Imogen Cooper

Humanitas Visiting Professorship in Classical Music and Music Education (2012-2013)

The Humanitas Visiting Professorship in Classical Music and Music Education is one of the musical highlights in the University of Oxford’s calendar. It holds a breadth of events – ranging from lectures and symposia to recitals and masterclasses – that make accessible some of the world’s leading performers.

Imogen Cooper is one of the foremost performers of Schubert’s piano works.

Imogen Cooper begins her series with a piano recital of Schubert’s piano works. Between pieces she speaks widely about Schubert’s life and his music, from the maturing of his style evident in the first sonata to the relationship between his later pieces and his diagnosis with syphilis.

Cooper then gives a lecture entitled The Hidden Power of the Re-creative Process in Music. Cooper stresses the importance of live performance in giving music full potency, as she points out that it is a desire to share human experience that fuels the composer genius. Moreover, she suggests that this connection between long dead composer and today’s world can be considered a spiritual one. The creative, performance and absorbing experiences of composer, performer and audience have cathartic and healing values.

In the final symposium she is joined by world renowned British actor Simon Callow CBE and Professor Eric Clarke to discuss Performance – Interpretation or Identification?