Two PhD Positions in Musical Interpretation

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About REM@KE and the Available PhD Positions

REM@KE is a six-year interdisciplinary program funded by the Synergy platform within the European Research Council, starting on September 1, 2025. Within the project, we aim to build new bridges between artistic research, keyboard organology, and cognitive sciences. Through microhistorical studies of four specific keyboard instruments from the Renaissance to the Romantic period, we will develop new models for documentation, musical interpretation, and communication involving senior researchers, PhD students, museum staff, practitioners, builders, and new audience groups.

The project leaders and principal researchers are Joel Speerstra (Gothenburg), Massimiliano Guido (Pavia), and Andrea Schiavio (York). Some of the topics that REM@KE will address include:

• Overlooked historical performances
• Economic narratives about keyboard cultures
• History of material cultures and craftsmanship
• Local, European, and global networks
• Instrument builders, instrument workshops, and patronage cultures
• Music as performative art including compositions à mente and à penne.

We are looking for two PhD students at the School of Music and Drama, Gothenburg University. The PhD students will join other PhD positions within the REM@KE project. These PhD students, three of whom are working in keyboard organology in Pavia and two in cognitive science in York, will work with one or more of the four types of instruments in focus: Girolamo Zentis' bentside spinet, Christian Zell's harpsichord, Johann Andreas Stein's combination instrument, and Chopin pianos by Pleyel et Cie.

We intend to appoint both PhD positions simultaneously and strive to find candidates with complementary expertise. Therefore, it is not required or expected that applicants have expertise in all four areas. As researchers, the PhD students will be part of a larger interdisciplinary research project. The PhD student's research will be planned in collaboration with the project leaders and must contribute to the project's research goals. The applicant is also expected to participate in conferences and undertake research trips.

The two PhD students that this announcement concerns will conduct self-developed research related to topics within the REM@KE project. These topics may include:

• within the Zenti project: Early Italian keyboard repertoire; Pasquini and the partimento tradition; continuo performance, music history related to Queen Christina's court in Stockholm and Rome, as well as Zentis' reception at the courts in London and Paris.
• within the Zell project: Techniques and performance practices within the Bach school; connections between clavichord, harpsichord, and organ techniques, as well as keyboard culture in Central and Northern Europe during the first half of the 18th century.
• within the Stein project: Fortepiano practice; the history and use of claviorganum instruments; keyboard tradition related to the Mozart family.
• within the Pleyel pianino project: Piano performance and technique from the first half of the 19th century; performance issues in Chopin's works; the development of the French piano school.

Job Responsibilities

The studies comprise 240 higher education credits, equivalent to four years of full-time study. The education consists of a course component of 60 higher education credits and a dissertation component of 180 higher education credits. The course component is organized through mandatory faculty-wide basic courses, a mandatory subject-specific introductory course, and individually chosen courses. Additionally, there are mandatory PhD seminars at the department.

As a PhD student, you will be part of the music faculty at the School of Music and Drama, and you are expected to collaborate with teaching at both undergraduate and advanced levels. Similarly, your active participation in the research environment at both the department and faculty means that you are physically present and participate in daily work. Good knowledge of English is a prerequisite as the research and doctoral education are conducted in an international environment.

For Further Information

For qualifications and eligibility requirements, as well as to apply for the position, see the full announcement at: https://www.gu.se/om-universitetet/jobba-hos-oss/lediga-anstallningar (https://www.gu.se/om-universitetet/jobba-hos-oss/lediga-anstallningar)

Application deadline: 2026-02-15.

The university actively works for a work environment with equal conditions and values the qualities that diversity brings to the organization. The university applies individual salary setting.

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