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Fiona M. Palmer (Professor of Music) is a musicologist and a performer whose research expertise lies in the cultural history of music and musicians in the marketplace (1780s–1940s). Fiona's publications include studies of soloists, conductors, performance/professional institutions, and music publishers and she is a Fellow of the Royal Historical Society. Her research explores the culture and commerce of the British music profession by engaging with issues including career trajectories, professionalization, networking, reception, and performance practice. Her current large-scale research project is focused on a monograph (under contract with Boydell Press) and provisionally titled The Orchestral Conducting Profession in Britain, 1914–1933. This book is planned as a sequel to her groundbreaking prosopography, Conductors in Britain, 1870–1914: Wielding the Baton at the Height of Empire (Boydell, 2017).
Fiona served as Professor and Head of Maynooth University's Department of Music (2007–14) and as its Director of Research (2017–21). A double bassist, mezzo-soprano, and flautist, she is a first-class honours graduate of Birmingham Conservatoire and undertook her PhD in Musicology (British Academy Scholar) at the University of Birmingham. Aside from academic posts, her varied career has included work as a professional orchestral player, as the Manager of the Examinations Department at the ABRSM (London), and as a peripatetic instrumental/vocal teacher and conductor. In October 2007 Fiona moved from a Senior Lectureship at Queen’s University, Belfast, to take up the position of Professor of Music and Head of Department at Maynooth University. During her Headship (2007–2014) the Department of Music expanded its personnel and its physical resources; undertook a systematic review and development of its research activities, taught programmes, and postgraduate research provision; and expanded its conference hosting, ensemble portfolio, and concert-giving activities.
Research & Publications
*Current monograph project focused on the conducting profession in Britain, 1914–1930s (under contract with Boydell Press).
*Commissioned chapters (in press) on biography and life-writing (OUP) and symphony commissioning practices in Britain since 1900 (CUP).
Peer-reviewed article, published in Music and Letters (August 2021) 'The Musical Conductors' Association: Collective Podium Power in Wartime Britain', provides new insights in respect of individual and collective agency, networks, collective bargaining, and authority among British conductors who sought to identify themselves as a separate and powerful branch of the music profession during the First World War.
Most recent monograph:Conductors in Britain, 1870–1914: Wielding the Baton at the Height of Empire (Woodbridge: Boydell Press, 2017), presents a new interpretation of the evolution of conducting as a profession in late-Victorian Britain. The varied fortunes of eight conductors (Julius Benedict, William Cusins, Arthur Sullivan, Joseph Barnby, Alexander C. Mackenzie, Frederic H. Cowen, Dan Godfrey Jr and Landon Ronald) provide a lens through which institutional and professional opportunities during this dynamic period are analyzed in a fresh and richly-contextualized way. Drawing on detailed research into British concert-life it sheds new light on the histories of organizations including the Philharmonic Society of London, Liverpool Philharmonic Society, Manchester's Hallé Orchestra, the Bournemouth Municipal Orchestra, the Royal Choral Society, Birmingham Promenade Concerts and music festivals nationwide.
See the Research and Publications tabs for more information on Fiona's areas of expertise and research activities.
Outreach
Fiona was a Director on the Board of the National Youth Orchestra of Ireland (2007–22) and served on the Nominations Committee of the North American British Music Studies Association (2021–23). She is currently an external examiner for the University of Birmingham's MA in Music programme (2021—). She previously served as an external examiner for the BMus programme at MTU Cork School of Music (2020–23), the University of Liverpool's BA Music programme (2018—2022) and for degree programmes at Liverpool Hope University, the Royal College of Music and at the Dundalk Institute of Technology; and for doctoral and MPhil dissertations at the Universities of Melbourne, Birmingham, Leeds, Canterbury Christchurch College, Edinburgh, and Queen’s Belfast; and at the Royal College of Music (London) and Royal Northern College of Music (Manchester).
Fiona has contributed to radio documentaries and discussions onstations including Bayerische Rundfunk Klassik; BBC Radio Ulster; RTÉ Radio 1; and RTÉ lyric fm; she has also served as an adjudicator and chair for the televised UTV Choir of the Year Competition and for ISB research competitions.
Memberships International Musicological Society; North American British Music Studies Association; Royal Musical Association; Society for Musicology in Ireland.
Performing Activities
Fiona was very lucky to be trained via the Northamptonshire Music Service from a young age and participated in multiple ensembles, recitals, international tours and residential courses. As a first-class graduate of the Birmingham Conservatoire, with double bass as her first study, she freelanced with many ensembles, especially the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra (1989–1997). During these years the CBSO enjoyed the stewardship of Sir Simon Rattle and Fiona was involved with recordings under the direction of conductors including Walter Weller and Paarvo Jaervi; she was also a member of the Auckland Philharmonia Orchestra (New Zealand).
Training and Previous Employment
Fiona undertook her doctoral research at Birmingham University (1990–93) where she was fortunate to enjoy the mentorship of Professor Cyril Ehrlich alongside supervision from Professors Basil Deane and Colin Timms. She was Manager of the Examinations Department at the Associated Board of the Royal Schools of Music in London (1997–99). During this time she project-managed the ground-breaking Diploma 2000 Syllabus and liaised with educational agencies (such as the QCA) over benchmarking agreements. In July 1999 she moved to Northern Ireland to work at Queen's University in Belfast where she was promoted to Senior Lecturer in 2002. During her eight years at QUB she transformed the Performance Programme, convened the BMus degree, taught modules across the curriculum (UG and PG) and served on committees at School, University and national levels. She also regularly played the double bass on a freelance basis with the Ulster Orchestra, traveling with them to New York and to perform at the BBC's Promenade Concerts in London.
Socio-economic history of music/the music business
Conducting/conductors/the conducting profession
Music in Britain
Biography (including career trajectories, image-making and influence)
Insitutional histories
Music criticism
Orchestras and choral societies
Performance practice including music publishing
Listen to Fiona's radio broadcast—Christmas Eve RTÉ lyricfm Interval Feature—on Handel's Messiah and its continuing relevance in the 21st century [listen here (starts at 57 minutes into this broadcast link)]
Palmer, Fiona M. (2017) Conductors in Britain c. 1870-1914: Wielding the Baton at the Height of Empire. Woodbridge: Boydell Press. [Link]
2006
Palmer, Fiona M. (2006) Vincent Novello (1781-1861): Music for the Masses. : Ashgate Publishing.
1997
Palmer, Fiona M. (1997) Dragonetti in England (1794-1846): the Career of a Double Bass Virtuoso. : Oxford University Press.
1996
Palmer, Fiona M. (1996) Barber Evening Concerts and Operas: the First Fifty Years. Birmingham: Birmingham University Press.
Peer Reviewed Journal
Year
Publication
2021
Fiona M. Palmer (2021) 'The Musical Conductors’ Association: Collective Podium Power in Wartime Britain?'. Music and Letters, 102 (3):559-598. [Link][DOI][Full-Text]
2020
Palmer, Fiona M.; Ponchione-Bailey, Cayenna; Traill, John; co-eds; (2020) 'Oxford Conducting Institute Special Issue'. Music Performance Research, 10 (December 2020):1-85. [Link]
2020
Palmer, Fiona M.; Ponchione-Bailey, Cayenna; Traill, John; co-eds; (2020) '‘Guest Editorial: Positioning “conducting studies” in 2020 – where are we and where can we go?’'. Music Performance Research, 10 (December 2020):i-viii. [Link] https://doi.org/10.14439/mpr.10.1 [Full-Text]
2005
Olleson, Philip and Palmer, Fiona M., (2005) 'Publishing Music from the Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge: the Work of Vincent Novello and Samuel Wesley in the 1820s'. Journal of the Royal Musical Association, cxxx :38-73. [DOI][Full-Text]
Book Chapter
Year
Publication
2019
Fiona M. Palmer (2019) ''Madame Stockhausen was not at Rehearsal—but why not?!: Sir George Smart's Perspective on the Dublin Grand Musical Festival of 1831'' In: Irish Musical Studies 12: Documents of Irish History in the Long Nineteenth Century. Dublin : Four Courts Press. [Link]
2018
Palmer Fiona M. (2018) 'Cultural Demand and Supply in an Imperial Trading Centre: Developing the Liverpool Philharmonic Society Orchestra in the Mid-Nineteenth Century' In: Global Perspectives on Orchestras: Collective Creativity and Social Agency. New York : Oxford University Press. [DOI]
2016
Palmer Fiona M. (2016) ''Conductors and Self-Promotion in the British Nineteenth-Century Marketplace'' In: The Idea of Art Music in a Commercial World, 1800-1930. Woodbridge : Boydell Press. [Link][Full-Text]
2015
Fiona M. Palmer (2015) ''The Large-Scale Oratorio Chorus in Nineteenth-Century England: Choral Power and the Role of Handel’s Messiah'' In: Choral Societies and Nationalism in Europe. Leiden : Brill. [Link][DOI][Full-Text]
2014
Fiona M. Palmer (2014) ''Conductors and Conducting in Nineteenth-Century Britain: The Liverpool Philharmonic Society (1840-1895)'' In: Orchestral Conducting in the Nineteenth Century (Speculum Musicae, 23). Turnhout : Brepols. [Link]
2012
Palmer, Fiona M (2012) 'A Home for the 'Phil': Liverpool's First Philharmonic Hall (1849)' In: MUSIC AND INSTITUTIONS IN NINETEENTH-CENTURY BRITAIN. ALDERSHOT : ASHGATE PUBLISHING LTD. [Link]
2003
Palmer, Fiona M. (2003) 'Vincent Novello and the Philharmonic Society of London' In: Nineteenth-Century British Music Studies III. Aldershot : Ashgate Publishing. [Link]
2002
Fiona M. Palmer (2002) 'A Halo of Light Around us All: Clementi in 1827 through the eyes of his Contemporaries' In: Muzio Clementi Opera Omnia Volume 61: Muzio Clementi: Studies and Prospects. Bologna : Ut Orpheus Edizioni. [Link]
1993
Fiona M. Palmer (1993) 'Domenico Dragonetti and the Double Bass in London at the Turn of the Eighteenth Century' In: Michael Burden & Irena Cholij(Eds.). A Handbook for Studies in Eighteenth Century Music, iv. Edinburgh : University of Edinburgh: Burden & Cholij.
2024
Fiona M. Palmer (2024) '‘Performance Institutions and Commissioning Bodies’ in Nicholas Jones, ed., The Symphony in Britain and Ireland Since 1900: A Critical History (Cambridge: CUP, 2024)' In: The Symphony in Britain and Ireland Since 1900: A Critical History. Cambridge : Cambridge University Press.
2024
Fiona M. Palmer (2024) '*‘Conductors’, in Paul Watt and Christopher Wiley, eds, Oxford Handbook of Musical Biography and Life-Writing (Oxford: OUP, 2024)' In: Oxford Handbook of Musical Biography and Life-Writing. Oxford : Oxford University Press.
Book Review
Year
Publication
2021
Fiona M. Palmer (2021) Book Review: Peter Holman, Beyond the baton. Musical direction and conducting in Stuart and Georgian Britain, Early Music. Oxford: [Book Review] [Link][DOI]
2020
Fiona M. Palmer (2020) NABMSA Review: Hannah French. Sir Henry Wood: Champion of J.S. Bach. (Woodbridge UK: Boydell Press, 2019). USA: [Book Review] [Link]
2018
Fiona M. Palmer (2018) Victorian Studies Review: The Social Worlds of Nineteenth-Century Chamber Music: Composers, Consumers, Communities, by Marie Sumner Lott; pp. viii + 307. Urbana, Chicago and Springfield: University of Illinois Press, 2015; Rival Sisters, Art and Music at the Birth of Modernism, 1815–1915, edited by James H. Rubin with Olivia Mattis; pp. xv + 389. Farnham, Surrey and Burlington, VT: Ashgate Publishing, 2014, Victorian Studies (Summer 2018), pp. 657–60. Victorian Studies: [Book Review] [DOI]
2017
Fiona M. Palmer (2017) NABMSA Review: Bedford’s Musical Society: A History of Bedford’s Choral Society . Michael Benson, with an introduction by Donald Burrows. Woodbridge, UK and New York: Boydell Press, 2015. ii + 289pp. ISBN 978 - 0 - 8515 - 5081 - 7 (hardcover). USA: [Book Review] [Link][Full-Text]
2014
Professor Fiona M. Palmer (2014) NABMSA Review: 'J. Oates, Hamish MacCunn (1868-1916): A Musical Life (Farnham, Surrey; Burlington VT: Ashgate, 2013)'. [Book Review] [Link][Full-Text]
2010
Fiona M. Palmer (2010) 'Viotti's Chequered Life'. [Book Review] [DOI]
2009
Palmer, Fiona M. (2009) Robert Beale, Charles Halle: A Musical Life (Aldershot: Ashgate Publishing, 2007). [Book Review] http://www.music.ucc.ie/JSMI/index.php/jsmi/article/view/64/0 [Full-Text]
2002
Fiona M. Palmer (2002) ‘Professionally Speaking’, Rohr, D., The Careers of Professional Musicians 1750–1850 (Cambridge: CUP, 2001); Olleson, P., The Letters of Samuel Wesley: Professional and Social Correspondence 1797–1837 (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 2001); Kassler, M. & Olleson, P. (eds), Samuel Wesley 1766–1837: A Source Book (Aldershot: Ashgate, 2001). [Book Review]
2001
Fiona M. Palmer (2001) Alfred Planyavsky, The Baroque Double Bass Violone, trans. James Barket. [Book Review]
2000
Fiona M. Palmer (2000) ‘Paul Brun, A New History of the Double Bass (France: Paul Brun Productions, 2000)’. [Book Review]
Radio Presentation
Year
Publication
2019
Fiona M. Palmer (2019) Why is Handel's Messiah still popular?. Limerick: [Radio Presentation] [Link]
2015
Fiona M. Palmer (2015) Mit Holz und Seele: Millanolo Stradivarius Violin. [Radio Presentation]
2013
Fiona M. Palmer (2013) 'Off The Shelf' Panel Discussion presented by Andy O'Mahony with panellists John Hughes, Kevin O'Connell and Fiona M. Palmer. [Radio Presentation] [Link]
Fiona M. Palmer (2013) 'Novello Family'. [Dictionary Entry] [Link]
2013
Fiona M. Palmer (2013) ’Novello, (Francis) Vincent’, in Watson, J. R. et al (eds), A New Dictionary of Hymnology (London: Canterbury Press/Michigan: Eerdmans Publishing Co., 2013). [Dictionary Entry]
2007
Fiona M. Palmer (2007) 'Novello, family'. [Dictionary Entry]
2004
Fiona M. Palmer (2004) • ‘Barthélémon, Francois Hippolite (1741–1808)’;
• ‘Cervetto, Giacobbe (1682–1783)’;
• ‘Clagget, Charles (1740–1820)’;
• ‘Condell, Henry (1757–1824)’;
• ‘Crosdill, John (1751–1825)’;
• ‘Dragonetti, Domenico (1763–1846)’;
• ‘Paxton, Stephen (1735–87)’;
• ‘Piatti, Alfredo (1822–1901)’
in Harrison, B. (ed.), New Dictionary of National Biography (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2004) (commissioned) www.oxforddnb.com
. [Dictionary Entry]
2001
Fiona M. Palmer (2001) ‘Dragonetti, Domenico’, in Sadie, S. (ed.), New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians, 2nd Edition, 29 vols (London: Macmillan, 2001) vii, 593–4 (commissioned: completely new article) . [Dictionary Entry]
Conference Contribution
Year
Publication
2022
Fiona M. Palmer (2022) Maynooth University Music Department Research Seminar ‘Unpacking the Maestro Myth: Bugs Bunny, Clerical Garb, and a Walrus Moustache…’ Maynooth University, 09/11/2022-09/12/2022.
2021
Fiona M. Palmer (2021) Oxford Conducting Institute International Conducting Studies Conference '‘The old custom of chance will no longer do; let us have intelligently taught conductors’: Contextualizing Conductor Training in Britain (1890s–1920s)' Online, 25/06/2021-26/06/2021.
2019
Fiona M. Palmer (2019) Royal Musical Association 55th Annual Conference 'Collective Podium Power: Protecting British Conductors During and After World War I' Royal Northern College of Music and University of Manchester, 11/09/2019-13/09/2019.
2019
Fiona M. Palmer (2019) 'Agency and Identity in Music', International Musicological Society Intercongressional Symposium Consolidating the Position of British Conductors in 1916: Issues of Identity and Influence in the Musical Conductors’ Association Lucerne University of Applied Sciences and Arts, Switzerland, 07/07/2019-10/07/2019.
2019
Fiona M. Palmer (2019) 17th Annual Plenary Conference of the Society for Musicology in Ireland ‘Consolidating the Position of British Conductors’: Issues of Identity and Influence in the Musical Conductors’ Association (1916)' Maynooth University, 28/06/2019-30/06/2019.
2018
Fiona M. Palmer (2018) Inside, Outside, and in Between: Institutionalization in Music History. The Fifth Sibelius Academy Symposium in Music History ’Dan Godfrey Junior and Bournemouth’s Municipal Orchestra before 1914’ Helsinki, Finland, 06/06/2018-08/06/2018.
2018
Fiona M. Palmer (2018) Oxford Conducting Institute International Conducting Studies Conference ‘Defining the Conductor’s Job Description in Britain before 1914: Dan Godfrey Junior and Bournemouth’s Municipal Orchestra’ St Anne's College, University of Oxford, 21/06/2018-23/06/2018.
2017
Fiona M. Palmer (2017) World War I and Music: 13th International Musicological Conference of the Croatian Musicological Society ‘Resisting Foreign Invasion: World War I and the Campaign for the British Conducting Profession’ Zagreb, Croatia, 24/10/2017-27/10/2017.
2017
Fiona M. Palmer (2017) Royal Musical Association 53rd Annual Conference ‘Every musician (or rather soi-disant musician) … thinks he can conduct’: Reinterpreting Ideologies of Orchestral Conducting in 1870s Britain’ Liverpool University, 07/09/2017-09/09/2017.
2017
Fiona M. Palmer (2017) Eleventh Biennial International Conference on Music in 19th-Century Britain 'Forging a Conducting Profile in Britain before World War I: Landon Ronald and the Birmingham Promenade Concerts (1905–14)' University of Birmingham, 28/06/2017-30/06/2017.
2016
Fiona M. Palmer (2016) SMI Plenary Conference ‘Hundreds of people are unable to differentiate between a man who wags a stick and the artist who inspires and controls’: Concepts of Conducting in Britain in 1913’ St Patrick's College, DCU, 10/06/2016-12/06/2016.
2016
Fiona M. Palmer (2016) Oxford Conducting Institute Conducting Conference ‘Hundreds of people are unable to differentiate between a man who wags a stick and the artist who inspires and controls’: Concepts of Conducting in Britain in 1913’ St Anne's College, Oxford Unversity, 24/06/2016-26/06/2016.
2016
Fiona M. Palmer (2016) North American British Music Studies Association Biennial Conference ‘‘I am your leader, and you must follow me’: Sir Joseph Barnby as Conductor of the Royal Choral Society (1872–1896)’ Syracuse University, New York, 04/08/2016-06/08/2016.
2015
(2015) Philharmonic Societies:Celebrating 175 Years of the Original Liverpool Sound Royal Liverpool Philharmonic: 175 Years of the Original Liverpool Sound Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra, William Brown Library, Liverpool, .
2014
(2014) 'Liverpool Philharmonic - Causes and Effects - Central Themes' CMPCP Workshop: Prof. T.K. Ramnarine University of London: Senate House, .
2013
(2013) ‘Developing the Liverpool Philharmonic Society Orchestra in the mid-19th century' Performance Studies Network Second International Conference University of Cambridge, .
2013
(2013) ‘I cannot do Strauss’s Till Eulenspiegel with deputies’ Eighth Biennial International Music in Nineteenth-Century Britain Conference University of Cardiff, .
2012
(2012) ‘Sir Julius Benedict (1804-1885): Reinterpreting the Conducting Career of a Naturalised Englishman' Plenary Conference of the Society for Musicology Ireland Dundalk Institute of Technology, .
2012
(2012) ‘Sir Julius Benedict (1804-1885): Reinterpreting the Conducting Career of a Naturalised Englishman' Seventeenth Biennial International Conference on 19th-Century Music University of Edinburgh, .
2011
(2011) ‘Choral Societies in England and nationalist Mobilization in Nineteenth Century Europe’ SPIN SPIN/De Singel Antwerp, .
2011
(2011) ‘Conductors and Conducting in 19th-Century Britain: The Liverpool Philharmonic Society as Case Study La Spezia CAMEC Italy - La Spezia, .
2011
(2011) ‘Infrastructures and Personnel: Case Studies in the Evolution of the Liverpool Philharmonic Society The Orchestra in Global Perspective Workshop III, AHRC Centre for Musical Performance Institute of Musical Research London, .
2011
(2011) 'Music for the Masses' RCM Grove Forum Royal College of Music London, .
2010
(2010) ‘”His Beat Is Clear and Decisive”: Max Bruch as Conductor of the Liverpool Philharmonic Society' Musicology Research Seminar Series Liverpool Hope University, .
2010
(2010) 'Orchestral Direction in the Nineteenth Century: Pioneers on the Podium' NUI Maynooth Music Department Research Seminar NUI Maynooth, .
2010
(2010) Making an Orchestra Work: Perspectives from the Nineteenth Century Global Perspectives on the Orchestra: Workshop I: the Symphony Orchestra AHRC Centre for Musical Performance as Creative Practice, Institute of Musical Research, London Univ, .
2010
(2010) His Beat Is Clear and Decisive”: Max Bruch as Conductor of the Liverpool Philharmonic Society in the Fourth Biennial Conference of the North American British Musical Studies Association Des Moines, Iowa USA, .
2010
(2010) Defining the Job Description: Case Studies in English Orchestral Conducting in the mid-1800s The Symphony Orchestra as Cultural Phenomenon Institute of Musical Research, University of London, .
2009
(2009) Making it in the 19th-century Music Profession: The Contrasting Careers of Dragonetti...marketplace History Department Research Seminar Series NUI Maynooth, .
2009
(2009) Finding Direction: Hierarchies in the Early Years of the Liverpool Philharmonic Society Joint Annual Conference of the Royal Musical Association and Society for Musicology Ireland RIAM, Dublin, .
2009
(2009) Finding Direction: Hierarchies in the Early Years of the Liverpool Philharmonic Society 7th Biennial Conference on Music in 19th-Century Britain Bristol University, .
2007
(2007) Vincent Novello’s Circle: Figures and Functions Music Department Research Seminar Series NUI Maynooth, .
2007
(2007) A Home for the Phil: The Unveiling of Liverpool’s Philharmonic Hall in 1849 SMI Annual Conference Waterford Institute of Technology, .
2007
(2007) A Home for the Phil: The Unveiling of Liverpool’s Philharmonic Hall in 1849 6th Biennial Conference on Music in 19th-Century Britain Birmingham University, .
2006
(2006) Vincent Novello’s Circle: Figures and Functions Centre for Eighteenth-Century Studies Queen's University Belfast, .
2005
(2005) Patterns in Vincent Novello’s Editorial Output 1811–32: Quantity v. Quality? 5th Biennial International Conference on Music in 19th-Century Britain University of Nottingham, .
2005
(2005) Vincent Novello and “This Extraordinary Genius”: Henry Purcell SMI Annual Conference University College Cork, .
2004
(2004) Vincent and Mary Novello: Family Ties, Values and Quarrels SMI Annual Conference Queen's University Belfast, .
Magazine Article
Year
Publication
2005
Fiona M. Palmer (2005) The Dragon of Leicester Square. [Magazine Article]
Thesis
Year
Publication
1994
Fiona M. Palmer (1994) Domenico Dragonetti in England 1763-1846: the Career of a Double Bass Virtuoso. Birmingham: [Thesis]