ResearchWorks: From Stage to Studio: Performances versus Recordings in Classical Music

This presentation will highlight and demonstrate some of the main themes from Amy’s new book From Stage to Studio, in particular some of the differences between live and recorded performances, the implications of this for professionals’ working lives as well as for conservatoire training, as well as some thoughts for ways forward for performance, education, and the recording industry.

From Stage to Studio: Performances versus Recordings in Classical Music presents a cultural study of classical music-making through the analysis of live and studio performances of orchestral and operatic repertoire conducted by Sir Charles Mackerras. The close listening analysis is based on detailed research into Mackerras’s private collection of over 600 reel-to-reel and cassette tapes containing recordings of over 1,000 live performances which he conducted between the 1950s and the late 1990s. This is contextualized with evidence collected during ethnographic fieldwork observations, presenting the opinions of Sir Charles, orchestral musicians from major London orchestras and opera houses with whom he was working during the first decade of the twenty-first century (Philharmonia, Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment, Royal Opera House, English National Opera), and production team members working for recording industry leaders (such as Decca, EMI, and Chandos). This ethnography of classical music-making gives a voice to performers and music professionals, brings to light some important and heretofore hidden issues and explores a fascinating time of intense change in the recording industry. Including consideration of ways forward for performance, education, and recording, this book will be relevant to specialist practitioners, as well as music enthusiasts interested in concert life and recording studio habits, professional performers, recordists, music students, educators and scholars interested in classical music.

Speaker: Amy Blier-Caruthers

Amy Blier-Carruthers specializes in musicians’ experiences of performance on stage and in the recording studio, raising questions about creative agency, power balances, and collaborative working practices. Her monograph From Stage to Studio (in press, early 2025) combines ethnography and performance analysis to examine music-making, collaborating with a range of professional musicians and recordists to experiment and gain new insights into the possibilities of performing for recording. She is Postgraduate Research Programme Leader and Interim Head of Research at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama, Senior Lecturer in Music Performance (Education) at King’s College London, and Research Fellow at the Royal Academy of Music, as well as co-Chair of the Equality, Diversity, and Inclusion in Music Studies Network (EDIMS) and co-author of their report Slow Train Coming, Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts (RSA), and Senior Fellow of the Higher Education Academy.

Guildhall School’s ResearchWorks is a programme of events centred around the School’s research activity, bringing together staff, students and guests of international standing. We run regular events throughout the term intended to share the innovative research findings of the School and its guests with students, staff and the public.