Dr Matthew Pilcher
Dr Matthew Pilcher graduated from the University of Idaho in 2001 with degrees in Applied Performance: Piano (BA, cum laude) and Music History and Literature (BA, cum laude). Further studies at the University of Idaho culminated in an MMus in Piano Pedagogy and Performance Studies (2005, distinction) and an MA in Music History and Literature (2007, distinction), with a dissertation titled ‘Perspectives on Pianism: Historical Trends of Technical and Textural Expansion in the Keyboard Works of Bach, Beethoven, Liszt, and Debussy’.
Matthew undertook PhD studies at the University of Manchester under the supervision of Prof Barry Cooper, and was awarded a doctorate in 2013 with a thesis entitled ‘Structure, Rhetoric, Imagery: Intersections of Literary Expression and Musical Narrative in the Vocal Works of Beethoven’.
Having previously taught as a Graduate Teaching Assistant and Visiting Lecturer at the University of Idaho (1997–2008) and University of Manchester (2008–2013), Matthew then worked at the Royal Northern College of Music as a library assistant and as a Visiting Tutor in Academic Studies (2011–2016). Since 2016 Matthew has been employed at the Royal Birmingham Conservatoire, where he teaches across a wide range of UG and PG modules, coordinates BMus4 Final Projects, and supervises UG and PG research projects and dissertations.