Natasha Loges appointed to a Personal Chair in Musicology

Wednesday 13 January 2021

Professor Natasha Loges HonRCM has been appointed to a Personal Chair by the Royal College of Music. As well as her role as Head of Postgraduate Programmes, she now gains the title of Professor of Musicology, in recognition of her outstanding contribution to research.

Professor Loges’ research interests include German song, concert history, 19th-century practice research, gender studies, word-music relationships, and the lives and music of Brahms and the Schumanns. Her research has been funded by the Arts and Humanities Research Council and the British Academy, and she has published several books as well as chapters in guides and journals. Keynotes have taken her to the University of California, Oxford University, Maynooth and Cornell.

Professor Loges has performed as a song accompanist at venues including the Holywell Music Room, Leith Hill Place and St Johns Smith Square. She broadcasts on BBC Radio 3 and reviews for BBC Music Magazine. She has given talks for festivals and venues including the Southbank Centre, Wigmore Hall, the Oxford Lieder Festival and Leeds Lieder, and is a member of the Women’s Song Forum and Council member of the Royal Musical Association.

Professor Colin Lawson comments: ‘I am delighted to appoint Professor Natasha Loges to a Personal Chair in Musicology. Her research into Brahms and his music has achieved international recognition and she has also published widely on a variety of other topics. She has overseen radical developments in the RCM doctoral programme and in the taught postgraduate curriculum.’

Professor Loges said: ‘I am privileged to work within the Royal College of Music’s outstanding research environment, surrounded by brilliant musicians and scholars. They are an unending source of inspiration to me.’

The principal criterion for appointment to a Personal Chair at the RCM is distinguished achievement in the area of research and innovation. Personal Chairs are normally active as researchers at a level rated as predominantly international by the Research Assessment Exercise and have made an outstanding contribution to the furtherance of knowledge or its application, creativity or artistic insight.