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Dean of Research & Enterprise

Richard Wistreich is a scholar, singer and teacher whose work focuses mainly on the cultural and social history of music-making in Europe in the period between about 1500 and 1800. More specifically he is interested in the ways in which performance (and particularly vocal performance), contributes to the construction of individual and collective identities. 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. He is always keen to hear from students and other musicians interested in exploring their practices, ideas and experiences through the process of structured postgraduate research.

Richard is also an internationally renowned performer of both early and contemporary music. Concert, radio and tv appearances worldwide, over 100 CDs, membership of some of the seminal early music ensembles (Consort of Musicke, Taverner Consort, Academy of Ancient Music, Fretwork – among many others) in performances of music from the medieval to the late Classical, are testimony to the breadth of his interests. In 1989 he co-founded with the tenor, John Potter, the ensemble Red Byrd dedicated to performing both old and new music, often side by side in the same concerts. Their repertoire ranges from twelfth-century Parisian polyphony through Monteverdi and Purcell to commissions from composers such as Gavin Bryars, Nigel Osborne, Barry Guy and John Paul Jones.

Richard joined the RNCM as Dean of Research and Enterprise in February 2010 from Newcastle University, where he was Head of Performance and Senior Lecturer in music history. From 1991–2003 he was Professor of Singing in the Institut für Alte Music at the Staatliche Hochschule für Musik in Trossingen, Germany. He studied English at King’s College, Cambridge, took a Masters in Renaissance music theatre at the Shakespeare Institute,University of Birmingham and has a PhD in music history from Royal Holloway College, University of London.