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Perfect Pianists

Artur Rubinstein playing Chopin’s ‘Heroic’  Polonaise no. 6 On Friday March 4th at 8pm on BBC 4, Professor David Owen Norris presents Perfect Pianists,  a compilation of archive film of great pianists, including Benno Moiseiwitsch, Myra Hess, Artur Rubinstein, Radu Lupu and Murray Perahia – David filmed the links at the Cobbe Collection at Hatchlands, so you’ll hear him as well, playing Chopin on Chopin’s own Pleyel. Continue reading →

Aesthetics, Athletics and Advertising

I always like going out to schools and colleges to meet sixth-formers and their teachers. It’s usually amusing, informative and largely straightforward. Some sort of entertaining academic talk aimed at the 17 and 18 year olds, and an outline of what it’s like to study music at university, career prospects, and so on. I do quite a lot of them, and they usually go very smoothly: everyone has a good time. Continue reading →

David Owen Norris learns a thing or two from Jane Austen

David Owen Norris is a pianist, composer, broadcaster, impresario, and Professor of Musical Performance at the University of Southampton. Always a pleasure to visit Chawton House, the home of Jane Austen’s brother, which now houses the International Library of Women’s Writing. I had a meeting with the director, Professor Gillian Dow, to discuss ways to mark this year’s 200th anniversary of the publication of Emma. Continue reading →

Bastien Terraz Concert

Bastien Terraz is a freelance double bass & electric bass player & teacher based in Southampton. He is a Southampton University music graduate (BA 2001, MA 2002) and has taught Jazz & Pop bass in the department since 2001. Bastien TerrazDouble Bass & Electric Bass Player & Teacherwww.bastienterraz.com I’ll be playing the Monday lunchtime concert on March 14th this year. Continue reading →

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 →

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 →