Professor Edward Venn

Profile

I am Professor of Music at the University of Leeds, having previously worked at Lancaster University (2001–13). My research focuses on the analysis and interpretation of twentieth-century and contemporary music, with a particular interest in the work of British composers. Recent publications include articles and book chapters on the music of Thomas Adès, Harrison Birtwistle, Simon Holt, David Matthews and Michael Tippett; current activity takes in the work of Julian Anderson, Michael Finnissy, Thomas Adès, and the documentaries of composers by the director Barrie Gavin.

I am a member of the Arts and Humanities Research Council peer review college, editor of the journal Music Analysis, the chair of the Creative Arts and Media subject cluster for the White Rose College of the Arts and Humanities (WRoCAH), and an advisor and regular contributor to the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography. My second monograph, Thomas Adès: Asyla (Landmarks in Music Since 1950), supported by a Leverhulme Research Fellowship, was published in 2017 by Routledge, who have also recently issued my The Music of Hugh Wood (Ashgate, 2008) in paperback. I have also published on pedagogical matters such as student engagement and sense of belonging. I am currently completing research as part of an AHRC Leadership Fellowship, The Operas of Thomas Adès, which has included the co-editing of Thomas Adès Studies (Cambridge University Press, 2022), which won the 2022 Society for Music Theory award for Outstanding multi-author publication.

Since 2023 I have been the Director of Pedagogic Research in the Arts (PRIA) in the Faculty of Arts, Humanities and Cultures.

In 2021–23 I was partially seconded to the Leeds Institute for Teaching Excellence to research student sense of belonging and interactive pedagogies. During the academic year 2022-23 I was also the DARE academic-in-residence at Opera North, and a member of the national committee for RAISE (Researching, Advancing,and Inspiring Student Engagement). I chaired the 2023 RAISE annual conference, held at the University of Leeds in September 2023.

I hold an LRSM in conducting, and have remained an active performer alongside my academic career. I have directed a range of ensembles based in North Yorkshire, Birmingham and the North-West of England, performing repertoire from 1500 to the present day. Ensembles include:

• York Symphony Orchestra
• Easingwold Singers
• Yorchestra
• Morecambe and District Philharmonic Choir
• Lancaster and District Male Voice Choir
• Contemporary Music Making for Amateurs (North west)
• Lancashire Chamber Orchestra
• Workers' Education Association Sinfonia (Birmingham, Ladywood)
• Aesklepios Orchestra (University of Birmingham Medical School)

Doctoral Supervision

I have experience of supervising students in analysis, opera studies, twentieth-century and contempoary music and music education, and welcome expressions of interest from potential research students. If you’re interested in finding out what I’m like as a supervisor, you can find details of current research students and projects (as well as contact details) in links lower down this page. Details about funding and scholarships available to PGR students in the School of Music can be found here.

Current Research Students (Primary supervisor)

• Abdulaziz Bulushi
• Stephanie Jones
• Oana Kariotoglou
• Sapphire Littler
• Shuai Liu
• John Monteiro
• Yuwei Wang
• Chenyu Xiao

Current Research Students (Co-Supervisor)

• Jinjing Liu
• Michelle Rudder
• Megan Stock

Completed Research Students (Primary supervisor)

• Emma Gallon (Lancaster University)
• Helen Thomas (Lancaster University)

Completed Research Students (Co-Supervisor)

• Adam Greig (Lancaster University)
• Hans Kretz (University of Leeds)
• Philip Purvis (Lancaster University)

Responsibilities

• Director of Pedagogic Research in the Arts

Research interests

• opera
• analysis
• interpretation
• music since 1900
• performance studies
• student engagement
• sense of belonging

Grants obtained:

• AHRC Leadership Fellowship (2020)
• Music and Letters Trust (2019)
• Erasmus+ mobility funding (2018)
• Music and Letters Trust (2016)
• Leverhulme Research Fellowship (2013)
• Ernst von Siemens foundation (2011)
• Music and Letters Trust (2011)
• Music Analysis Development Fund (2008)
• PALATINE Development Award (2008)
• German SFB 619 RitualDynamik(2008)
• Music Analysis Development Fund (2007)
• AHRB PhD Award (1999)

Journal editing/editorial boards:

• Editor, Music Analysis (2019–present)
• Associate Editor, Music Analysis (2017–2019)
• Critical Forum Editor, Music Analysis (2011–2016)
• Member of Music Analysis Editorial Board (2007–present)
• Member of Journal of Music and Meaning Editorial Board (2004–present)

Committee membership:

• Member of Executive Committe, National Association for Music in Higher Education (2008–11)
• Member of Executive Committee, Society for Music Analysis (2003–11)

Conference organisation:

• Chair, RAISE annual conference (University of Leeds, 2023)
• Organising, and tutoring on, Society of Music Analysis Summer School (University of Leeds, 2018)
• Organised and directed Be Not Afeard: Language, Music and Cultural Memory in the Operas of Thomas Adès (Senate House, London, 2017)
• Organised and directed two international conferences: Seventh International Conference on Music Since 1900 and Lancaster University Music Analysis Conference (Lancaster University, 2011)
• Organised 'Performance and Gesture' study day (Lancaster University, 2008)
• Organised SMA/PALATINE Study Day 'Music Analysis and Teaching' (Lancaster University, 2006)

• Co-director, ‘Music 625’: Performance and Music TV, 1960 and After (University of Leeds, 2018)
• Programme Committee, 9th European Music Analysis Conference (Strasbourg, 2017)
• Programme Committee, XIIIth Congress on Musical Signification (Canterbury Christ Church, 2016)
• Programme Committee, Keele University Music Analysis Conference (Keele, 2015)
• Programme Committee, Eighth International Conference on Music Since 1900 (Liverpool, 2013)
• Programme Committee, RaAM (Researching and Applying Metaphor) 9, (Lancaster, 2012)
• Programme Committee, European Music Analysis Conference (Rome, 2011)
• Co-director, 13th International Doctoral and Postdoctoral Seminar on Music Semiotics (University of Helsinki, March 2010)

Qualifications

• BA Music and Maths (first class), University of Birmingham (1997)
• MA in Music (distinction), University of Birmingham (1998)
• PhD in Music (University of Birmingham, 2002)
• LRSM
• SFHEA

Student education

My teaching in the School of Music is primarily in the areas of opera studies and music analysis. I also have contributed in recent years to performance modules and dissertation supervision and am module tutor for the Performing Arts project as part of the Pettman DARE fellowship.

External examining

• Phd, Kingston University (2011)
• Phd, Keele University (2014)
• Phd, Birmingham City University (2015)
• Phd, University of Huddersfield (2017)
• MA by Research, University of Birmingham (2017)
• Phd, University of Surrey (2017)
• Phd, Odeion School of Music, South Africa (2018)
• MPhil, University of Adelaide (2021)
• BA Music, University of Liverpool (2023 –26)
• PhD, University of Melbourne (2024)

Research groups and institutes

• Music as Culture
• PRIA

Current postgraduate researchers

• Stephanie Jones
• Emma Affleck
• Oana Kariotoglou Popescu
• Sapphire Littler
• Shuai Liu
• Xiao Chenyu