Performance
Performance is central to the work of the Department of Music at Sheffield. It interfaces with every research area and the history and development of performance practice is a viable research topic in its own right. Composers and performers work closely together to develop new work. Researchers in Ethnomusicology employ performance as a means of developing and disseminating research findings – performance features prominently in most fieldwork. Musicology now more than ever requires an holistic approach that includes the study of recordings and performances. And from the sway of the pianist coaxing notes from the piano to an MRI scan of a performer indicating brain activity, Music Psychology attempts to understand how performers translate the notes on the page into music.
It is via performance that the department meets the City. Public concerts on a Tuesday evening invite international performers to Sheffield. Weekend concerts afford a platform for our large ensembles. Free lunchtime concerts on Thursdays provide an opportunity for students to prepare for their recitals and chamber music examinations.
Find out more about the department's music making
The Department´s full-time staff includes professional musicians with established careers as performers. Staff members are also active in facilitating performance from a variety of different perspectives, including those of conductor and theatre director.
Three staff members active in this field are:
Peter Cropper, former leader of one of the world´s foremost string quartet, the Lindsays. Since the Lindsays disbanded in 2005 he has led a busy solo career which has included recording all the Beethoven violin sonatas with Martin Roscoe. As a teacher Peter has worked in universities for the last 35 years and is in worldwide demand for masterclasses. He is particularly concerned to carry on the values of the European tradition of string quartet playing, as exemplified by the Busch Quartet.
Peter Hill publications and research extend from musicology to practical issues of performance. As a pianist his repertoire includes composers ranging from Bach to Olivier Messiaen, with whom he studied. His discography includes Messiaen´s complete works for solo piano, as well as music by Beethoven, Berg, Schoenberg, Webern, Stravinsky and contemporary composers, including Paul Archbold and Howard Skempton.
Nigel Simeone is a musicologist and conductor with a long-standing interest in translating musicological research into performance. His most recent research has focused upon the study of the manuscript sources for Leonard Bernstein´s musical West Side Story, and includes the performance under his direction of much significant but unknown material. His research on the work of the composer Messiaen has included the discovery of several previously unknown works and their first public performances.
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