About Harvey
- Coaching chamber music
- Accompanist
- Historically informed performance
- Teaching piano,
- Teaching vocal and instrumental classes
- Research
Harvey Davies studied the piano with Helen Davies and David Parkhouse then with Ryszard Bakst at the Royal Northern College of Music. He is well-known as a chamber musician and collaborative pianist and his work as a musician has taken him to four continents and throughout the UK.
With his wife, the ‘cellist Heather Bills, Harvey founded the Manchester-based chamber group The Pleyel Ensemble in 2011. Comprising some of the finest string and wind players in the UK and specialising in British chamber music and lesser-known Classical works thePleyels run a concert series in Didsbury and they were Making Music Featured Artists for 2019/20 for the second time in three years. The Pleyel Ensemble have recently completed a major project with the MPR label to record a four-CD set of the chamber music of the English composer Arnold Cooke. The recordings were released in 2018, 2019 and 2020. Most of the works recorded are World Première recordings.
As a Fellow in Historical Performance at the RNCM, Harvey gives lectures and coaches chamber music alongside his work as a staff pianist. Harvey was awarded a PhD in Performance from the RNCM/Manchester Metropolitan University in 2022 for his work on the varied chamber music of Arnold Cooke.
Harvey has collaborated with many eminent musicians including the Alberni, Benyounes, Callino and Carducci Quartets, Atar Arad, Alison Balsom, James Bowman, Rebecca Evans, James Gilchrist, Janet Hilton, Guy Johnston, Jennifer Pike and Elena Urioste and as a freelance player, Harvey has worked with all the orchestras in the North West including the Hallé, RLPO, Manchester Camerata, NCO and the contemporary music group Ensemble 10/10.
The Davies Duo, Harvey and his mother Helen, have worked together since 1990. They have performed and recorded extensively and commissioned many new works for piano duet from composers as diverse as Nicola Lefanu and Alun Hoddinott. Their disc, ‘Diversity’, features works written for them by Welsh composers and was received to critical acclaim.
Research
Current and Future Research
- The music and life of Carl Czerny.
- Piano duet repertoire of the early Nineteenth Century.
- Accompanied piano sonatas (trios) of the late Eighteenth Century.
- The music of Kenneth Leighton.
- J. B. Cramer – a neglected composer.
- The trio for violin, horn and piano by Sir L. Berkeley, a corrected edition.
- The life and works of Arnold Cooke.
- Enabling the world premiere and broadcast of Arnold Cooke’s 6th Symphony with the BBC Philharmonic and Andrew Gourlay in September 2016 (completed)
- A critical first edition of Arnold Cooke’s 6th Symphony published by Anglo-American Music Publishers (completed).
- A critical edition of Arnold Cooke’s Piano Quartet (1949), which was lost and I have recently rediscovered.
- A critical edition of the composer’s recently-discovered horn trio arrangement of Arnold Cooke’s Arioso and Scherzo.
- A comprehensive, annotated works-list of Arnold Cooke.
- The letters of Arnold Cooke; a new resource.
- The music collection of Elizabeth Sykes Egerton (1775 – 1854) in the Library at Tatton Park. This is an ongoing project to research the extensive performance instructions and embellishment in her vocal and keyboard music collected at the beginning of the 19th century to learn more of late classical performance practice.
External Research Roles
PhD in Performance recording the chamber music with piano by Arnold Cooke and researching his life and works. Also completed is a first ever catalogue of Cooke’s correspondence and an extensively-updated complete catalogue of works.
Funded Research Projects
Awarded a grant of £500 by both the Ida Carroll Trust and the RVW Trust towards the commissioning of a new work from Adam Gorb (2016).
Awarded a grant of £1,375 from the RNCM Research budget towards the cost of setting and inputting the score and parts of Cooke’s 6th Symphony (2016).
Awarded an £800 grant by the Ida Carroll Trust towards presenting a concert to mark and celebrate the 110th Anniversary of Arnold Cooke’s birth on the 4th November 2016 at the RNCM.
Awarded a £3,000 grant by the Ida Carroll Trust towards the major 4 CD recording project of the chamber music of Arnold Cooke (2019).
Awarded a £1,000 grant towards the above from the RVW Trust (2019).
Awarded a £3,000 grant towards the above from the RNCM Research Fund (2019).
Awarded a £500 grant towards a performance of Thomas Pitfield’s Piano Trio no. 1 from the Pitfield Trust (2021)
Awarded a £250 grant towards a performance of Lennox Berkeley’s Quintet Op. 90 from the Lennox Berkeley Society (2021)
Teaching
Undergraduate Teaching
- Historical & Contextual Studies 1 (U1AHC) 2015-16
- Historical & Contextual Studies 2 (Classical) 2015-16
- Performance & Repertoire Studies 1 (U1APR) 2015-16
- Performance & Repertoire Studies 2 Classical (U2APR) 2015-16
- Performance & Repertoire Studies 4 (U4APS) 2015-16
- Music, Culture & Performance 1 2016-17
Postgraduate Teaching
Postgrad. Options B Performance:Theory & Practice Semester 2 (2013-2014)
Research Supervision
Current supervision of PhDs:
- Qiqi Huang
Research Outputs
Written Outputs
Perspectives from a Conservatoire on Editing Lesser-Known Music, 1600–1820
Glatthorn, A., Babington, A., Davies, H., O’Farrell, A.-M. & Swayne, A., 2027, (In preparation) Musicology Australia.Arnold Cooke’s Chamber Music With Piano: Contexts, Stylistic Evolution And Performance
Davies, H., 2022, 230 p.Arnold Cooke’s War (from the correspondence with E.J. Dent): A. Cooke: Ordinary Seaman JX310212
Davies, H., 2020, In: Manchester Sounds. 10, p. 47-57 11 p.A Fine and Underrated Chamber Work: Lennox Berkeley’s Quintet for Piano and Winds, Op. 90
Davies, H., 2017, In: Lennox Berkeley Society.Practice Research/Compositions
Ronald Stevenson and Friends: The chamber music of Ronald Stevenson. World premiere recordings
Davies, H. (Performer), Honeybourne, D. (Performer), Rogers, L.-J. (Performer), Robinson, L. (Performer) & Turner, J. (Performer), 2022The Music of Colin Hand: World premiere recordings
Davies, H. (Performer), McGrath, E. (Performer), Winpenny, T. (Performer), Bills, H. (Performer), Routledge, D. (Performer), Gilks, S. (Performer), Mochalova, S. (Performer), Burnard, S. (Performer) & Turner, J. (Performer), 2022Arnold Cooke Chamber Music for Flute, Clarinet, Cello and Piano: World Premiere recordings
Davies, H. (Performer), Hilton, J. (Performer), Rimmer, J. (Performer) & Bills, H. (Performer), 2021Arnold Cooke Complete Music for Oboe and Sonata for Two Pianos: World premiere recordings
Davies, H. (Performer), Maxwell, M. (Performer), Ewins, S. (Performer), Meszaros, S. (Performer) & Bills, H. (Performer), 2020Arnold Cooke Piano Trio, Quartet and Quintet: World premiere recordings
Davies, H. (Performer), Ewins, S. (Performer), Meszaros, S. (Performer), Bills, H. (Performer) & Holland, B. (Performer), 2019Arnold Cooke The Complete Sonatas for Violin: The sonatas with and without piano of Arnold Cooke
Davies, H. (Performer), Benedict, H. (Performer) & Meszaros, S. (Performer), 2018Professional Activity
Public Presentations and Performance
Elgar’s Violin Concerto, Op. 61
Davies, H. (Speaker / presenter)
Elgar’s Salon music for violin and piano
Davies, H. (Speaker / presenter)
Arnold Cooke’s Piano Quartet (1949): a lost work rediscovered.
Davies, H. (Speaker / presenter)
Royal Musical Association, 55th Annual Conference, Manchester
Davies, H. (Participant)
Sir Edward Elgar’s Violin Sonata, Op. 82
Davies, H. (Speaker / presenter)
Sir Edward Elgar’s Violin Sonata, Op. 82
Davies, H. (Speaker / presenter)
Arnold Cooke’s 6th Symphony D152 (1984)
Davies, H. (Speaker / presenter)
Professional Service
Anglo-American Music Publishers (Publisher)
Davies, H. (Editor)