Neal Peres da Costa

A graduate of the University of Sydney, the Guildhall School of Music and Drama (London), the City University (London) and the University of Leeds (UK), Neal Peres Da Costa has forged a highly successful career as a performing scholar, music educator and researcher, specialising in historically informed performance. Currently, he is Associate Professor and Chair of the Historical Performance Unit at the Sydney Conservatorium of Music (University of Sydney). Previously held posts include at the University of New South Wales, the Royal Academy of Music and Trinity College in London, and the University of Leeds from which he was awarded a PhD in 2002. His monograph Off the Record:Performing Practices in Romantic Piano Playing (Oxford University Press, New York: 2012) has received critical acclaim. Limelight Magazine hailed it as ‘engaging and thought provoking … an outstanding contribution’ and a book that ‘no serious pianist should be without.’ Alex Ross—music critic of The New Yorker and author of The Rest is Noise—honoured it as a notable book on his 2012 Apex List. In 2012, Off the Record was the subject of both a five-part series broadcast by ABC Classic FM during the Sydney International Piano Competition and an in depth interview with Christopher Lawrence for the ABC Classic FM Music Makers programme.

Notable performances include Bach’s monumental Goldberg Variations at the Festival Baroque in Perth (2009), and the Peninsula Summer Festival (2010) broadcast on ABC Classic FM. With Ironwood, he is involved in on going cutting-edge projects that have led to performances and recordings of late-Romantic chamber repertoire in period style. To that end his collection of keyboard instruments has expanded to include historical nineteenth-century grand pianos including by Collard and Collard (English c.1840), Erard (French c.1869), and Streicher (Viennese replica c.1860). Neal has performed and recorded with a host of distinguished soloists and ensembles in Australia and abroad including Fiona Campbell, Emma Kirkby, Pieter Wispelwey, Florilegium, London Sinfonietta, the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment, the Academy of Ancient Music, Ironwood, the Australian Chamber Orchestra, the Sydney Symphony Orchestra, the Song Company, Orchestra of the Antipodes, Pinchgut Opera, Latitude 37, the Australian Brandenburg Orchestra, and Orchestra Victoria.

http://sydney.edu.au/music/staff-profiles/neal.peresdacosta.php

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The Joseph Joachim at 185 conference is supported in part by a generous grant from the

University of New Hampshire Center for the Humanities

Burt Feintuch, director

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We are grateful for additional financial and practical support from the

Ryan C. McClelland, President

the

Christoph Mücher, Director

the Federal Republic of Germany through the German Academic Exchange Service

Dr. Nina Lemmens, Director DAAD North America
and Michael Thomanek, Senior Program Officer

and from

Magazin für Klassische Musik und Musikwissenschaft
Geschäftsstellenleiter: Mathias Brösicke

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