Conferences and Study Days
Please send details about forthcoming Handel conferences, study days, public lectures and reseach forum events to info@gfhandel.org
The Handel Institute
17—19 November 2023
In order to celebrate the refurbishment and the reopening in spring 2023 of the Handel House Museum at 25 Brook Street (Handel & Hendrix in London) and also the tercentenary of the composer moving into the property in 1723, The Handel Institute has brought forward its next conference to 2023. The paper sessions (18–19 November) will take place at Bridewell Hall; the conference committee is also planning to schedule a reception and tour at the Handel & Hendrix in London, and an event at The Foundling Museum.
Further details...
Georg-Friedrich-Händel-Gesellschaft
'Endless beauties. George Frederic Handel and French Music Culture'
Händel-Haus, Große Nikolaistraße 5, Halle, Germany
27–20 May 2024
If one can trust the Mémoires d’un Musicien of 1756, then George Frideric Handel had in his library numerous volumes of operas by Jean-Baptiste Lully, André Campra, Jean-Marie Leclair and Jean-Philippe Rameau. These volumes included Rameau’s works for keyboard and treatises on music. In 1733 Abbé Antoine François Prévost mentioned that Handel had “emprunté le fond d’une infinité de belles choses de Lully, et surtout des Cantates Françaises”. This is a good reason to set up an International Conference to reconsider the conditions, requirements, scope and significance of the impact of French music on Handel’s oeuvre. These influences affect nearly all genres in his oeuvre: the Italian operas based on French librettos (Teseo, Amadigi di Gaula), and the English oratorios based on French plays (Esther, Athalia, Theodora, Jephtha), the overtures and suites for orchestra, and for harpsichord. The influences are also visible in the cantatas (of which the French Sans y penser is certainly a special case), in Handel’s church music, the music for the stage drama Alceste, and in the collaboration with the French dancer Marie Sallé.
The conference aims to explore the transfer routes of French music to Germany, Italy and England as well as the adaptations and transformations of French models in Handel’s works. Other focal points will be the history of the impact and performance of Handel’s music and the changing images of Handel in France from the 18th century to the present. Comparative reflections on the reception of French music by Handel’s contemporaries are also very welcome.
Call for Papers (closing date 15 October 2023)
Travel and accommodation costs will be covered for the conference days (three nights 26/27, 27/28, 28/29 May).
Past Events
most recent listed first
Georg-Friedrich-Händel-Gesellschaft
'The Politics of Opera – Handel’s Opera Academies 1719–1737'
Händel-Haus, Große Nikolaistraße 5, Halle, Germany
30–31 May 2023
The Handel Festival in Halle an der Saale in 2023 will be on the theme “The Opera: Dispute over Tweedledum and Tweedledee”. The quotation from an epigram by John Byrom in The London Journal of 5 June 1725, refers to the competition between the opera composers Giovanni Bononcini and George Frideric Handel. The subject is intended to accentuate the fact that opera has always been the topic of discussions in which cultural-political and artistic interests have been intertwined. This is certainly true for the two opera academies of which, and in which, Handel was in charge of between 1719 and 1734, and which were followed by the competition between the “Opera of the Nobility” and Handel’s work at the Covent Garden Theatre until 1737. These disputes happened at almost all levels of opera production, and links to comprehensive political-cultural and social negotiation processes become evident: this applies to the organization, patronage and financing of the academies. Such differences applied also to the audience, the public review, the choice of repertoire and libretti, the singers, the scenarios and stage designs, and the compositions themselves.
The International Scholarly Conference at the Handel Festival on 30 and 31 May 2023 would like to explore the named political dimensions of Handel’s academies, but also their preconditions and consequences, as well as to invite comparisons with earlier and later forms of institutionalisation of opera as an art form. Last but not least, the aim is also to critically update the historical findings against the background of the situation of opera houses today.
Call for Papers (closing date 15 November 2022)
The Handel Institute
‘Handel: Interactions and Influences’
19—21 November 2021
The theme of this conference is prompted by the tercentenary of the Royal Academy opera Muzio Scevola, composed jointly by Amadei, Bononcini and Handel. The aim is to focus on the relationships between Handel, other composers and his audiences.
Further details...
Georg-Friedrich-Händel-Gesellschaft
'Redemption and the Modern Age - Handel's Messiah in the 19th to 21st centuries'
Händel-Haus, Große Nikolaistraße 5, Halle, Germany
31 May—2 June 2021
The conference focused on the performance history, the history of the arrangements and the history of the impact of Messiah. Conceptualised by the librettist Charles Jennens as a response to contemporary deistic doubts about the Messianic mission of the Christian Redeemer, Messiah attained the status of an overall spiritual, transconfessional work in the course of its performance history, which has continued unbroken from 1741 to the present day. In its significance for the reception of Handel, Messiah is only exceeded by the Hallelujah Chorus from that work which – to name just two examples – could be used at the opening of the Olympic Games on 1 August 1936 in Berlin as well as in an open-air performance by the choir and orchestra of the “Resistenza musicale permanente” on the resignation of Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi on 12 November 2011.
The Conference aims to find out what has happened with the original Christian message of Redemption in the oratorio by using it in secular contexts, but also with the adaptations and transformations (some of which are problematic) that have led to the present global significance of Messiah and Handel’s most famous chorus.
American Handel Society
Jacobs School of Music, Indiana University Bloomington, USA
11—14 March 2021
The American Handel Society’s biennial American Handel Festival took place as an online conference hosted by Jacobs School of Music, Indiana University Bloomington on 11–14 March 2021. Academic paper sessions were complemented by musical performance of music by Handel and his contemporaries.
Conference website...
Georg-Friedrich-Händel-Gesellschaft
'Handel's Images: Iconography - Aesthetics - Compositional Practice'
Händel-Haus, Große Nikolaistraße 5, Halle, Germany
30 November—1 December 2020 ***Cancelled***
The annual Halle conference is usually two to three days long; sessions tend to be presented in a mixture of languages and admission to the general public is always free. The proceedings of each conference are published in the following year's edition of the Händel-Jahrbuch (Bärenreiter).
Further details...
Georg-Friedrich-Händel-Gesellschaft
'Zwischen Alcina und Theodora: Frauengestalten in den Werken Händels und seiner Zeitgenossen'
Händel-Haus, Große Nikolaistraße 5, Halle, Germany
1 and 3—5 June 2019
The annual Halle conference is usually two to three days long; sessions tend to be presented in a mixture of languages and admission to the general public is always free. The proceedings of each conference are published in the following year's edition of the Händel-Jahrbuch (Bärenreiter).
Further details...
American Handel Society
Jacobs School of Music, Indiana University Bloomington, USA
7—10 February 2019
The American Handel Society’s biennial American Handel Festival took place at Jacobs School of Music, Indiana University Bloomington on 7–10 February 2019. Academic paper sessions were complemented by musical performance of music by Handel and his contemporaries.
Conference website...
Cambridge Handel Opera Company
Handel: Rodelinda Study Afternoon in association with the Handel Institute and the CHOC production of Rodelinda
Saturday 7 April 2018, 2.00-5.15pm, Recital Room, Faculty of Music, West Road, Cambridge
2.00 Ruth Smith: Introduction
2.10 David Kimbell: Rodelinda: when? why? how?
2:45 Andrew Jones: Rodelinda: the opera as it might have been and as it is
3.30 Tea/coffee (included in fee)
4:00 Lawrence Zazzo: Survey of Rodelinda production history
4:35 Julian Perkins and Max Hoehn: Putting on this production of Rodelinda: discussion
5:15 End
Tickets available from Cambridge Live (£10 if coming to a performance of Rodelinda; £15 if not; £5 for students).
Tel. +44 (0)1223 357851
Further details...
The Handel Institute
'Handel and His Music for Patrons'
24—25 November 2018
Offers of papers are invited for the next Handel Institute conference, which will take place at The Foundling Museum, 40 Brunswick Square, London, WC1N 1AZ. The theme will be interpreted broadly in order to accommodate contributions on all aspects of the relationship between Handel and his patrons (private or public) and of the works that he composed for them.
Proposals of up to 300 words for papers lasting about thirty minutes should be sent to Dr Helen Coffey (helen.coffey@open.ac.uk) by 30 April 2018 (extended deadline).
Georg-Friedrich-Händel-Gesellschaft
'Musikalische Migrationsbewegungen. Musik und Musiker aus der Fremde 1650–1750'
Händel-Haus, Große Nikolaistraße 5, Halle, Germany
26 and 28—29 May 2018
The annual Halle conference is usually two to three days long; sessions tend to be presented in a mixture of languages and admission to the general public is always free. The proceedings of each conference are published in the following year's edition of the Händel-Jahrbuch (Bärenreiter).
American Handel Society
Princeton University, USA
6—9 April 2016
The American Handel Society’s biennial American Handel Festival took place at Princeton University on April 6–9, 2017. Academic paper sessions were complemented by musical performance of music by Handel and his contemporaries.
Conference website...
Georg-Friedrich-Händel-Gesellschaft
'Zwischen Originalgenie und Plagiator. Händels kompositorische Methode und ihre Deutungen'
Händel-Haus, Große Nikolaistraße 5, Halle, Germany
6—7 June 2017
The annual Halle conference is usually two to three days long; sessions tend to be presented in a mixture of languages and admission to the general public is always free. The proceedings of each conference are published in the following year's edition of the Händel-Jahrbuch (Bärenreiter).
Further details...
Stiftung Händel-Haus Halle
Summer School on editing, reception history and organology
Händel-Haus, Große Nikolaistraße 5, Halle, Germany
21—23 September 2016
The theme of the annual three-day summer school run by the Stiftung Händel-Haus Halle will this year be Handel's operas during the second royal academy period, and will be led by Dr David Vickers (Manchester), Bernhard Forck (Berlin), Dr Steffen Voss (Munich) and Dr Ulrich Etscheit (Kassel). The main teaching language is German; the number of participants is limited; and applications should be sent to Dr Konstanze Musketa (stiftung@haendelhaus.de) by 30 June 2016.
Further details...
Georg-Friedrich-Händel-Gesellschaft
'Mythos Volk – Mythos Aufklärung. Zwei Topoi der Händel-Rezeption und ihre historischen Kontexte'
Händel-Haus, Große Nikolaistraße 5, Halle, Germany
30—31 May 2016
The annual Halle conference is usually two to three days long; sessions tend to be presented in a mixture of languages and admission to the general public is always free. The proceedings of each conference are published in the following year's edition of the Händel-Jahrbuch (Bärenreiter).
Further details...
The Handel Institute
'Handel and His Eighteenth-Century Performers'
21—23 November 2015
The most recent Handel Institute conference, on the theme of Handel and His Eighteenth-Century Performers, took place on 21–23 November 2015 at at the Foundling Museum, 40 Brunswick Square, London, WC1N 1AZ (21–22 November) and The Open University, 1–11 Hawley Crescent, Camden Town, NW1 8NP (23 November).
Details
Georg-Friedrich-Händel-Gesellschaft
'Händel und seine Interpreten / Handel and his Interpreters'
Händel-Haus, Große Nikolaistraße 5, Halle, Germany
8—10 June 2015
The annual Halle conference is usually three days long; sessions tend to be presented in a mixture of languages and admission to the general public is always free. The proceedings of each conference are published in the following year's edition of the Händel-Jahrbuch (Bärenreiter).
Details
American Handel Society
Iowa University, USA
23—26 April 2015
The American Handel Festival and Conference takes place every two years and in recent years it has been based in different cities. The 2015 gathering will be hosted by the School of Music at the University of Iowa and will be a joint conference with the Society for Seventeenth-Century Music who will be holding their 23rd Annual conference. The submission deadline for abstracts is 1 October 2014; further details and the call for papers can be found at the conference website.
'Agostino Steffani: European Composer and Hanoverian Diplomat at the time of Leibniz'
Schloss Herrenhausen, Hanover, Germany
18—20 September 2014
This is an international interdisciplinary conference, organized by the Department of Musicology of the Hanover Hochschule für Musik, Theater und Medien in collaboration with the Leibniz-Forschungsstelle Hannover of the Akademie der Wissenschaften at Göttingen and the Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz-Stiftung Hannover, and supported by the VolkswagenStiftung. Details
Summer 2014 witnesses the centenary of the outbreak of World War I. This symposium is taking this occasion to scrutinise Handel reception over the course of those years. Renowned experts consider the significance of the European composer in the German Protestant tradition, as well as in France and at the legendary Proms in London.
London Handel Festival (2014)
The festival included public lectures on Arianna in Creta by David Vickers (4 March), Selina Cadell (5 March) and Katie Hawks (6 March),
on Israel in Egypt by Ruth Smith (2 April), and on Deborah by Ruth Smith (9 April)
Georg-Friedrich-Händel-Gesellschaft
'Macht und Ohnmacht der Musik - Händel, der Staatskomponist'
Händel-Haus, Große Nikolaistraße 5, Halle, Germany
14—16 November 2013
The annual Halle conference is usually three days long; sessions tend to be presented in a mixture of languages and admission to the general public is always free. The proceedings of each conference are published in the following year's edition of the Händel-Jahrbuch (Bärenreiter).
NB. this conference and the rest of the 2013 Halle Festival were supposed to take place in June 2013, but were postponed because of serious flooding; the conference and abridged festival have been re-scheduled
When Handel first came to England in 1710 he was still in the service of the Elector George Louis of Hanover who – four years later – became King of Great Britain and Ireland. Handel was now composing secular and sacred music for the English Court, the Church of England, and the
opera. The aristocratic audiences took part in the rich musical life and newspapers reported on the performances. What factors contributed to the fact that London became a first-rate city of music? What role did the personal union between England and Hanover play and what was the
effect that a "German" king sat on the throne of England? And did the contemporary press, the rulers, and the public of the 18th century imagine Handel as an English (or German) composer? The symposium "The Power of Musick - Music and Politics in Georgian Britain" examined the work of Handel during his London period and its effect on the contemporary musical life between town and country, court, church, and the middle classes. Speakers inlcuded Otto Biba (Vienna),
Tim Blanning (Oxford),
Donald Burrows (Milton Keynes),
Tassilo Erhardt (Liverpool),
Wolfgang Hirschmann (Halle), Simon McVeigh (London),
Ruth Smith (Cambridge), and others.
Handel's Atalanta
A Study Day organised by The Handel Institute and Cambridge Handel Opera in association with Cambridge University
Faculty of Music, 11 West Road, Cambridge, CB3 9DP
4 May 2013, 2pm
Cambridge Handel Opera presented four fully staged performances of Atalanta in the Concert Hall, West Road, Cambridge on 30 April, and 1, 3, and 4 May. For further details and information see www.chog.co.uk. The study session preceded the last performance, which was also Andrew Jones’s last appearance as musical director of the company:
2.00pm Lynn Gordon:
The afterlife of Atalanta, from Ovid to Handel (and beyond)
2.30pm Donald Burrows:
Wedding or warfare? The opera season of 1735-1736 in Handel’s London career
3.30pm Lisa Sampson: Atalanta and the tradition of Italian pastoral drama
4.00pm Victoria Newlyn:
Staging Atalanta
A free public lecture on Handel's L’Allegro, Il Penseroso ed Il Moderato, an ode set to a text adapted by the composer's two friends James Harris and Charles Jennens from poems by Milton and with a third part by Jennens himself. Dr Ruth Smith explored the distinctiveness of this radiantly attractive composition, and trace its interesting origins. Preceded the London Handel Festival's performance of L'Allegro at St. George's Hanover Square.
The American Handel Festival and Conference takes place every two years and in recent years it has been based in different cities. The 2013 gathering was at Princeton University. In addition to the academic panels, the 2013 Serwer Lecture was given by Reinhard Strohm. Other festival events included a performance of Handel's Dixit Dominus and Alessandro Scarlatti's Stabat Mater by the Princeton University Chamber Choir, conducted by Gabriel Crouch, and a concert by Harry Bicket and the English Concert. There was also an option to attend Bicket's concert performance of Radamisto at Carnegie Hall on Sunday 24 February. Please visit the conference website.
The annual Stanley Sadie Memorial Lecture was delivered in 2013 by Ruth Smith, expert on Handel's friend, supporter and librettist Charles Jennens. In conjunction with the Handel House Museum's exhibition Charles Jennens: The Man Behind Messiah (curated by Dr. Smith).
The triennial conference of The Handel Institute was held at the Foundling Museum, and featured papers by Donald Burrows, John Roberts, Helen Green, Graham Cummings, Terence Best, Matthew Gardner, Annette Landgraf, Konstanze Musketa, Graydon Beeks and others. There was a private viewing of the Handel House Museum's new exhibition on Charles Jennens (curated by Ruth Smith), and on Sunday afternoon there was an 'Arcadian Conversazione' concert of music by Handel and his Italian contemporaries performed by recent graduates from English conservatoires, organised by David Vickers and Laurence Cummings. The full schedule is available here.
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