****Forwarded message from Andrew Kirkman <[log in to unmask]>****
The Music Department of the University of Birmingham is delighted to announce the on-schedule completion of the Bramall Music Building and Elgar Concert Hall, which now give the Department some of the most versatile and technologically advanced facilities in the UK. A new Steinway concert grand piano, specifically selected by Birmingham music staff at the Steinway factory in Hamburg, will be delivered to the Elgar Concert Hall next month, and an inaugural music festival will take place there in November and December. The festival will feature performances both from present staff and students, and from former students who have now forged distinguished performance careers. It will showcase the superb acoustics of the new 450-seat concert hall, acoustically designed by Nick Edwards, who was acoustical designer also of Birmingham's fabulous Symphony Hall. Events range from university symphony orchestra concerts featuring music by professors old and new (including Elgar), with Carolyn Sampson (soprano), through South Asian performing arts and dance, concerts of jazz and 100-channel electroacoustic music, to a performance by one of the country's finest chamber choirs, the Birmingham-based Ex Cathedra.
Altogether, this represents an unprecedented investment in music of 16 million pounds by the University, following upon the striking successes of the Department in the National Student Survey (a Student Satisfaction Rating of 98%: one of the most impressive in the country) and the Research Assessment Exercise (joint 2nd in the UK overall, and 1st for world-leading research outputs).
The Music staff, now further strengthened by a number of new appointments, is looking forward to welcoming all its students, both current and new, to the Bramall Music Building in September. We would like also to encourage all new and prospective students to visit the new building: the University will be holding a Community Day on Sunday 10 June from 11am to 4pm, featuring performances in the new concert hall (seehttp://www.birmingham.ac.uk/oncampus/events/CommunityDay.aspx).
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Dr J. P. E. Harper-Scott
Reader in Musicology and Theory
Department of Music
Royal Holloway, University of London
Website: http://www.jpehs.co.uk/
Blog: http://www.jpehs.co.uk/blog
Golden Pages: http://goldenpages.jpehs.co.uk/
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