Performance

Performance research at Durham University covers areas as diverse as Renaissance performance practice, nineteenth-century piano performance, organ studies, contemporary music performance, and projects bringing together contemporary music and contemporary visual arts, working with other institutions and notable artists from all over the world. Our staff have active lives as performers, playing on internationally renowned podia, as soloists and with leading ensembles.

We host regular workshops and masterclasses by leading experts in early and contemporary music performance, and students are actively encouraged to participate in the many music societies that are active within the University, such as opera companies, orchestras, the big band, early music groups, new music groups and world music ensembles. Recent guest artists have included Dame Emma Kirkby, Caroline Balding, Zubin Kanga, Philip Thomas, Richard Craig, Seth Parker Woods, Jacob Heringman, the Ives Ensemble, the Brodsky String Quartet, The Clerks, and of course our former Chancellor, Sir Thomas Allen. The Department has its own concert series, MUSICON, where important international soloists and ensembles perform in a diverse range of styles, both western and non-western. The Music Department boasts a historic Concert Room as well as studios and other specialist facilities, including a collection of historical instruments.