2026-27 to record Max-Peter Meyer's Piano Quartet C major (1941, Tatura Internment Camp), administered by Monash University, a co-application in collaboration with Dr Anna McMichael, violinist for this project, Monash University music faculty.

Nicole’s 2023 PhD, with Museums of History NSW, told the story of the music collection of Rouse Hill House & Farm on Dharug country, western Sydney, and put sound back into heritage site with National Trust award nominated web exhibition House Music at Your House (2020).

In 2024-5, with Dr Suzanne Pierce (retired Office of the NSW Chief Scientist & Engineer), Nicole helped develop a pilot study into adolescent mental health and wellbeing through arts education in remote regions for Moorambilla Voices. Nicole is interested in further collaborative quantative studies exploring child and adolescent mental health and school retention through music-performing arts education, and particularly through string programs.