Neal Peres Da Costa is Associate Dean of Research and Professor of Historical Performance at the Sydney Conservatorium of Music (SCM), University of Sydney. A performing scholar and world-recognised authority on 19th-century piano performing practice he is a graduate of the University of Sydney, the Guildhall School of Music and Drama and the City University (London), and the University of Leeds (UK). Neal’s monograph Off the Record: Performing Practices in Romantic Piano Playing (New York: Oxford University Press, 2012) has received high praise around the globe. He has co-edited (with Clive Brown and Kate Bennett-Wadsworth the 9-volume set of Urtext/performing editions of Brahms’ Sonatas for solo instrument and piano (Bärenreiter-Verlag 2015/16), and has co-authored (with Clive Brown) the online Performance Practice Commentary for the latest edition of Beethoven’s Sonatas for Piano and Violin (Bärenreiter-Verlag, 2020) and various chapters including most recently “Performing Practices for Romantic and Modern Repertoire” in The Oxford Handbook of Music Performance, ed. Gary E. McPherson(New York, Oxford University Press, 2022).
Neal has been the recipient of three prestigious Australian Research Council Discovery Projects: i) Deciphering 19th-century pianism: Reinvigorating global practices (DP17); Hearing the music of early NSW 1788-1860 (DP21) to investigate music making in the early colony including Indigenous music, leading a team of researchers at SCM and Sydney Living Museums; and, The shock of the old: Rediscovering the sounds of bel canto 1700-1900 (DP22) to investigate pre-twentieth century singing practice and artistry. He has given many keynote presentations at research meetings around the world, and is regularly called upon to advise professional musicians around the world on matters of 18th- and 19th-century performance practice.
Neal regularly performs with Ironwood, Bach Akademie Australia, Australian Haydn Ensemble, and the Song Company. Winner of the 2008 Fine Arts ARIA for Bach’s Sonatas for Violin and Obbligato Keyboard (ABC Classics, 2007) with Richard Tognetti and Daniel Yeadon, Neal’s discography also 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) 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); Stolen Beauties with Anneke Scott and Ironwood (ABC Classics, 2015); Brahms: Tones of Romantic Extravagance (ABC Classics, 2016) which was awarded “Recommended CD” by The Strad (UK); Beethoven Piano Concertos 1 and 3 (AHE, 2017; licensed by ABC Classics), Pastoral Fables with Alexandre Oguey – cor anglais (ABC Classics, 2018), and, Romantic Dreams - Piano Quintets by Louise Farrenc and Camille Saint-Säens (ABC Classics, 2020). Most recently he has recorded Schumann’s song cycle Dichterliebe with tenor Koenraad von Stade experimenting with 19th-century practices as exemplified in early recordings. Other experimental recordings can be accessed at the SCM’s Reinvigorating nineteenth-century performance platform. 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.
