Rosamund Cole (2019)

Rosamund Cole

The new German vocal style: Wagner, Mahler, Strauss and beyond

Early recordings provide a window into the 19th century through which one gains a glimpse of the aesthetic values of a lost era. By examining these in the context of contemporary archive material Rosamund wishes to define the New German Vocal style and its effect on subsequent generations of singers.

In 2015 Rosamund was awarded an AHRC International Placement Scheme Award, enabling her to take up a six month residency at the Library of Congress in Washington DC. The AHRC awards just 60 of these research fellowships annually.

Her PhD researches into the effect of the changes in later nineteenth-century German vocal style and its transformation in the post-Wagner generation. It focuses on the career of the singer, Lilli Lehmann, who not only sang for both Wagner and Mahler, but went on to influence performing style well into the 1920s.