University of Oxford
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Associate Professor; Fellow and Tutor, Jesus College; Lecturer at Lincoln College

How I came to study music

I grew up in what, in English terms, would be seen as a lower middle-class community in Wellington, New Zealand.  I did a lot of music as a kid – singing in choirs (school and church), piano, violin, and related activities (dance, theatre) – but I couldn’t really take music at my state secondary school until the 6th form (by which time it was too late).  So when I went to university it was initially to do a degree with a double major in English and Drama, with papers in Music (and also Psychology and Italian) as sidelines.  But I quickly realised that I wanted to explore my extra-curricular love of music (singing especially) in an academic context.  Fortunately, the NZ university sector allows students to grow and change direction, and by the end of the first year I had switched to a double degree: still with an English Lit and Drama double major for one, and Music for the other.

I particularly enjoyed the synergies I found when approaching, say, the 16th and 17th centuries from the different perspectives of literature, theatre and music, and knew I wanted to explore these kinds of connections further in postgraduate work.  Ultimately, this led me to specialise in opera, which brought all these interests together.  (Although actually, my choice at the time would have been ethnomusicology, but in those days Pākehā (European-descent) New Zealanders were deterred from working in a field that wasn’t ‘ours’.)  I came to Oxford to continue my research at doctoral level, and shifted focus from the 17th century to the early 18th, with a doctorate on ‘Opera and Nationalism in mid-Eighteenth-Century Britain’ (1999).

Since then, my interest in the expression of identity in music has led me to write a book on two opera prima donnas, The Rival Sirens: Identity and Performance on Handel’s Operatic Stage (Cambridge, 2013), and edit a volume on Operatic Geographies (Chicago, 2019), as well as write numerous articles and essays.  Opera, especially in the UK, is still strongly tied to ideas of elitism.  Exploring modes of representation (from the personal to the national) through opera helps address that perception critically.  My current research projects include a book on the development of musical nationalism in 18th-century Britain, and another on the culture of immersive and country-house opera in the present day.  I also have another edited volume under way on 18th-century opera’s representation of consciousness and the mind.

I have been fortunate to hold Research Fellowships at Robinson College, Cambridge (1999-2002) and the Beinecke Library, Yale University (2002-2003), as well as visiting fellowships at other institutions in the U.S. and at Jadavpur University, Kolkata.  I taught at the University of Southampton (2003-2005) before returning to Oxford as a University lecturer.

My own history and my interest in identity and cultural elitism has an impact beyond my research: aside from helping to found and run the Music in the Community course and teach a course in Dance Music, I am Access and Outreach officer in the Faculty, and volunteer in various ways at the state primary school my son goes to, in one of the most diverse areas in Oxford.

Undergraduates

Undergraduate student at Jesus College

How I came to study music

I was raised by my dad, a joiner, in a rural area of south Middlesbrough, an industrial town about an hour from Newcastle. Studying music at university is almost unheard of in Middlesbrough, since classical music has strong associations with elitism and simply isn’t seen as a ‘safe’ option, unlike medicine, law, or vocational education for something such as . . . joinery! Having said that, here I am after years of support from my family, friends, and teachers.

I started playing clarinet at the age of 13 in a secondary school that didn’t offer musical education at all, thanks to an assistant teacher who happened to play the euphonium (rather well) – he volunteered to teach a variety of instruments in our school for free. Whilst I wasn’t given the ‘best’ technical clarinet tuition, my teacher was inspirational and always made me believe I could do anything if I worked hard. Although I began to take clarinet somewhat seriously, my main interests for a long time at school were Theatre Studies and German. When it came to choosing A-levels, however, I decided that my long-term goal was to study clarinet at conservatoire. My new clarinet teacher informed me that I wasn’t good enough to become a clarinettist, but she did tell me that I could study Music at university and then maybe audition afterwards. My new plan was, then, to study Music and German at any university that would take me. Since my school didn’t offer Music (though it was one of the few sixth forms in Middlesbrough that offered German), I had to write numerous letters and campaign for my school to let me take the course. Within 2 weeks of studying A-level Music by myself I realised that I enjoyed reading and writing about music far more than I did performing it.

When applying to Oxford from a background like mine, you don’t really have anyone to ask even the most seemingly basic of questions. However, I personally emailed Professor Aspden (now my tutor at Jesus) multiple times before and after getting my offer. For someone like me, with no family having gone to university and coming from an underperforming state comprehensive in the north east, reading the line ‘I’m pleased you’re still considering applying to Oxford!’ in a first response was one of the most encouraging parts of the journey and shows that the tutors here are approachable and can provide the best first-hand advice if you’re worried about/don’t know something.

After a long process (which at first seemed impossible) of discovering, applying to, and being accepted by Oxford, I am now here in my first year studying what I love. At the moment, my main interests are in music and identity, medieval music, and popular music studies (although, my interests seem to change every term). I hope to go on to study for a doctorate in musicology and then hopefully remain in the world of research.