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Blog, Page 6

Harpsichords at Cheltenham

This week postgraduate researcher and harpsichordist Christopher Lewis starred as player and presenter at the Cheltenham Music Festival -Ā  for 'A History of the Modern Harpsichord: An Afternoon at the Salle Cortot'.Ā  Here he tells us more about the purpose of the event : Early on Monday, a small group of us from the University of Southampton departed for the prestigious Cheltenham Music Festival. Continue reading →

Student support for music therapy

Our first-ever Grade One-a-thon was a sponsored activity with proceeds going to charity. The students selected local music therapy charity Key Changes to receive the donation, and this week our intrepid organiser Catherine Underhill received a wonderful letter of thanks from music therapist Beccy Read - shared here for all the students who took part. Continue reading →

Meet the (modern) pianos

In the final instalment of our Meet the Pianos series for this year, David Owen Norris introduces some of our modern concert grands.Ā  Many people will find these more familiar-looking than our rarer historic instruments. But they're not all the same, and modern piano firms, just like their 18th-century counterparts, search to create instruments with their own characteristic sounds. Continue reading →

New video – Composing for voices with Finnissy and EXAUDI

Back in March, our professor of composition Michael Finnissy joined the leading contemporary ensemble EXAUDI for a residency at the Britten-Pears centre at Aldeburgh.Ā  Along with EXAUDI's director James Weeks and soprano Juliet Fraser, Michael directed a course that gave young composers the chance to work directly with six of the singers from Exaudi in practical sessions as they developed new work and explored the challenges of composing for voices. Continue reading →

Share the Sound on screen

Wessex Films, the award-winning Students' Union creative industries society, spent the weekend of our Share the Sound festival filming up-and-coming jazz and pop artists from the Music department.Ā  They've produced a fantastic new video for us to help spread the word for next year's edition of the festival.Ā  Check it out below! Coming to Talking Heads in March 2016 . . . .       https://youtu. Continue reading →

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.Ā  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 ofĀ  '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 performanceĀ  after the national election.Ā  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 →

La Vittoria – Waterloo in music

Katrina Faulds has recently finished her PhD on dance and dance music in the English country house c. 1800.Ā  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,Ā  Dr Penelope Cave and I were offered the opportunity to perform a concert at Chawton House Library as part of the Music departmentā€™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.Ā  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 ā€“ 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 Catherineā€™s College for the Music Departmentā€™s second Hartley Residency in Music on the 21st and 22nd of April. Continue reading →