Richard Kurth

Richard Kurth is Director of the School of Music at the University of British Columbia and Associate Professor of Music Theory, with a background in performance (M.Mus. Oboe). He regularly teaches advanced courses and seminars on how analysis can inform performance, and on the relationships between music and poetry in art song. His sessions during VISI will combine lecture and group discussion and will examine selected songs, exploring sounds and meanings in the poetry, sounds and meanings in the music, and how these two networks interact to create distinct and powerful artworks. Special attention will be given to performers’ expressive choices and strategies: how singer and pianist can coordinate their own interplay of these interacting dimensions to shape the meaning and the expressive force of the song.