The world-renowned pianist Alfred Brendel is to become an Honorary Member of the Faculty of Music and an Affiliate Artist of the AHRC Research Centre for Musical Performance as Creative Practice.

Professor Brendel has recently completed a week-long residency at the University as the inaugural Humanitas Visiting Professor in Chamber Music. During the residency he gave a series of illustrated public lectures and participated in an open rehearsal with the Szymanowski Quartet, whose concluding performance at West Road Concert Hall was broadcast live by BBC Radio 3.

During his residency in Cambridge, he was a Visiting Fellow at Peterhouse.

John Rink, Professor of Musical Performance Studies at the University, comments, “Professor Brendel’s unique artistry was on display throughout his lectures on musical character and interpretation and in his work with the Szymanowski Quartet. It was inspiring to hear him talk and play and to observe at close hand the deep understanding of music for which he is so widely admired.”

Humanitas is a series of Visiting Professorships at Oxford and Cambridge designed to bring leading academics, practitioners and scholars to both universities to address major themes in the arts, social sciences and humanities. Managed and funded by the Institute of Strategic Dialogue, it is coordinated in Cambridge by the Centre for Research in the Arts, Social Sciences and Humanities (CRASSH). The Humanitas Visiting Professorship in Chamber Music 2011 has been made possible by the generous support of Mr Lawrence Saper.

Alfred Brendel's tenure as Humanitas Visiting Professor will be the first in an ongoing, annual series of Humanitas Visiting Professorships in Chamber Music, held at the University of Cambridge.

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