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Staff, Page 4

Residency, reception and regions

Master's student Daisy Smeddle reports on the most recent Hartley Residency, a programme that brings leading scholars to Southampton to interact with our postgraduates and staff over several days:  Professor Katharine Ellis from the University of Bristol is amongst the most esteemed musicologists of her generation. We were lucky enough to spend 2nd – 3rd of February exploring and discussing her current research fields with her. Continue reading →

Conductus III

Professor Mark Everist has been leading the ‘Cantum pulcriorem invenire’ (CPI) project at the University of Southampton since 2010; it has brought to life the repertory of twelfth- and thirteenth-century poetry and music – known as the conductus – through research, performance and recording. Continue reading →

Dark Music Days in Reykjavik

Georgia Browne teaches flute in the music department at Southampton University. She is a specialist in historical flute performance and is a member of a Icelandic ensemble Nordic Affect who perform new music on old instruments. Here she reports on their latest venture: On 31 January Nordic Affect take to the stage at the international new music festival Dark Music Days in Reykjavjik, Iceland, where the ensemble is based. Continue reading →

A week with David Owen Norris

David Owen Norris, Professor of Music and Head of Keyboard and Percussion Studies,  gives us a round up of a week's wide-ranging activities... Some interesting coaching this week - the Banks String Quartet at the Royal College of Music in Frank Bridge's 1907 student piece, the quartet in B flat, for the Bridge Study Day, where my fellow contributors included Fabian Huss, Lewis Foreman, Anthony Payne and Stephen Banfield. Continue reading →

New recording for old flutes

The Renaissance flute consort Zephyrus Flutes, under the direction of Nancy Hadden, has just released their latest CD, Aux Plaisirs, aux Delices Bergeres.   This is the second in a series of French music for Renaissance flutes, based on research that Nancy completed during her AHRC Fellowship in the Creative and Performing Arts at Southampton. The recording highlights the unique sound of the early modern flute. Continue reading →

The New Four Seasons

Jane Chapman, renowned harpsichordist and Turner Sims Fellow, tells us about her latest adventure... I'm just about to go on tour with Nigel Kennedy playing his whacky version of the 4 Seasons and other sundries. I'm doubling on harpsichord and piano, and the score has been translated from figured bass into jazz  chords. Who knows if Vivaldi was around today, he may have written it that way. Continue reading →

A New Mozart Completion

A fragment of an Oboe Concerto by Mozart has been completed by William Drabkin, Emeritus Professor of Music, and published by the Music Haven (London) in full score and, very recently, in an arrangement for oboe and piano. Mozart’s manuscript, in the Fitzwilliam Library, Cambridge, comprises about 70 bars of a first movement in F major, including the complete opening orchestral ritornello. Continue reading →

The Trembling Line – closing this week

If you haven't yet had a chance to go over to the university's John Hansard Gallery to experience Aura Satz's wonderful show, The Trembling Line, now is the moment! The show closes on 23 January. The centrepiece of the show is The Trembling Line, which Aura Satz completed during her Leverhulme Trust-funded residency at Southampton.  The piece features a score by Music's Dr Leo Grant, and uses an innovative spherical speaker array designed by the Institute of Sound and Vibration Research. Continue reading →

Popular Premiere

Associate Professor Matthew Shlomowitz tells us about a forthcoming premiere in his Popular Contexts series: In 2015 I composed a twenty-five minute work for the Norwegian percussionist HĂ„kon Stene, commissioned by The Norwegian Programme for Artistic Research. The work is the eighth volume in my Popular Contexts series, which combine pre-recorded sounds with live instrumental music to investigate aspects of everyday and popular culture. Continue reading →

What a Performance!

Our British Academy Postdoctoral Fellow Kate Guthrie consulted on a documentary for BBC 4, broadcasting this month. She writes about her experience: In early September, I received out-of-the-blue an invitation to consult on a BBC 4 documentary. The producers were in the middle of filming a three-part series tracing the evolution of music hall in Britain, from its mid-19th-century roots, through the Golden Age of variety entertainment, to the working men’s clubs of the 1950s. Continue reading →

Cosmopolitan operetta

On the 24 and 25 November, we were privileged to welcome Derek Scott as the first guest speaker for this year’s programme of Hartley Residencies in Music.  Master's student Catherine Garry reports: Launched in February 2015, the Hartley Residencies are a series of two-day events during which an eminent scholar is invited to share and discuss their current research. Continue reading →

Cantores Carols

Just in time for the holidays:  The University of Southampton Choral Scholars - Cantores Michaelis - have just released their first commercial recording. Christmas Carols 1500-2000 is issued by the Herald label and is now on sale in record shops, at Turner Sims Concert Hall on campus, and through Amazon, and will shortly be available on iTunes. The carols are an eclectic mix. Continue reading →

Coming soon – The Trembling Line

We are looking forward to the opening of Aura Satz's new show at the University's John Hansard Gallery, running from 3 December 2015 - 23 January 2016.  The show, The Trembling Line, is the result of Aura's year as Artist in Residence at the university, sponsored by The Leverhulme Trust, and featuring collaboration between the artist, the Department of Music, and the Institute of Sound and Vibration Research. Continue reading →