King’s music professor elected FBA
18 Jul 2008, PR 155/08
Roger Parker, Thurston Dart Professor of Music at King’s College London and one of the world’s leading experts on 19th-century Italian opera, has been elected a Fellow of the British Academy.Professor Parker was one of 38 distinguished scholars elected Ordinary Fellows of the British Academy at its AGM on 17 July 2008.
Professor Parker, who is also a graduate of King’s, returned to the College in 2006 as Thurston Dart Professor of Music following professorial posts at both Oxford and Cambridge. Prior to that he spent more than ten years at Cornell University. In 2002 he was the Visiting Ernest Bloch Lecturer at the University of California, Berkeley and in 2007 he was a visiting scholar at the Institute for Advanced Study at Princeton.
His work has centred on opera, in particular Italian opera of the 19th century. For ten years he was founding co-editor (with Arthur Groos) of the Cambridge Opera Journal, and he continues as General Editor (with Gabriele Dotto) of the Donizetti Critical Edition. He received the Premio Giuseppe Verdi in 1986, was a Guggenheim Fellow in 1986-7, and in 1991 was awarded the Dent Medal of the Royal Musical Association.
Publications
Recent publications include The New Grove Guide to Verdi and his Operas (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2007) and Remaking the Song: Operatic Visions and Revisions from Handel to Berio (Berkeley & Los Angeles: University of California Press, 2006).
Professor Parker comments: ‘I am delighted, and of course honoured, to have been elected, and look forward to representing King’s from within the Academy’s ranks.’
There are now more than 15 members of King’s staff who are Fellows of the British Academy.
Notes to editors
The British Academy
Established by Royal Charter in 1902, the British Academy is an independent learned society promoting the humanities and social sciences. It is composed of Fellows elected in recognition of their distinction as scholars in the humanities and social sciences. More information about the British Academy may be found at: http://www.britac.ac.uk
King’s College London
King’s College London is one of the top 25 universities in the world (Times Higher 2007) and the fourth oldest in England. A research-led university based in the heart of London, King’s has 19,700 students from more than 140 countries, and 5,400 employees. King’s has an outstanding reputation for providing world-class teaching and cutting-edge research. The College is in the top group of UK universities for research earnings and has an annual income of approximately £400 million. An investment of £500 million has been made in the redevelopment of its estate.
King’s has a particularly distinguished reputation in the humanities, law, social sciences, the health sciences, natural sciences and engineering, and has played a major role in many of the advances that have shaped modern life, such as the discovery of the structure of DNA. It is the largest centre for the education of healthcare professionals in Europe and is home to five Medical Research Council Centres - more than any other university.
Further information
Melanie Gardner, Senior Public Relations Officer, Public Relations Department, King’s College London. Tel: 020 7848 3073; email melanie.gardner@kcl.ac.uk
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