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Starting to Share the Sound

Anna Stonehouse and Beth Hopkins (both year 2) have been working on a brand-new live music festival that will launch in March - save the dates!  Since September 2014 a committee of enthusiastic Jazz and Poppers have been creating an exciting new project called Share The Sound music festival. The festival will be held on Friday 13th March and Saturday 14th March in The Talking Heads pub in Southampton. Continue reading →

Orpheus in the round

Professor of Music Jeanice Brooks made a field trip to hear one of her favorite operas: Last week I went along with some of my Southampton Music colleagues to see Claudio Monteverdi's Orfeo. Composed in 1607, it's the earliest opera that is regularly staged today. It's a piece I completely adore, and though I teach it both in first year music history and in a specialised module on Monteverdi for second and third years, I've had only a few chances to see it in the theatre. Continue reading →

Music and Disability – pioneering a new field for undergraduate study

Professor of Music Laurie Stras has been preparing an innovative and exciting addition to our undergraduate programme: Over the Christmas holidays, I spent time developing my new undergraduate module for Semester 2. Not very exciting, you might think, but when I say 'new', I mean not just new for me, or the Music department. I mean new for UK university music all together, and only the second undergraduate module of its kind anywhere in the world. Continue reading →

On the way to Grade 1

Catherine Underhill (year 3) gives us a mid-year update on MuSoc's new project, in which Music students are being sponsored to achieve ABRSM grade 1 in a brand-new instrument: The Grade One-a-thon is going very well so far and some big steps forward have been made! First of all, the Music Department generously lent us enough money to purchase one copy per candidate for us all to have before the Christmas period. Continue reading →

Best in the UK for Music research

Just after term ended, the results of the Research Excellence Framework (REF) 2014 were announced, and we are delighted that Southampton has been ranked as the top Music department in the UK for its research in musicology and ethnomusicology, composition and performance.  90% of our work was rated as world-leading or internationally excellent, with 68% achieving the very highest world-leading standard. Continue reading →

Cramer at Chawton

Pianist Harry Matthews (year 2) tells us about the most recent Music department concert at Chawton House Library: Last Tuesday, I went with Professor David Owen Norris, Laurence McNaughton and Manikka Marchant to provide a night of Georgian piano music at Chawton House Library. The concert was performed on an early 19th-century Stodart Patent Compensating Grand piano. Continue reading →

Performance roundup

A few more items from the last month in performance: We were really chuffed to read this wonderful blog post from London Sinfonietta violinist extraordinaire David Alberman, who joined Southampton staff and students for the world premiere of Michael Finnissy's new work, Remembrance Day. This year jazz and pop students from the department of Music and MuSoc - the student music society - are putting on a series of nights at our partner live music venue, Talking Heads. Continue reading →

Places of Remembrance

Among the activities during last month's Remembrance Day premiere weekend was a composition workshop with guests from the world-leading new music vocal ensemble, EXAUDI.  Mate Szigeti describes the pieces he and fellow postgraduate composers created: The rite of remembrance is always connected with a place. We remember at festive dinner tables, we remember in churches, as we do in public spaces designated for this purpose. Continue reading →

Experiencing music therapy

Sarah Hodkinson, our Lecturer in Music Therapy, describes a workshop that allowed students to gain valuable hands-on experience to complement their year 3 music therapy lectures: Music students Alice Charlton, Esme Phillips, and Panos Mathicolonis assisted me in a music therapy workshop at the University of Southampton Auditory Implant Service. The students are well aware of the significance of music. Music is not only something they study, it is central in their lives. Continue reading →

Last month in jazz and pop

Our head of jazz and pop performance, Thomas Seltz, reports on October events: 30 October: In the first of four events organised in partnership between MuSoc (the Student Union Music Society) and the Music Department, the new generation of entertainers took to the stage of Talking Heads and delighted the crowds with their beautiful songs and youthful energy. On 24 October, the jazz performance class had a visit from Tim Garland. Continue reading →

Venus in Galway

Natalie Davies, who finished her BA Honours Music degree last summer, had operatic dreams come true over the summer: In May 2014, I was lucky enough to be accompanied by Erin Headley and Elizabeth Kenny on the lirone and theorbo respectively, whilst singing early music duets in a concert with my duet partner, Leila Zanette, at the University of Southampton. Continue reading →