My research interests centre on the music of Fryderyk Chopin.

I am currently in the final stage of my PhD at the Royal Academy of Music. This research focuses on verbal markings in Chopin’s music — that is, markings given with words rather than signs.

My doctoral research, supervised by Sarah Callis, aims to deepen our appreciation of Chopin’s verbal markings and to enrich our response to the various musical and extra-musical contexts associated with them. The foundation of this research is a comprehensive catalogue of these markings, which facilitates their study. As well as making a close study of verbal markings in Chopin’s music and its sources, I also consider a variety of other sources that offer insights into how Chopin and his circles might have understood his vocabulary of Italian musical terms; these sources include contemporary musical glossaries, non-musical dictionaries, and materials featuring in his Italian language education. The exploration of pianos from Chopin’s time is invited by the fact that much of this vocabulary relates to concepts which are intimately connected with the physical realities of the instrument.

I have given lectures for postgraduate pianists at the Royal Academy of Music on my doctoral research topic and on early interpretative approaches to Chopin’s music as suggested by historical editions and recordings. I have also given public lecture-recitals on Chopin’s music. Two examples of these are:

Proto-Chopin and the Polonaise
The polonaise offers an ideal prism through which to explore Frederic Chopin’s pianistic and compositional development as the majority of his earliest surviving works belong to this genre. This event explores Chopin’s often lesser-known early polonaises together with examples by his teachers and associates, and by other Warsaw musicians of his youth.

Privatising Chopin: From Salle to Salon
This event presents well-known works by Fryderyk Chopin and, through exploring various ‘private’ aspects of his music, seeks to close the gap between pianist and audience.