Neal Peres Da Costa

A graduate of the University of Sydney, the Guildhall School of Music and Drama (London), the City University (London) and the University of Leeds (UK), Neal Peres Da Costa is a world-renowned performing scholar and educator. He is Professor of Historical Performance within the Historical Performance Division (which he founded and of which he was Chair from 2006-2016) and Program Leader of Postgraduate Research at the Sydney Conservatorium of Music. His monograph Off the Record: Performing Practices in Romantic Piano Playing (New York: Oxford University Press, 2012) is hailed as a book that ‘no serious pianist should be without’ (Limelight, 2012) and honoured as ‘a notable book’ on Alex Ross’s 2012 Apex List. In 2012, it was the subject of a five-part series broadcast by ABC Classic FM during the Sydney International Piano Competition and an interview with Christopher Lawrence for the ABC Classic FM Music Makers programme. During 2015-16 Neal was a chief editor (with Clive Brown and Kate Bennett Wadsworth for the new Bärenreiter Urtext performing edition of the complete Brahms chamber works for one solo instrument and piano) which has received critical acclaim. Bärenreiter have commissioned Neal (with Clive Brown) to produce editions of the Beethoven and Eberl Sonatas for violin and piano. Neal has recently received prestigious Australian Research Council (ARC) funding for a three-year Discovery Project (2017-19) for performance research in 19th-century piano playing.

Neal regularly performs with Australia’s leading ensembles including the Australian Chamber Orchestra, Sydney Symphony Orchestra, Pinchgut Opera, the Song Company, the Australian Haydn Ensemble and Ironwood. He has performed at the Festival Baroque, the Peninsula Summer Festival, the Music Viva Festival, the Australian Festival of Chamber Music, the York Early Music Festival (UK) and Pegasus Music (US). He is involved in on-going projects with the Australia Haydn Ensemble including, in 2017, performances of Beethoven’s Piano Concerto no. 5, and a recording of Beethoven’s Piano Concertos nos. 1 and 3 to be released in 2017. With Ironwood, Neal undertakes cutting-edge creative research that has led to performances and recordings of late-Romantic chamber repertoire in period style which have received critical acclaim. Neal has an extensive collection of historical pianos including grand pianos by Collard and Collard (English c.1840), Erard (French c.1869), and Streicher (Viennese replica c.1868).

Winner of the 2008 Fine Arts ARIA for Best Classical Recording for Bach’s Sonatas for violin and obbligato harpsichord (ABC Classics, 2007) with Richard Tognetti and Daniel Yeadon, Neal’s discography includes: Bach’s Complete Sonatas for Viola Da Gamba and Harpsichord with Daniel Yeadon (ABC Classics, 2009), The Baroque Trombone with Christian Lindberg and the ACO (BIS, 2009); The Galant Bassoon with Matthew Wilke and Kees Boersma (Melba, 2009); Baroque Duets(Vexations 840, 2011) which he directed with Fiona Campbell, David Walker and Ironwood; Music for a While with Ironwood and Miriam Allan (2012); 3 with Genevieve Lacey and Daniel Yeadon (ABC Classics, 2012); Mozart: Stolen Beauties with Anneke Scott and Ironwood (ABC Classics, 2015) and most recently Brahms: Tones of Romantic Extravagance (ABC Classics, 2016). He has also recorded extensively on the Channel Classics label with Florilegium, the British ensemble which he co-founded in 1991 and of which he was a member for 10 years.