 My name is Nati Burton. I'm from Kool in Dorset. I'm a PhD student based in the School of Music and I'm now in my fifth year of part-time study. My research is interdisciplinary in that it straddles both music and literature, where they come together and meet in song. Specifically, my work explores the ways in which poetry and music come together in English song cycles of the early 20th century. So I look at the works of composers such as Gerald Finsey, Bourne Williams, John Ireland. The song cycle is a musical genre, really a collection of songs that are individual but come together to form a complete musical work. They're designed to be performed in sequence. Most often song cycles are written for a solo singer with a piano accompaniment but actually there are very many different kinds of song cycle. My background is essentially in music. I'm a clarinetist, a pianist and a singer and I have a long history of working as a performer and a teacher within musical fields but I also have a long-sanding love of literature and this work has enabled me to bring both of those interests together. Like many musicians I have what you might consider to be a portfolio career. Some of my work as a performer, some of it is as a teacher working both academically and instrumentally but studying at OU has given me the flexibility to fit all of those varied commitments around my studies. Although the reach of the OU is extremely wide, international, vast, one of the things I've always felt as a student is that I've been very closely looked after on an individual level. So whether that's been through the interaction with my supervisors or as a member of the music department, there's been a strong sense of local community even in such a big organization.