The Open University

Faculty Member, Associate Lecturers

Thesis Title: The Musical Press in the Early Years of the Franco Regime (1939-1951). A Study of Reception.

About

I am a historical musicologist working primarily on the political and cultural history of Spanish music during the first half of the 20th century. Articles published or forthcoming cover topics such as the musical exchanges of Francoist Spain with the Axis countries during the Second World War; gender and the politicization of folk music in 1940s Spain; Joaquín Rodrigo's 'Concierto heroico'; music criticism and the legitimization of violence in the post-Civil War years; or the early career of the music critic Federico Sopeña. I have also explored the reception of Spanish music in the UK during my term as McCann Research Fellow at the Royal Academy of Music.

My current projects include:
-Developing my doctoral research on music criticism in early Francoism as a monograph
-A long-term project about how the Franco regime started to reintegrate and rehabilitate the exiled Republican musicians during the 1950s and 1960s. Case studies include: Julian Bautista, Roberto Gerhard, Rodolfo Halffter and Adolfo Salazar, among others.
-I also have a budding interest in issues of teaching and learning music history, particularly in distance learning contexts.

I have taught music history, music analysis and performance theory at Royal Holloway College and I currently teach at the Open University.

Outside of academia, I enjoy making music (which nowadays means mainly singing), and writing.