About Annika
- Deputy Head of Undergraduate Programmes
- Student Exchange Coordinator (Academic)
- Member of Human Resources Committee (from 2026)
- Study Enhancement Tutor
- Coordinator of Music in Context 1, and Musicology Electives in Years 3 & 4
Dr Annika Forkert is a Senior Lecturer in Music and Deputy Head of Undergraduate Programmes at the RNCM with research interests in the aesthetics, history, and analysis of: British music since 1900, microtonal music, serial music and modernism, and female composers. In 2023, her monograph Elisabeth Lutyens and Edward Clark: The Orchestration of Progress in British Twentieth-Century Music was published by Cambridge University Press; earlier that year, her chapter on Vaughan Williams’s film music appeared in D. Grimley and B. Adams’s Vaughan Williams and his World (Chicago University Press). Her next book, co-authored with Kenneth Smith (University of Liverpool), will be about Franz Schreker’s operas.
Annika holds a PhD in Music from Royal Holloway, University of London, and a Magister Artium from Humboldt-Universität Berlin in Musicology and Philosophy. She also studied at Heidelberg University and Halle/Wittenberg University (Piano Pedagogy).
After her PhD, she was awarded a post-doctoral Leverhulme Early Career Fellowship at the University of Bristol for a three-year project on Elisabeth Lutyens and Edward Clark. Before her appointment at the RNCM, Annika was a Lecturer in Musicology at Liverpool Hope University, teaching a range of music history, analysis, aesthetics at UG and PG level.
Annika has also worked as a regular author of programme notes for Bavarian Radio and other orchestras and ensembles, and as a translator, speaker, and consultant for European music festivals and orchestras.
Research
Current and Future Research
Annika’s current research focuses on early- to mid-twentieth century British music, especially by Elisabeth Lutyens, Ralph Vaughan Williams, and Rebecca Clarke. The Cambridge University Press monograph Elisabeth Lutyens and Edward Clark: The Orchestration of Progress in Twentieth-Century British Music, was published in 2023, shortly after a book chapter on Vaughan Williams’s film scores.
Future research includes work on a second, co-authored monograph on Franz Schreker’s operas (early twentieth-century German music, with Kenneth Smith, University of Liverpool), which will explore the analytic, dramaturgic, and philosophical potential of these works, which are today seeing a revival in European opera houses.
Research Areas
- British music since 1900
- Microtonal music of the early twentieth century
- Serial music and modernism
- Female composers’ music
External Research Roles
- Editorial Board member, Journal of the Royal Musical Association
- Trustee, Society for Music Analysis
- External examiner for PhD and MPhil
Funded Research Projects
Annika’s research has been funded by the Leverhulme Trust (postdoctoral 3-year fellowship); and by Deutscher Akademischer Austauschdienst DAAD, Fazit Trust Germany, and Crosslands Scholarship, Royal Holloway (doctoral grants). She has also been awarded small grants from the Society for Music Analysis, Bristol Institute for Research in the Humanities and Arts, and the Raymond Williams Library Retreat Grant.
Teaching
Undergraduate Teaching
- Music in Context 1 (coordinator and tutor)
- Music in Context 2 (coordinator and tutor in 20th and 21st-century music, Contemporary Musicology)
- Theory 1 (tutor)
- Theory 2 (tutor)
- Musicology Electives (coordinator): Female Composers in Perspective, Musicology Pathway supervision
Postgraduate Teaching
- PGT dissertation supervision (opera, music & philosophy, keyboard harmony, female composers)
- “Underrepresented”: seminar on female composers and feminist musicology
- “Research Methods Musicology”: seminar on feminist musicology
Research Supervision
Current supervision of PhDs:
- Dobromir Tsenov
- Matthew Holmes
- Andre Chan
Research Outputs
Written Outputs
The Cambridge Companion to Elisabeth Lutyens
Forkert, A. (Editor), 2028, (In preparation) Cambridge University Press. (Cambridge Companions to Music)Musik im Theater in England
‘Reanimating the Genre’
Forkert, A., 2026, The Symphony in Britain and Ireland since 1900: A Critical History. Jones, N. (ed.). Cambridge University Press, p. 192-211Modernist Self-Parody in Walton’s Facade
Forkert, A., 2025, In: Music and Letters. 106, 4, p. 609-637Elisabeth Lutyens and Edward Clark. The Orchestration of Progress in British Twentieth-Century Music
Forkert, A., 19 Oct 2023, 1st ed. Cambridge University Press. 300 p.‘Vaughan Williams and the Films. The Quest for the ‘Finest of the Fine Arts’
Forkert, A., Grimley, D. (Editor) & Adams, B. (Editor), 2023, Vaughan Williams and his World. University of Chicago Press, p. 107-34‘Savage Minds in British Early-Twentieth-Century Music’
Forkert, A. & Fleet, P. (Editor), 2022, Musics with and after Tonality. Mining the Gap. Routledge, p. 33-53 21 p.‘Microtonal Restraint’
Forkert, A., 2020, In: Journal of the Royal Musical Association. 145, 1, p. 75-118‘Lutyens in Liverpool’
Forkert, A., 2019, In: The Musical Times. 160, 1949, p. 91-98‘“Always a European”: Edward Clark’s Musical Work’
Forkert, A., 2018, In: The Musical Times. 159, 1943, p. 55-80Professional Activity
Public Presentations and Performance
British post-tonal symphonic ideas
Forkert, A. (Speaker / presenter)
Lost and missing music by female composers: gender and censorship in the twentieth century
Forkert, A. (Speaker / presenter)
Manchester Music Analysis Conference
Forkert, A. (Member of programme committee)
Music Analysis: Northwest Snapshots
Forkert, A. (Organiser)
Women’s Work in Music
Forkert, A. (Member of programme committee)
‘Franz Schreker’s Der Schatzgräber: Missing Jewels and Vanishing Fools’
Forkert, A. (Speaker / presenter) & Smith, K. (Speaker / presenter)
PhD Supervision and Examination
PhD Examination External
Forkert, A. (Examiner)
PhD examination External
Forkert, A. (Examiner)
Professional Service
Royal Musical Association (External organisation)
Forkert, A. (Member)
Journal of the Royal Musical Association (Journal)
Forkert, A. (Reviewer)