Newsroom University of Manchester

An accomplished Music graduate has scooped the prestigious Dame Joan Sutherland Audience Prize at this year’s BBC Cardiff Singer of the World competition. Katie, who studied Music at the University of Manchester’s School of Arts, Languages and Cul...

Music composed by the University of Manchester Reader in Music Kevin Malone, inspired by grueling 18th century textile miller life, is being performed by the Orchestra of Opera North. Conducted by Robert Guy and brought to life by violinist An...

Singing is an activity that raises the spirits and brings people closer together, and University of Manchester student Volunteer of the Year Isla Atay achieved this and more with her unique choir. Isla (MusB 2020), coordinated a singing collec...

Choral singing at The University of Manchester has continued to go from strength to strength since the appointment of our new choral conductor, Rob Guy, in 2017. "Everyone associated with Manchester knows that our two student chamber choirs Ad Sol...

Emma has been appointed Assistant Director, for which she will be working on Laura Attridge’s production of 'The Magic Flute' and Britten's 'Abraham and Isaac' for two of the young artist singers. Emma (MusB, 2017) Says: "I’m really excited to ...

Matthew Bourne, with his ballet company - New Adventures - will be touring the UK including a month of dates at Sadler's Wells, between May and October, 2019. Ellie will be working with conductor Brett Morris, assisting in the orchestral and produ...

A Manchester Music academic has uncovered a piece by Henry Purcell that was previously unknown. Professor Rebecca Herissone has been carrying out research on the importance of Philip Hayes (1738–97) - one of the most significant early collectors o...

A University of Manchester music graduate has credited the strong foundations his degree gave him to help him win a top job at a world-leading new music group, saying his university career was the making of him. Sebastian Huckle (MusB, 2012) h...

A University of Manchester Music student has won the Royal Northern Sinfonia Young Composers’ competition. Alex Dakin (Year 3) has won with his work for chamber orchestra, Firework Spirals. His new work was premiered at the SAGE, Gateshead on ...

An international four-day music conference at The University of Manchester on 24-27 January 2019 marked the beginning of the celebrations of Mieczysław Weinberg’s centenary year. The Polish-born composer twice escaped from Nazi invasions and final...

Dr Richard Whalley has recently completed a 30-minute string quartet inspired by Icelandic geology, entitled ‘Mantle Plume’, written for the Quatuor Danel. It will be premiered in the TivoliVredenburg concert hall in Utrecht on 19 January 2019, th...

The MANTIS Festival in October 2018 featured a series of full-to-capacity electroacoustic concerts. This event took place in the John Thaw Studio Theatre, Martin Harris Centre. The festival showcased new works by postgraduates based at the Nov...

Music PhD candidate Epa Fassianos has been awarded First Prize in the 2018 Music Nova (Prague) competition. The award was in the fixed media category, for his 2015 composition Chromatocosmos. The work will be featured in a concert of the laure...

Manchester University Wind Orchestra (MUWO) set off in high spirits to take part in the regional National Concert Band Festival on 18 November – and returned with a much-coveted Platinum Award to add to the Gold and Silver Awards of previous years. ...

Professor Barry Cooper’s completion of the first movement of Beethoven’s unfinished Tenth Symphony has been performed across the world, on six continents, but never before in Manchester. This is set to change on Friday, when Symphonia Verbum, cond...

Manchester graduate Emma Doherty directs Schoenberg's surreal icon of Modernism, Pierrot Lunaire, on tour with the Manchester Collective in November 2018. The production features mezzo Lotte Betts-Dean and is conducted by Timothy Burke. The fir...

22 music students across undergraduate and postgraduate courses made their way to the Peak District to participate in an all-day wellbeing walk. As part of the departmental wellbeing initiative, 22 music students across undergraduate and postgradu...

On 31 October 2018, our world-renowned Beethoven scholar Professor Barry Cooper gave a lecture to the University of Manchester Alumni Association in the Prudential Hall of the China Exchange, London, on his work reconstructing some of Beethoven’s mus...

Jasmin Kent Rodgman is coming to the end of her time on the London Symphony Orchestra's prestigious Jerwood Composer+ scheme for 2017/2018. Jasmin was a Manchester Music undergraduate between 2007 and 2010, and completed a MusM in Composition in 2...

Manchester Vox - an a cappella vocal ensemble formed by students from the Music department and the Royal Northern College of Music - gave a spellbinding performance at the official launch of the University's new Creative Manchester project at the Whi...

Composer Michael Betteridge, who graduated in 2009, recently had a big success with his Twitter opera #echochamber. This chamber opera, which includes live tweeting, was the result of a two-year collaboration with Alþýðuóperan (Folk Opera Iceland)...

Music student Katherine Blumer won the Undergraduate of the Year award in the recent Distinguished Achievement Awards 2018. The award is made on the recommendation of staff and students within the University, in recognition of outstanding perform...

Former Manchester student Emma Wilde is set to have her new composition performed in the London Sinfonietta's Beacons event at the Queen Elizabeth Hall on 16 May. Emma studied composition with Camden Reeves, working through the MusB programme and...

The Music department at The University of Manchester was recently delighted to acquire four new Steinway grand pianos for use by students studying in the Martin Harris Centre. The instruments were chosen in Hamburg by Professor David Fanning and P...

The University of Manchester is investing £3.3m in a new project, Creative Manchester, which will help to support its ambitious strategic vision in the arts, cultural and creative industries locally, nationally and internationally. ...

This year Manchester’s famous music scene is home to another breakthrough - a Robot Orchestra. Made by children, and performing all styles of music from classical to soul, the Robot Orchestra will make its public debut on Wednesday 26 October at the ...

Honorary Professor and Music Director of The Hallé Sir Mark Elder CBE, will give his inaugural lecture at the University’s Martin Harris Centre for Music and Drama at 3pm on Thursday 29 September 2016. Sir Mark’s inaugural lecture, entitled ‘Are C...

Astrophysicists from The University of Manchester and The University of Cambridge have teamed up with secondary school students and Dance Manchester to create a performance to tell the story of the formation of stars in our solar system. The dance, S...

The University of Manchester is delighted to appoint Sir Mark Elder CBE as an Honorary Professor. Sir Mark has been Music Director of the Hallé since September 2000 and works as a guest with the world’s leading opera houses and symphony orchestras...

A new exhibition combines science and the arts to explore graphene and other 2D materials during Manchester’s tenure as European City of Science Wonder Materials: Graphene and Beyond, is making its world premiere at the Museum of Science and Indus...