About me

Music helps us to express our feelings much better than words, that is why many speeches go along with accompaniment - it helps to create a specific mood. Words tend to limit listener’s imagination, whereas music gives listener an opportunity to complete the story and, bringing something personal into it.

I am very lucky to be in Hurtwood house community because it is very creative and numerous concerts gave me an opportunity to share my new songs with peers and professionals which is also a very helpful experience. I used to write small poems from the childhood, later, I started to write songs. I get inspired very easily as I do believe that the smallest emotion may become a major inspiration if you let it. I finished music school in Russia and even got into contemporary music school under the auspices of the Yana Rudkovsky, but then sport forced me to delay my music career. Now I am experimenting with different music genres, trying to establish my own style. I have 17 original songs and each of these is a

combination of true feelings that I felt at the particular period of time. Singing them takes me back to the past and that is what I love in songwriting: you are able to capture the present so that emotions that you are experiencing are never forgotten. In order to challenge myself and to overcome my fears and insecurities, I performed my own compositions on the Old Arbat Street which is probably one of the most crowded place in Moscow. Likewise, this summer I was invited to performed at the City Festival.

I find it very interesting to study music from the academic perspective as well as from the technical point of view. Music Technology provides me with essential practical skills. These skills were put to good effect during my independent project where I recorded and mixed my own original compositions entirely on my own. It was wonderful to be free to explore all the learned techniques and I was more than happy with the overall outcome. Music Technology taught me how to create arrangements for my original songs and I want to develop this area further in order to become a specialist in this path. This summer, I collaborated with a Sound Producer in Cyprus who worked with a music organization for children; this was a very unique experience which gave me a true insight into a real music industry.  I want to develop this area more in order to become a specialist in this path. 

Prior to Hurtwood, I was a figure-skater for 15 years - I became a champion of Cyprus as a junior and as a senior and took part in many international competitions such as Gran Prix and World Trophies. I also worked as a figure-skating coach for small children, helping them to develop their skills and also to prepare their programs for the upcoming season. This experience helped me to understand how music helps to express the emotions even when the facial expression is almost invisible. 

I am a creative, hardworking student who enjoys new challenges because I believe that they make us stronger. Music and all the aspects of it really inspire me and that is why I have a great desire and motivation to develop my skills and knowledge further. I am willing to study in the University because it will help me to make this new step in education and help me get to where I want to be in the future. 

Videos

This is a list of my original songs performed and composed by me.

This is a video created by my friends and me. The song is called 'Lost'.

My performance on the lunch - time concert at Hurtwood House, 'Checkmate'.

 

My performance on a concert, 'Seems to Be'

 

 'For Someone' 

My performance on a competition of original songs. 

Recordings

This is an example of me recording and mixing (The song is called T-shirt)

This is my original song called 'Small Girl' recorded, performed and mixed entirely independently. 

Arrangements

My attempt to recreate the song "La La La' by Naughty Boy

In this song I tried to experiment with music styles. I used the pop song (BACKSTREET BOYS- I Want It That Way) and changed its 
style from pop to reggae.

 This song is unfinished and I am working on it now. 

Example of Academic Writing

Issues surrounding the classification and diagnosis of depression 

The biological model makes the assumption that mental illness can be classified and this means that by identifying symptoms, it should be possible to tell wether or not a person has depression. There are 2 main systems of classification- DSM and ICD. 

One important issue surrounding the classification and diagnosis of depression is reliability which is a measure of the consistency of the diagnosis obtained when the criteria are applied to a person who is depressed. It is desirable that multiple psychiatrists would achieve the same diagnosis when presented with the same set of symptoms. Inter-rater reliability occurs when several practitioners make identical, independent diagnosis of the same patient and though high inter-rater reliability does not guarantee internal validity, low inter-rater reliability is an indicator of poor internal validity. A major problem is that moods vary over time is most people and therefore the reliable diagnosing of depression is difficult. There is a research support for this as Baca-Garcia et al found a concordance rate of only 55% when reviewed the reliability of diagnosis of over 2,300 patients, assessing at least ten times each. This means that reliability of diagnosis over time is relatively poor. However, Keller et al recruited 524 depressed individuals from different clinical sited and it was found that when each one was interviewed using the DSM criteria and interviewed again 6 moths later to establish reliability, inter-rater reliability was indeed high. Generally speaking, studies of DSM show very good inter-rater reliability. For example, Zanariny found an inter-rater reliability of +0.8 for diagnosis of MDD. However, the same researcher found a test- retest correlation of +0.1 within 1 week period. Such reliability studies are also influenced by a quality of information given to the doctor. Zimmerman developed a shorter version of DSM and it increased inter-rater reliability to 95%

Another serious issue is internal validity. There is an assumption that depression can be distinguished clearly from other mental disorders and the accurate diagnosis of depression can based on a set of symptoms. The problem is that, for example, DSM adopts a binary approach of the diagnosis of depression. It suggests that an individual either has depression or does not. Therefore, DSM fails to distinguish between levels of depression and this may have serious implications for treatments as it is possible that some people receive treatment they do not need. Part of the reason is that the symptoms ofter are quite similar to those of other conditions (e.g. sleep disruption is ofter a symptom of both anxiety disorders and depression). For example, Descriptive validity is reduced by comorbidity, where patients have to or more disorders simultaneously, suggesting that such disorders are not actually separate. There is a lot of research support demonstrating that depression occurs comordibly with other illness. Kessler et al found that 74% of people with MDD suffer from another disorder at the same time making patine possible to be given an inappropriate treatment. 

A problem with DSM is the fact that, unlike ICD, it fails to distinguish between levels of severity of depression. This can have a serious consequences since research by Elken et al suggests that only severely depressed people should be given drug treatment. DSM diagnosis can be supplemented by the use of diagnosis inventories such as BDI, which gives each patient a score that measures their level of depression. This helps to to asses patient’s improvements sue to the treatment given as well. However, a problem with inventories is a self-presentation bias which can lead a patient to not answer truthfully. 

The fact that there are two classification systems lead to a major issue within the area of classification and diagnosis. International collaboration is essential as the reliability and validity of classification systems reflects western cultures and therefore can not necessarily assess people of other cultures. As well as that, the doctor doing the diagnosis is not always objective and may bring the gender, race and social class biases into the session. For example, Weel-Baumgarten in 2006 concluded that GP diagnosis of depression was sometimes biased because the GPs were aware of the existence of a family history of the depression. Stirling et al found that if GPs were given extra time in which to make a diagnosis, there was a 32% increase in accuracy. This means that a work pressure faced by the doctor may be a reason for inaccuracy to be created rather than problems within the classification system