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Performance, Page 7

Harpsichords at Cheltenham

This week postgraduate researcher and harpsichordist Christopher Lewis starred as player and presenter at the Cheltenham Music Festival -  for 'A History of the Modern Harpsichord: An Afternoon at the Salle Cortot'.  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.  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.  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.  They've produced a fantastic new video for us to help spread the word for next year's edition of the festival.  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.  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 →

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 →

Meet the pianos

Almost all of our students and staff use some form of keyboard nearly every day.  They are indispensable for a whole range of our activities - whether for solo performance or accompaniment, for bands and ensembles, or for working out harmony exercises and new composition ideas. Because keyboards are so central to our programmes, they also represent the largest cost in our performance budget.  We are starting a new funding drive to help. Continue reading →

Showcasing our interns

Becky Gribble and Talea Bartlet formed the other half of the inaugural Turner Sims intern team.  While teammates Louisa and Cerys focussed on programme editing and marketing in the concert hall, Becky and Talea were the managers of the Southampton Showcase programme for advanced student performers.  Here's how they spent their year: We applied for the position in the intern team to further our experience in arts management, as this was not an opportunity available to most students. Continue reading →

Cantores in Germany

Choral scholar Emma Bryant reports on a recent tour by the university's choral scholars, who travelled from home base at the ancient city centre church of St Michael's in Southampton to some equally wonderful venues in Germany: Over the Easter vacation Cantores Michaelis, the University of Southampton choral scholars, spent four days in the German town of Lüdenscheid and performed two concerts there and in the nearby town of Herford. Continue reading →