May 2015

The Oriental Miscellany – “Wild but pleasing when understood”

Jane Chapman, our Turner Sims Fellow and principal harpsichord tutor, has just released a new recording of the Oriental Miscellany (1789) - one of the earliest publications of Indian music in the West. Here she explains the project and talks with journalist Suanshu Khurana from the Indian Express (Delhi). Her disc is currently number 14 in the Indian iTunes Classical Charts (SIGDC415). Continue reading →

Meet the pianos again

In the second of our series of 'Meet the pianos' videos, David Owen Norris introduces an instrument like the ones Jane Austen would have known - a wonderful 1796 Broadwood grand piano. We acquired the Broadwood four years ago, and it has been a hard-working addition to our historic piano collection. Continue reading →

Notes to the new government

Two Southampton composers, Ben Oliver and Michael Finnissy, were commissioned by the London Sinfonietta to produce new works for performance after the national election. Ben tells us about the project: Last Saturday my new work, The National Loneliness, was performed by the London Sinfonietta at the Queen Elizabeth Hall as part of their Notes to the New Government Project. Continue reading →

Cross Channel Collaboration

PhD composer Martin Humphries tells us a little about a recent collaboration between Southampton composers and Belgium based Ensemble Fractales: Over the past five months myself and two fellow PhD Composition candidates have been engaged in an exciting and incredibly rewarding collaboration with Brussels-based contemporary music group Ensemble Fractales. Continue reading →

Examining Grade 1

While undergraduates across the university are studying for the exams that start next week, some enterprising Music students have been passing a different kind of test - the ABRSM grade one exam in an instrument they had never played before this year. Continue reading →

La Vittoria – Waterloo in music

Katrina Faulds has recently finished her PhD on dance and dance music in the English country house c. 1800. She is also an accomplished performer on early pianos, and last week saw her presenting some of her research in sound: In November last year, Dr Penelope Cave and I were offered the opportunity to perform a concert at Chawton House Library as part of the Music department’s regular collaborative series. Continue reading →

Student rep success

Applause for Louisa Healey (year 3) who has been our academic student president for Music this year. At last night's Student Rep awards, Louisa was shortlisted in all three categories in which she was nominated - Best Individual Commitment to the Cause, Commitment to the Zone, and Academic Rep of the Year - and she was named one of the winners for Commitment to the Zone. Continue reading →

Hartley Residencies in Music: Laura Tunbridge

In February 2015, the Music Department launched the Hartley Residencies in Music – an annual programme of two-day visits from eminent scholars. Post-graduate research student Xin Ying Ch'ng recounts her experience of our most recent event: We were privileged to welcome Laura Tunbridge, Associate Professor from the University of Oxford, St Catherine’s College for the Music Department’s second Hartley Residency in Music on the 21st and 22nd of April. Continue reading →

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