Practice in Context: Historically Informed Practices in Nineteenth-century Instrumental Music

Many of the best known and most regularly performed works of the Western Classical Music canon were written in the nineteenth century. Although this repertoire is loved by audiences and performers, nineteenth-century historical performance style is rarely heard today even when performances are given by professional 'period' instrument performers and specialist conductors. Practice in Context brings together scholars and performer/scholars who are interested in how historical research can contribute to greater understanding of the musical priorities and artistic decision-making processes when performing nineteenth-century pieces.

Claire Holden was awarded an AHRC (UK) Fellowship in the Creative and Performing Arts in 2010 (researching early nineteenth-century violin playing) working at Cardiff University as a researcher and teaching HIP modules. Claire joined the University of Oxford as Research Fellow in 2014, becoming Principal Investigator on the 5 year, AHRC-funded Transforming Nineteenth-Century Historically Informed Practice in 2016. As a violinist Claire performs with many period-instrument ensembles and has been a member of the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment since 2000. She gives lectures, workshops and masterclasses in many UK and European universities and conservatoires.

Eric F. Clarke is Emeritus Professor of Music at the University of Oxford, and an Emeritus Fellow of Wadham College. He studied neuroscience and music at the University of Sussex and completed a PhD in psychology at the University of Exeter. He held posts at City University, London, was J. R. Hoyle Professor of Music at the University of Sheffield, and Heather Professor of Music at Oxford. He has published on various topics in the psychology of music, ecological approaches to music perception, musical meaning, music and consciousness, and musical creativity. He is a member of Academia Europaea, and a Fellow of the British Academy.

Dr. Cayenna Ponchione-Bailey is an orchestral conductor and Director of Performance at St Catherine's College, University of Oxford. Her research focuses on the social-psychological and socio-political aspects of orchestral music-making; from the intricacies of co-performer communication in modern and historically informed contexts, to the politics of participation and orchestras' geo-political significance. She completed her doctorate in Music at the University of Oxford under the supervision of Eric F. Clarke, was a post-doctoral researcher on the Transforming 19th-Century Historically Informed Practice at Oxford and has held a Leverhulme Early Career Research Fellowship at the University of Sheffield.