Colloquium: Prof Richard Wistreich (Royal College of Music)

‘An anatomy and physiognomy of early modern singing’

Richard Wistreich is Professor of Music and Director of Research at the Royal College of Music. His wide-ranging research interests are focused primarily on the cultural and social history of music-making in early-modern Europe. His book Warrior, Courtier, Singer: Giulio Cesare Brancaccio and the Performance of Identity in the Late Renaissance was published in 2007 (Ashgate), as was The Cambridge Companion to Monteverdi (CUP), co-edited with John Whenham; currently he is co-editor, with Iain Fenlon, of The Cambridge History of Sixteenth-Century Music (CUP). His wider research interests embrace the history and culture of performance in all ages, the pedagogy and practice of singing, and other related topics. Richard is also an internationally renowned performer of both early and contemporary music: he has made concert, radio and television appearances worldwide, and recorded more than 100 CDs of music ranging from award-winning albums of twelfth century organum, to many new works commissioned for the ensemble Red Byrd, and including celebrated discs of Monteverdi and Purcell.