Rate My Professor Bryan White

Professor Bryan White is Professor of Musicology in the School of Music at the University of Leeds, where he currently serves as Interim Head of School. He holds a BMus degree from Southern Methodist University, Dallas, Texas (1991), an MA in Performance Studies from the University of Wales, Bangor (1992), and a PhD from the University of Wales, Bangor (2000) for his thesis titled 'Louis Grabu and his opera Albion and Albanius'. White commenced his lecturing career at Bretton Hall in 1998 and joined the University of Leeds in 2001.

Professor White's research specializations encompass seventeenth-century music, eighteenth-century music, opera, choral music, musical odes, St Cecilia and music, music editing, music and collectors, and archival studies. His primary academic interests lie in British music and culture spanning the seventeenth to nineteenth centuries, including the music of the English court and Chapel Royal, opera at court and in public theatres, anthems and their political significance, music making in personal correspondence, Cecilian odes, and celebrations of St Cecilia's Day in the British Isles—a topic central to his monograph Music for St Cecilia’s Day from Purcell to Handel (Boydell Press, 2019). He has edited two volumes for the Purcell Society Companion Series, including Louis Grabu's Albion and Albanius, and co-edited Musical Exchange between Britain and Europe, 1500-1800 (Boydell Press, 2020). Notable articles include 'Anthems and Politics in the Restoration Chapel Royal' (Music & Letters, 2021), '"Brothers of the string": Henry Purcell and the letter-books of Rowland Sherman' (Music & Letters, 2011), and 'Letter from Aleppo: dating the Chelsea School performance of Dido and Aeneas' (Early Music, 2009). White curated an exhibition on W. T. Freemantle's musical collections at the Treasures of the Brotherton Gallery (March–August 2019). He serves on the editorial board of the Web Library of Seventeenth-Century Music, chairs Leeds Baroque, and directs the Clothworkers Consort of Leeds, where he performs as choral director, soloist, and singer. His teaching covers music history, notation and editing, archival studies, opera studies, and choral performance, and he supervises PhD students in related areas.