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2014

1 October 2014
In memoriam Christopher Hogwood
CMPCP notes with great sadness the death of Professor Christopher Hogwood on Wednesday 24 September 2014 at the age of 73. Professor Hogwood was a member of the CMPCP Steering Committee from its inception, and he also held Affiliate Artist status in the Centre – the only person to have this double distinction. He will be greatly missed not only by those in CMPCP who had the pleasure to work with him, but also from the international musical community at large, which benefited from his enormous knowledge and musical acumen over many decades. CMPCP extends its sincere condolences to his family and friends.

8 September 2014
Angela Hewitt joins CMPCP as Affiliate Artist
The distinguished pianist Angela Hewitt has become an Affiliate Artist of the AHRC Research Centre for Musical Performance, following on from her highly successful residency as Humanitas Visiting Professor in Chamber Music at the University of Cambridge in April 2014. Ms Hewitt’s performances and recordings of Bach have drawn particular praise, and her Cambridge residency demonstrated this speciality in a series of ‘talk and play’ events.

18 August 2014
PSN 2014 online resource goes ‘live’
Select presentations from the Third International Conference of CMPCP’s Performance Studies Network have now been released for viewing or downloading. To access the Online Resource click on the following links: Thursday 17 July 2014; Friday 18 July 2014; Saturday 19 July 2014; Sunday 20 July 2014.

21 July 2014
Academy of Ancient Music performs at CMPCP conference
The Keynote Session at the Third Performance Studies Network International Conference in Cambridge presented eleven musicians from the Academy of Ancient Music, led by Pavlo Beznosiuk and featuring the soprano Charmian Bedford. The session took the form of an open rehearsal followed by a concert, both of which focused on repertoire which the ensemble had not yet rehearsed but which would be played in upcoming public performances, including vocal works by Handel and excerpts from Boyce’s Symphony No. 7 in B-flat major. The aim of the ‘talk and play’ session – convened and chaired by CMPCP Director John Rink – was to watch the performances take shape and to invite the musicians’ perspectives on their evolving interpretations.

1 May 2014
Angela Hewitt completes residency at the University of Cambridge
The internationally celebrated pianist Angela Hewitt recently spent four days in Cambridge as Humanitas Visiting Professor of Chamber Music 2014. During her stay she presented a lecture-recital entitled ‘Interpreting Bach on the Piano’, conducted a masterclass for student performers from Cambridge University, participated in a public symposium with Professor John Butt (University of Glasgow) on Bach’sThe Art of Fugue, and gave a concert featuring the latter work. These events were hosted by the University’s Centre for Research in the Arts, Social Sciences and Humanities (CRASSH) and were supported by the AHRC Research Centre for Musical Performance as Creative Practice. Ms Hewitt’s lecture-recital and her teaching during the masterclass were of particular relevance to CMPCP’s research programme, especially her ‘talk and play’ approach in teaching the Dante Sonata of Liszt. A 20-minute video of the session can be seen here. CMPCP Director John Rink commented: ‘Angela Hewitt’s teaching of Liszt’s Dante Sonata – complete with superb demonstrations at the keyboard and a blow-by-blow explanation of her own performance – was one of the most inspired and artistically well-reasoned displays I have ever witnessed. It shows so well not only what lies behind musical performance but how complex matters to do with making music can be clearly and elegantly articulated.’

5 March 2014
Final event in collaborative project with Britten Sinfonia, Guildhall School and CMPCP
CMPCP has been working for just under a year with the Britten Sinfonia and the Guildhall School of Music & Drama on a collaborative research project entitled ‘Composers, performers and their audiences: exploring dialogue and interaction’. Volunteers were sought from potential members of the audiences at the Britten Sinfonia’s performances at Milton Court, London in November 2013 and February 2014, and various opportunities for engagement were devised in order to gauge audience responses to the new works that were performed in these concerts and also to determine the ways in which audience reactions influenced the performers in question. All of this was undertaken through a combination of questionnaires, discussion sessions, and round-tables with performers and composers. On Saturday 1 March a final one-day conference was held, presenting the research findings and inviting reflections on audience members’ experiences during the project. During the afternoon, presentations on related research initiatives took place, including one by Eric Clarke on CMPCP’s ‘Creative practice in contemporary concert music’ project. For further information on the day, which took place at Milton Court, click here.

4 March 2014
Roy Howat: French repertoire masterclass
The eminent scholar and pianist Roy Howat gave a masterclass at the University of Cambridge on 1 March 2014. This event was presented by CMPCP and the Cambridge Faculty of Music as part of the Practising Performance series. During the masterclass Roy Howat worked with six students on piano music and songs by Ravel, Debussy, Fauré and Hahn. The programme for the event is available here.

19 February 2014
Performance Studies Network Third International Conference Programme
The programme for the Performance Studies Network Third International Conference has been released and can be seen here. Over 80 speakers will present their work during the four-day conference. On 19 July there will be a keynote session consisting of an open rehearsal and a concert presented by performers from the Academy of Ancient Music; the conference programme will also feature sessions curated by CMPCP project leaders. The conference dinner will be held in the sixteenth-century Hall at St John’s College, along with a pre-dinner reception in the Combination Room; at the end of the evening Classico Latino will perform for delegates.

18 February 2014
Student bursaries
Thanks to the generous support of the Music & Letters Trust, CMPCP is delighted to offer fifteen bursaries of £100 each to research students currently registered for a doctoral degree, in order to assist with the expenses incurred in attending the Performance Studies Network Third International Conference in July 2014. These bursaries will be awarded on the basis of both financial need and academic merit, and will take the form of a rebate on conference fees paid. CMPCP and the Performance Studies Network gratefully acknowledge the support that the Music & Letters Trust has provided.

17 February 2014
Study day on The Construction of Musical Performance Norms, 24 May 2014
A study day will be held at King’s College London on 24 May 2014 focusing on the construction of performance norms. The event, in association with CMPCP, will follow the seminar on ‘Classical music as contemporary socio-cultural practice: critical perspectives’ on 23 May 2014. Proposals are due by 15 March. Click here for further details.

31 January 2014
Phase 5 Visiting Fellowships awarded
Two Visiting Fellows will be joining CMPCP in the fifth phase of its fellowships programme. Adam Linson will be attached to the Faculty of Music, University of Oxford for three months. He intends to use biomimetic computational cognitive modelling and empirical research to validate his theoretically outlined integration of two established theories: Eric Clarke’s ecological theory of music perception and action; and Irène Deliège’s theory of perceptual cue abstraction. Dr László Stachó will be based at the University of Cambridge and will also undertake work at King’s College London over a period of three months. He intends to examine how insights from empirical research on musical shaping and embodiment may be applied to create an efficient pedagogy for the development of musical imagination and the direction of attention during performance; which types of shapes and gestures may be especially appropriate for the professional performer to powerfully represent different levels of musical form, and, the teacher’s role in promoting his/her students’ originality and creativity through the use of metaphors of shapes and embodiment.

13 January 2014
Special issue of ‘Empirical Musicology Review’
A special issue of Empirical Musicology Review was published in December 2013, featuring nine papers presented at the Music & Shape Conference in July 2012. The volume comprises three issues:

Please click here to read Daniel Leech-Wilkinson’s and Mats Küssner’s Introduction.