Registration Orpheus Doctoral Conference 2023

Following studies of piano performance (Hochschule für Musik Munich, Hochschule für Musik Würzburg, The Juilliard School) and historical musicology (Ludwig Maximilian University Munich, New York University), Karl Kügle has held posts at the University of Maryland, College Park (USA), the Universities of Leuven (Belgium) and Mainz (Germany), The University of Hong Kong, and Utrecht University (Netherlands) where he retains an appointment as Professor in the History of Music before 1800.

Karl Kügle held visiting professorships at the Universities of Chicago (2002), Melbourne (2003), and Cambridge (2013), and was Christensen Visiting Fellow at St Catherine’s College, University of Oxford (Trinity term 2014), a Senior Fellow of the Netherlands Institute for Advanced Study (NIAS, 2014-2015), a Senior Research Fellow of the Leibniz Institute for European History, Mainz (2019) and a Visiting Scholar at the Max Planck Institute for the History of Science in Berlin (2019). He served as Honorary Professor at the University of Hong Kong (2004-2010), Head of the Department of Media and Culture Studies at Utrecht University (2011-2013), and President of the Royal Society for Music History of The Netherlands (KVNM), the oldest musicological society in the world (2009-2014). He was elected Member of the Academia Europaea in 2012.

He leads the ERC Advanced Grant-funded MALMECC project (2016-2021). From 2016 to 2019, he was project leader of the Sound Memories project, a HERA-funded consortium of research teams in the Czech Republic, Germany, Switzerland, The Netherlands, Poland, and the UK jointly investigating the role of music of the past in late medieval and early modern Europe.

Catherine Motuz enjoys an active career as a performer, teacher, and researcher. She is co-artistic director of Ensemble I Ensemble Fedeli and has played and recorded with ensembles including Concerto Palatino, the Amsterdam and Freiburg Baroque Orchestras, Bach Collegium Japan, Abendmusiken Basel, The English Cornett & Sackbut Ensemble, His Majesty’s Sagbutts & Cornetts, and ¡Sacabuche!. As a soloist, she has performed across Canada, at the Midsomer Barock Festival in Copenhagen, and in Austria and Switzerland with countertenor Alex Potter. 

Catherine studied historical trombone with Charles Toet at the Schola Cantorum, Basel and with Dominique Lortie at McGill University. She has taught at McGill University, the Université de Montréal, the Royal Conservatoire of the Hague, the Royal Academy in London, and currently at the Schola Cantorum in Basel. She also teaches specialised workshops for early career musicians at LAMP in Nova Scotia, the Neuburger Sommerakademie für Alte Musik and at Alte Musik in Hof. 

Catherine’s research activities focus on two related fields in Renaissance music: improvisation pedagogy and emotional expression in music. She has published on the role of memorisation in improvisation, and given workshops on improvised counterpoint at the Universities of Oxford, Birmingham, and Glasgow, the Royal Conservatory of the Hague, CESR (Tours), and at the Alamire Foundation (Leuven). In February 2021, she gave a Keynote presentation at The Hague Royal Early Music Conference: Edition 2021, Historical Music Pedagogy.

After a wide-ranging classical music education, graduating from the Conservatory of Valencia in 2001/2002 in four majors (piano, cello, chamber music and music theory), he combined a professional career (playing in the Orchestra of Valencia and teaching improvisation at the Conservatory) with private studies on composition and conducting. Motivated by a strong interest towards Early Music he moved to The Netherlands to study at the Royal Conservatory of The Hague in 2007, where he further graduated in harpsichord with Jacques Ogg, while undertaking an independent task of comprehensive historical research and documentation on which he bases his perspective on musical praxis. He obtained the degree of Master of Music, specializing in historical conducting techniques (maestro di cappella / maestro al cembalo) under the guidance of teachers like Peter van Heyghen, Fabio Bonizzoni and Ton Koopman.

He’s founder and director of La Academia de los Nocturnos (which focuses on Spanish Renaissance and Baroque music), founding member of Cantores Sancti Gregorii (medieval and Renaissance sacred repertory), and regular collaborator of the ensembles Palma Choralis (Italy), Ars Lusitana (Portugal) and La Danserye (Spain). He also founded The Eroica Project, orchestra with which he performed Beethoven's symphonies no. 1-3 on period instruments in 2012-2013.

He teaches at the Royal Conservatory of The Hague and has also been invited to teach and lead projects in other Dutch conservatories (Amsterdam, Utrecht, Tilburg), besides several summer courses in Spain (Valencia, Morella, Pastrana) and Italy (Urbino). He uses historical teaching methods and learning strategies to allow students to acquire a similar set of skills to that expected from musicians in the past.