The Purcell Compendium - book launch

The book launch marked the publication by the Boydell Press of The Purcell Compendium by Emeritus Professor Peter Holman and Professor Bryan White from the School of Music.

The book is a groundbreaking and comprehensive reference volume covering an extensive range of Purcell studies, including his life and works, his milieu and the reception of his music to the present. 

The launch was hosted jointly by the Special Collections of the University of Leeds Libraries and the School of Music. The event was attended by the dedicatees of the book, Olive Baldwin and Thelma Wilson, who contributed their expertise on English vocalists (especially theatre singers) of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. It was also attended by Prof Michael Talbot, the editor of Boydell’s Compendium series. 

At the Bedford room of the Brotherton Library attendees viewed items from the special collections related to Purcell and his contemporaries. Subsequently at the School of Music there was a short concert of works by Purcell performed by Professors Holman and White and friends, followed by a reception.