Sydney Conservatorium of Music announces Associate Dean of Research
Internationally renowned, Professor Neal Peres Da Costa is an historical keyboard authority specialising in performance on keyboard instruments of the 17th, 18th and 19th centuries.
Professor Anna Reid, Head of School and Dean of the Sydney Conservatorium of Music (SCM), says the Conservatorium is delighted to announce the appointment of Neal and believes his inimitable experience and knowledge as performer and educator will further enrich the Sydney Conservatorium of Music.
Neal is an amazing researcher and performer. He is world renowned for his work in historically informed practice, which includes experimental performance work alongside written representations of those works. We are looking forward to experiencing his musical influence as our Associate Dean (Research).
Professor Peres Da Costa joined the Sydney Conservatorium of Music in 2006 and founded the Early Music Unit (of which he was Chair from 2006-2016) now the Historical Performance Division and subsequently Program Leader of Postgraduate Research.
Professor Peres Da Costa’s monograph Off the Record: Performing Practices in Romantic Piano is hailed as a book that ‘no serious pianist should be without’ (Limelight, 2012 and received critical acclaim for the new Bärenreiter Urtext performing edition of the complete Brahms chamber works for one solo instrument and piano which he was chief editor. He received an ARIA for his CD recording of Bach’s Sonatas for violin and keyboard with Richard Tognetti and Daniel Yeadon (ABC Classics 2007) and his CD recording of Brahms’ piano chamber music with Ironwood (ABC Classics 2017) won the coveted ‘Strad Recommends’ from the Strad Magazine (UK.) He has also received prestigious Australian Research Council (ARC) funding for a three-year Discovery Project (2017-19) for performance research in 19th-century piano playing.
“I am excited to have been appointed to this role and very much looking forward to working with my SCM colleagues to increase the quality and impact of our research,” said Professor Peres Da Costa.
Neal regularly performs with Australia’s leading ensembles including the Australian Chamber Orchestra, Sydney Symphony Orchestra, Pinchgut Opera, the Song Company, the Australian Haydn Ensemble, Bach Akademie Australia and Ironwood.
Winner of the 2008 Fine Arts ARIA for Best Classical Recording for Bach’s Sonatas for violin and obbligato harpsichord (ABC Classics, 2007) with Richard Tognetti and Daniel Yeadon, Neal has a distinguished discography.
Neal donates much of his spare time to students through his involvement in mentoring and by providing masterclasses for high school students and emerging artists.
