About Austin
Dr Austin Glatthorn is a musicologist and cultural historian investigating musical life in early modern Europe. He is particularly interested in interdisciplinary approaches to the intersections of music, politics, aesthetics, and mobility in Central Europe around the year 1800.
Austin joined the RNCM in 2023. He completed his PhD at the University of Southampton in 2016, during which time he was a fellow of the Deutscher Akademischer Austauschdienst (2013–2014) and the Leibniz-Institut für Europäische Geschichte (2015). In 2016, he became the Postdoctoral Research Fellow on the project ‘Opera and the Musical Canon, 1750–1815’ funded by the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada and hosted by Dalhousie University. An Assistant Professor of Musicology at the Oberlin College & Conservatory of Music between 2018 and 2019, Austin then returned to the UK as a British Academy Newton International Fellow at Durham University.
Research
Current and Future Research
Austin’s first monograph, entitled Music Theatre and the Holy Roman Empire: The German Musical Stage at the Turn of the Nineteenth Century (Cambridge, 2022), draws on a wealth of archival sources and digital tools to explore the extent to which the Holy Roman Empire delineated and networked a cultural entity that found expression through music for the German stage. His book uncovers how material and discursive networks mediated an entangled web of Central European theatres—networked by postal communication and mobility—that served as preconditions for a shared musico-theatrical culture. Austin’s other recent work appears in book chapters and with A-R Editions, Eighteenth-Century Music, Journal of Musicology, Music & Letters, and Journal of War & Culture Studies. His article ‘The Imperial Coronation of Leopold and Mozart, Frankfurt am Main, 1790’ won the Mozart Society of America’s Marjorie Weston Emerson Award, and his essay ‘The Legacy of “Ariadne” and the Melodramatic Sublime’ was a winner of the Music & Letters Centenary Prize Competition. Austin often creates editions of music long since heard for performance and has worked with student ensembles to stage the modern premieres of such works in public concerts in the US, UK, and Germany. His edition of the melodrama Philon und Theone (1779), for instance, was used to stage its world premiere in Vienna (2021) as was planned, but never realized in the eighteenth century. Together with Estelle Joubert (Dalhousie University, Canada), Austin is currently editing the Cambridge History of German Opera to the Early Nineteenth Century.
Research Areas
- Music, diplomacy, and empire
- Early modern cultural history
- Music for Winds
- Melodrama & Opera
- Digital Humanities
External Research Roles
- Editor, Eighteenth-Century Music (Cambridge University Press) (2022 – 2026)
- Fellow, Royal Historical Society (2022 – present)
- Visiting Fellow, University of Southampton (2022 – present)
- Honorary Fellow, Durham University (2021 – present)
Funded Research Projects
MSCC: Manchester-Salford Commercialisation Consortium: Building a Regional TTO Community
Glatthorn, A. (CoPI) & Phillips, M. (CoPI)
Research England
1/11/24 — 30/06/25
Rethinking Classical Music: Music Theatre, The Holy Roman Empire, and the Musical Canon, 1775–1806
Glatthorn, A. (PI)
British Academy
1/04/19 — 1/10/21
Opera and the Musical Canon, 1750–1815
Glatthorn, A. (CoI) & Joubert, E. (PI)
Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada
1/09/15 — 1/07/18
The Theatre of Politics and the Politics of Theatre: Music as Representational Culture in the Twilight of the Holy Roman Empire
Glatthorn, A. (PI)
University of Southampton, Deutscher Akademischer Austauschdienst, Leibniz-Institut für Europäische Geschichte
1/11/12 — 1/07/16
Teaching
Undergraduate Teaching
Austin’s research helps inform his teaching. He holds a degree in education, and strives to provide students with a vibrant and engaging environment in which to explore music and the interrelated arts. He has taught at research-intensive and performance-focused institutions in the UK, US, and Canada and is passionate about helping students to explore digital tools to broaden their skillsets in music and the humanities more broadly.
Research Supervision
Current supervision of PhDs:
- Lotte Evans
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.Habsburgs Meistersänger: Allegorical Melodrama and the Bohemian Coronation of Leopold II, Prague 1791
Glatthorn, A., 2026, (Accepted/In press) Crowns, Coaches, Curtains: Music and the Habsburg Monarchy in the Long Nineteenth Century. Palgrave Macmillan, (Palgrave Studies in Modern Monarchy).Regensburg, das Haus Thurn und Taxis und die Grenzen der „Harmoniemusik“
Glatthorn, A., Knaus, K. (Editor) & Werr, S. (Editor), 2026, (Accepted/In press) In: Musik in Bayern (Jahrbuch der Gesellschaft für Bayerische Musikgeschichte).Transcribing the Popular: Harmonie Arrangements and Opera Reception, ca.1800
Glatthorn, A., 2026, Mozart and His World. Keefe, S. (ed.). Chicago: University of Chicago Press, p. 68-97 (The Bard Music Festival).The Cambridge History of German Opera to the Early Nineteenth Century
Glatthorn, A. (Editor), Joubert, E. (Editor), Mueller, A., Marcaletti, L., LaFountain, P., Kramer, U., Arango Calle, M., Loughridge, D., Schneider, M., Horz, A., Fisher, A., Hirschmann, K., Coffey, H., Nedbal, M., Kolb, F., Waeber, J., Babić, B., Hambridge, K., Rasch, R. & Betzwieser, T. & 6 others, , 2025, (In preparation) Cambridge University Press.Contextualising Melodrama in the Czech Lands in Concert and on Stage. By Judith A Mabary. Pp. 260. (Routledge, London and New York, 2020. IBSN 978-0-3674-7922-0, £130.00.)
Glatthorn, A., 2023, In: Music and Letters. 104, 3, p. 505-507The Magic Flute in 1791
Glatthorn, A., 2023, The Cambridge Companion to the Magic Flute. Waldoff, J. (ed.). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, p. 61-82Ideas on Teaching German Romantic Melodrama
Glatthorn, A., 2022Practice Research/Compositions
Druckfrisch Book Discussion (Podcast): “Music Theatre and the Holy Roman Empire” by Austin Glatthorn
Glatthorn, A., Körner, A. (Other), Babić, B. (Other) & Forster, E. (Other), 2024Druckfrisch Book Discussion (Video): “Music Theatre and the Holy Roman Empire” by Austin Glatthorn
Glatthorn, A., Körner, A. (Other), Babić, B. (Other) & Forster, E. (Other), 2024Professional Activity
Public Presentations and Performance
Eighteenth-Century Music Symposium
Babington, A. (Speaker / presenter), Duncan, C. (Speaker / presenter), Glatthorn, A. (Speaker / presenter) & Vickers, D. (Speaker / presenter)
Beyond Winds: Regensburg, the Thurn und Taxis, and the Limits of ‘Harmoniemusik’
Glatthorn, A. (Speaker / presenter)
Pure for the Arts
Glatthorn, A. (Speaker / presenter), Thormählen, W. (Speaker / presenter) & Gaudern, M. (Speaker / presenter)
New Approaches to German Opera, 1650–1820
Glatthorn, A. (Organiser) & Joubert, E. (Organiser)
Habsburgs Meistersänger: Allegorical Melodrama and the Bohemian Coronation of Leopold II, 1791
Glatthorn, A. (Invited speaker)
PhD Supervision and Examination
Doctoral Examining
Glatthorn, A. (Examiner)
Professional Service
Dittersdorf Symphony Project (Publisher)
Glatthorn, A. (Member of editorial board), Sutcliffe, W. D. (Member of editorial board), Hosar, H. (Member of editorial board) & Anđelić-Andžaković, D. (Member of editorial board)
Cambridge Opera Journal (Journal)
Glatthorn, A. (Reviewer)
Cambridge Opera Journal (Journal)
Glatthorn, A. (Reviewer)
Course Design and Instruction (Music and Cultural History)
Glatthorn, A. (Advisor), Doda, H. (Advisor) & Vokatý, L. (Consultant)