My research focuses on music and musical culture in the United Kingdom from the mid-nineteenth century until the end of the First World War. I have recently completed a book on Britain’s operatic culture between 1875 and 1918 which examines repertory performed, company organisation, the challenges faced by the British opera composer, and social attitudes to opera; this will be published before the end of 2013. While my primary activity is currently focused on opera, I also have strong interests in music in the Anglican church in this period, and in various aspects of art music in Ireland. Most of this develops out of my original doctoral research which focused on the operas of Charles Stanford; since then I have published a monograph on Stanford’s life and works (Ashgate, 2002) and other work has often arisen as branches of this original research. An edited volume, Music and Institutions in Nineteenth Century Britain, was published by Ashgate in 2012, and an article on late Victorian Creed Settings is currently in press (Journal of the Society for Musicology in Ireland).
I am currently writing a monograph on The Reception and Influence of French Music in Britain 1830-1914¸ projected for publication by Routledge, and working on book chapters on ‘Carmen in England’ and ‘The influence of French composers on the music of Frank Bridge’, both projected for publication by Cambridge University Press. Future projects include articles on the impact of the Oxford Movement and Ritualism on Anglican church music and musicians in Birmingham in the nineteenth century, and on opera in pre-Victorian Birmingham.