Conservatorium Open Academy

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Neal Peres Da Costa is a world-renowned performing scholar, researcher and educator. He has held academic posts at the University of NSW, University of Leeds, Trinity College of Music (London), and Royal Academy of Music (London). He is Professor of Historical Performance at the Sydney Conservatorium of Music where he founded the Historical Performance division in 2007, and was the division's chair for eight years. Subsequently, he was Program Leader of Postgraduate Research. Currently, he is Associate Dean (Research).

Peres Da Costa has an impressive suite of traditional and non-traditional research outputs including his renowned monograph Off the Record: Performing Practices in Romantic Piano Playing (New York: Oxford University Press, 2012), which examines the expressive practices of 19th-century pianists through the lens of early sound recordings in conjunction with written sources. Recognised as a 'go-to' text, the monograph has had world-wide impact. It was honoured as ‘a notable book’ by Alex Ross (Apex List 2012,The New Yorker), was the subject of a five-part radio series on ABC Classic FM during the Sydney International Piano Competition, and featured in the ABC’s Music Makers programme.

Another notable publication is Peres Da Costa's co-edited (with Clive Brown and Kate Bennett Wadsworth) 11-volume instructive performance edition of the Sonatas for piano and a single melody instrument by Johannes Brahms, and accompanying Performance Practice booklet for Bärenreiter Verlag (2015/16). More recently, Peres Da Costa has co-authored (with Clive Brown) a substantial online performance practice commentary for the new edition of Beethoven’s Sonatas for Piano and Violin for Bärenreiter (2020). Single- and co-authroed book chapters and research-based live performances and recordings further demonstrate his research expertise and expand the body of knowledge and experience in the area of HIP. Recognition of his achievements in this area of research has lead to invitations to take part in cross-institutional research projects.

In 2017, Peres Da Costa was awarded an Australian Research Council Discovery Project DP170101976 Deciphering nineteenth-century pianism: invigorating global practrices. Currently, he is lead Chief Investigator on DP210101511 Hearing the music of early NSW, 1788-1860, and DP220101596 The shock of the old: rediscovering the sounds of bel canto 1700-1900. A recent creative research output of note is a novel recorded interpretation of Mozart's Piano Concerto K. 488 with the Australian Romantic & Classical Orchestra (a capstone recording for DP170101976), in which Peres Da Costa models expressive practices of the German pianist Carl Reinecke (b. 1824), hailed as athe consummate Mozart interpreter of the 19th century:https://www.arco.org.au/the-k488-projectSee also https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g9SLNnlTLRA&list=RDg9SLNnlTLRA&start_radio=1

Peres Da Costa's specialty expertise area is performance on historical keyboards of various epochs. He also has extensive expertise in directing orchestras (both period and modern instruments) and particularly in collaborative work with singers in opera, oratorio, and lieder performances and recordings. Most recently, he has developed expertise in the area of Australian colonial music-making, history and performance through a number of collaborative award-winning research projects with Australian industry partner Sydney Living Museums. He also has expertise in historical and contemporary composition styles and techniques through the creation of historically-inspired interpretations of music from the seventeenth to the early twentieth centuries, as well as through collaborating with living composers and commissioning new works for performances and recordings on period instruments.

Since 1991, Peres Da Costa has been a soloist, chamber and orchestral and continuo collaborator with leading national and international ensembles including: Ironwood; Bach Academy Australia, Australian Romantic & Classical Orchestra, Australian Chamber Orchestra, Sydney Symphony Orchestra, Pinchgut Opera, Sinfonia Australis, Australian Brandenburg Orchestra, Australian Bach Ensemble, Tasmanian Symphony Orchestra, Salut! Baroque, Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment, Academy of Ancient Music, and Florigium. He has regularly appeared at national and international Festivals including the Australian Festival of Chamber Music, Peninsula Summer Festival, and Canberra International Music Festival. His interviews, commentaries, research-based music programmes and live and pre-recorded performances are regularly broadcast on ABC Classic FM, other local radio stations, and the BBC.

With 30 years experience as a commercial recording artist, Peres Da Costa has deep knowledge of recording preparation, production and editing processes. He has successfully curated concert series and a music festival (The Eastside Sydney Music Festival, 2019). As a music educator, he has developed tertiary-level courses and pedagogical materials, and has delivered lectures in the areas of music history, pedagogy, performance and performance practice.