Music Scholars at St Mary's School, Cambridge enjoyed a lecture recital by Dr Patricia Howard on Monday 19 October 2009, and took part in a piece not performed in over 200 years.
Dr Howard has been researching the life and work of Gaetano Guadagni, a celebrated castrato singer of the eighteenth century. She talked to students about this work and used several different types of musical examples to illustrate her lecture, including a digital mix of female soprano voice and male alto voice (a pure but artificial sound contrived to represent the sound of the castrato singers). The second example was a recording made in 1904 of one of the last castrati. The talk finished with a live performance, as shown, by five of the St Mary's music scholars of Vallotti's O Lingua Benedicta, originally written for the Feast of St Antony in Padua in the eighteenth century.
The Music Department was delighted to confer the honorary award of Doctor of the University on Sir Mark Elder, for Services to the Arts. Sir Mark Elder is Music Director of the Hallé Orchestra and works regularly with the world's leading orchestras and opera companies.
Sir Mark Elder, Professor David Vincent, and Dr Fiona Richards
Professor Donald Burrows presented Julian Bream with the honorary degree of Doctor of the University for Services to the Arts. Julian Bream has been acknowledged as one of the most remarkable guitarists of the twentieth century, winning many international awards.
