Michael Harper
Professor of Singing
BMus, MMus
Email: [email protected]
- Founder and Patron of the Williams-Howard Prize and Collection
- Researcher
- Lecturer (Musicology)
Michael Harper has sung in opera and concerts in Europe, the US, and China, premiering works at the Royal Opera House Linbury Theatre and Clore Studio Upstairs, Megaron (Athens), Biennale Danza (Venice), China National Symphony Orchestra, Ballet Grand Theâtre de Genève, and the Institute for Contemporary Arts.
He is a sought-after vocal consultant having worked at the Gulbenkian Foundation, Youth Music, British Youth Opera, Den Norske Opera, Westminster Choir College, English National Opera (ENO), National Opera Studio, and the Guildhall School of Music and Drama (GSMD). He has curated recitals for London Song Festival, Buxton International Festival, St John’s Smith Square, and the Barbican
He featured in the television-series collaboration, Anyone Can Sing, and worked as diction coach on ENO’s celebrated productions, Blue and The Handmaid’s Tale. In 2021, he established the Williams-Howard Prize and repository to promote the study and performance of art songs by African-heritage composers. His research on the composer, Julia Perry has been supported by an Arts and Humanities Research Council Grant and the BBC.
Michael also teaches vocal repertoire at GSMD and serves as a trustee for the Buxton International Festival and other boards. He is a patron of the National Opera Studio’s Diverse Voices.
Current and Future Research
Michael Harper’s current research is focussed on exploring the repertoire of the composer Julia Perry, especially her vocal music and works for the stage, and extending the knowledge of art songs and opera by African-heritage composers in Britain and Europe.
Future work will include collaboration with Rebeca Omordia, pianist, researcher, and curator of Wigmore Hall’s African Concert Series on African Art Songs and African Pianism. In addition, he will work on processes and standards of training for crossover work in opera and musical theatre with Wendy Gadian, music director/pianist, formerly of Central School of Speech Drama,
He will continue his work with students and faculty at RNCM, Guildhall, and other institutions to promote the study and performance of art songs and opera by African-heritage composers, and to expand the acquistion of related scores and reference materials.
Research Areas
- Julia Perry – stage works
- Art songs by African composers – language, diction, and performance
- Exploring the benefits of sharing training principles between musical theatre and opera
Research Funding
- Arts and Humanities Research Council/BBC – Julia Perry Composer – Study of her life and works, and identifying performable published works for performance and recordings by the BBC Philharmonic Orchestra.
- Royal Northern College of Music Research Department and Royal Northern College of Marketing and Student Recruitment– Art Songs by Black British Composers 1912-present
- Edison Fellowship, British Library – The Late Recordings of Roland Hayes, tenor
(Lecture, British Library) and Art Songs by Samuel Coleridge-Taylor and his British Contemporaries
Undergraduate Teaching
Musicology: Opera and Art Song of the Black African Diaspora (23-24)
Musicology: Music in Context: ‘Not Darmstadt – Another Narrative: African-heritage Composers and Darmstadt’
Postgraduate Teaching
- Postgraduate Research Seminar: Archival Research
Selected Outputs
- Curator and Programme Notes for BBC Philharmonic – Julia Perry Week – A week of lectures, performances, and other activities to celebrate the centenary of the birth of the composer Julia Perry (1924-1979), including lectures, performances by RNCM students, alumni, faculty, and staff, and a performance by the BBC Philharmonic at Bridgewater Hall. The esteemed guests for the week were Professor Louise Toppin, University of Michigan; Nadine Benjamin, soprano; Dr Samantha Ege, Southampton University; Professor Nate Holder, International Chair in Music Education, and Jennie Henley, Director of Programmes and the BBC Philharmonic Orchestra, RNCM and Bridgewater Hall, Manchester, UK (26 February – 2 March 2024)
- Michael Harper, ‘Exploding the Canon’ (Opening lectures), African American Art Song Alliance Conference 2022, University of California, Irvine, California, USA (13 October 2022)
- Michael Harper, ‘Exploding the Canon”, University of Leeds Research Colloquia
University of Leeds School of Music, Leeds, UK
(2 November 2023) - Michael Harper, Pre- Performance Panel Discussion
Re:Discover Festival: A Celebration of our African and Caribbean Heritage, Streetwise Opera, Bridgewater Hall, Manchester, UK, (7-8 June 2024) - Curator/Reader – Songs of Joy – with Nadine Benjamin, soprano and Caroline Jaya-Ratnam, pianist – Milton Court – The Barbican
- Narrator – Friends and Lovers: Coleridge-Taylor/Dunbar 2022 with Gweneth Ann Rand, soprano; Ronald Samm, tenor; Nigel Foster, pianist -London Song Festival
- Guest Presenter – Rediscovered Composers – BBC Radio 3 – 2022
BBC Philharmonic
Discussing Julia Perry, composer. - Co-curator and Narrator – The Outsiders Fight Back– 2019
Fiftieth Anniversary of Stonewall Uprisings-
With Lotte Betts Dean, mezzo; Felix Kemp, baritone; Nigel Foster, pianist
London Song Festival - Curator – A Quiet Revolution with Nadine Benjamin, soprano; Julian 2017
Van Mellaerts, baritone; Nathan Medina, speaker; Nigel Foster, pianist
London Song Festival
Professional Activity
Michael Harper’s research focuses on the study and promotion of art songs and opera by African-heritage composers.This work extends to classes at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama, Jackdaws Music Education Trust, Cratoule Summer Singing Course, and consulting for other institutions of higher education on repertoire and diversifying the classical music canon.
Other work includes curation and narration for recital in major concert venues in the UK, teaching and coaching at the National Opera Studio, diction and dialect coaching at the English National Opera, and consulting on diversifying the intake and content of opera and musical theatre through the National Opera Studio’s Diverse Voices and Discovering Opera Programmes.
He has also been a frequent guest teacher at the den Norske Oper og Ballet in Oslo and various universities in the US and Britain.
