Karl Kügle – Principal Investigator
Karl studied piano at the Hochschule für Musik, Munich (1975-81), the Hochschule für Musik Würzburg (1981-82) and the Juilliard School (1982-83), as well as musicology, theatre studies and Japanese at Ludwig Maximilian University Munich (1976-82). He continued his studies at New York University, where he earned his Ph.D. in 1993 with a study of the fourteenth-century manuscript Ivrea, Biblioteca capitolare 115 and its music. He subsequently held research positions at the University of Maryland, College Park, the Katholieke Universiteit Leuven, and Johannes Gutenberg-Universität Mainz. In 1998, he joined the Department of Music at the University of Hong Kong where he taught until 2004. In autumn 2004, he was appointed Professor of Musicology at Utrecht University where he occupies the Chair in the History of Music prior to 1800. He joined the University of Oxford in 2016, where he is Senior Researcher in the Faculty of Music and Senior Research Fellow of Wadham College. From 2016 to 2019, he also led the HERA-financed international research project Sound Memories.
David Catalunya – Research Fellow
David researches court culture at the Royal Abbaye of Las Huelgas, Burgos (Spain) in the period 1200-1360. His study sheds new light on the permeable boundaries between monastic and court culture in this royal foundation and elucidates the staging or royal, public ceremonies – such as coronations, knightings, funerals and the commemoration of battles – within the architectural space of Las Huelgas.
Uri Smilansky – Research Fellow
Uri is investigating the relationship between musical visuality and social value in Francophone and Francophile courts. He explores the encoded meanings discernible in the visual inclusion, presentation or exclusion of music on the manuscript page as they interact with courtly and cultural politics, from the point of view of patrons, established cultural figure-heads, such as Guillaume de Machaut and practising professional musicians for the generation that preceded his activities.
Grantley McDonald – Research Fellow
Grantley is joining the project with a keen interest in the cross-cultural aspect of the project’s work and aims. His focus is the court and chapel of holy Roman Emperor, Frederick III, 1415-1493. Grantley McDonald is a postdoctoral researcher at the University of Oxford, where he is investigating the chapel of Emperor Frederick III as part of the MALMECC project, under the direction of Prof. Karl Kügle. He is also leader of the FWF research project The court chapel of Maximilian I: between art and politics at the University of Vienna. He has been one of the editors of the Verzeichnis deutscher Musikdrucke (University of Salzburg) since its inception in 2012. He holds doctoral degrees in musicology (Melbourne, 2002) and history (Leiden, 2011). Grantley’s research has been distinguished with prizes. He is also active as a freelance singer.
Claire Selby – Project Support Coordinator
Claire works on the MALMECC project providing administrative and finance support to the team. She has an MA in Modern Languages from St. Hilda’s College, Oxford and is qualified as an Associate of the Chartered Governance Institute and a Fellow of the Chartered Institute of Marketing.
Claire is an award-winning methodologist, author of educational materials and song-writer, with particular focus on promoting bilingualism in children. Her interest in music, language and cultural education chimes well with her role supporting this project.
Project Members 2016 -2019
From the start of the project in 2016 to the end of the academic year 2019, the three Research Fellows on the project were as follows. More information about their work for the project and their current positions at other eminent institutions can be found in links from their research areas here.
Laura Slater – Research Fellow
Martha Buckley was Project Support Coordinator for the same period.
Martha is now project portfolio manager in the Department of Physics at the University of Oxford and a member of the LGBT + Allies network in Oxford’s Equality and Diversity Unit.