Christopher Dingle joined Birmingham Conservatoire in the summer of 2004 and is an Assistant Course Director for the BMus course. Originally from Ilford, prior to his current appointment he was a British Academy Postdoctoral Research Fellow at the University of Sheffield, having previously been Associate Senior Lecturer and Course Leader in Music at the University of Northumbria at Newcastle. His graduate and postdoctoral research was all funded by the British Academy. In 1994 he was awarded ‘The Chancellor’s Medal’ for his research into Messiaen and his contribution to the musical life of the University of Sheffield.

A specialist in the music of Olivier Messiaen, he is author of The Life of Messiaen (Cambridge University Press) and Messiaen’s Final Works: developments in style and technique (Ashgate, forthcoming 2008). He is also co-editor, with Nigel Simeone, of Olivier Messiaen: Music, Art and Literature (Ashgate). He was the organiser of the Messiaen 2008 Centenary Conference hosted by Birmingham Conservatoire in June 2008, having previously conceived and organised the Messiaen 2002 International Conference in Sheffield. He has been much in demand during the composer’s centenary year, giving numerous talks in the UK and abroad, notably at The Proms, the RNCM, the RAM, and as part of the Southbank’s From the canyons to the stars festival.

He is also a specialist in the history and practice of music criticism and is currently working with Chris Morley on The Cambridge Introduction to Music Criticism. He is a member of the review panel for BBC Music Magazine, contributes regularly to Tempo, and has written for The Guardian, The Independent, The Herald and Organists’ Review. He was a member of the jury for the BBC Music Magazine Awards 2008, and he was one of the contributors to 1001 Classical Recordings you must hear before your die, Matthew Rye (ed.), Quarto Press (2007). He is also a keen performer, appearing as conductor, percussionist, pianist and bass guitarist, while it is rumoured that he is also a lapsed oboist.

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Research & Teaching Specialisms

• Olivier Messiaen
• French music from Berlioz to the present day
• Music Criticism/Journalism
• Performance Practice issues arising from early recordings

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Current Projects

• Messiaen as a performer
• The Cambridge Introduction to Music Criticism. CUP, forthcoming
• Messiaen’s final works: an examination of style and technique. Ashgate, forthcoming 2008
• British Classical Music Criticism: Evolutions and Revolutions in newspaper coverage from 1945 to the present

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Publications & other public output

Books

2007: The Life of Messiaen, Cambridge University Press. [Hardback and Paperback].

"Christopher Dingle’s masterly and insightful The life of Messiaen, deeply pondered over a lengthy gestation period, clearly possesses its own independent identity and perspectives, and his wide ranging researches have thrown up some significant new information." - from Andrew Thomson’s review ‘Beyond the birds’, published in The Musical Times (Spring 2008), pp91-98

2007: Christopher Dingle and Nigel Simeone (eds), Olivier Messiaen: Music, Art and Literature, Aldershot: Ashgate.

"Dingle & Simeone have collated an invaluable in-depth collection of 16 essays entitled Olivier Messiaen: music, art and literature, arising from the Messiaen 2002 International Conference at Sheffield. ... In short, this volume represents a huge advance in Messiaen scholarship." - from Andrew Thomson’s review ‘Beyond the birds’, published in The Musical Times (Spring 2008), pp91-98

Book Chapters

2007: ‘Frescoes and Legends: the sources and background to Saint François d’Assise’ in Olivier Messiaen: Music, Art and Literature, Christopher Dingle and Nigel Simeone (eds), Aldershot: Ashgate, pp. 301-322.

1995: ‘Catalogue of works and Discography’ in The Messiaen Companion, Peter Hill (ed.), London: Faber, pp. 536 - 565.

Journal articles

July 2007: ‘Forgotten offerings: Messiaen’s first orchestral works’ Tempo, no.241, pp2-21.

April 2000 : ‘La statue reste sur son piédestal: Messiaen’s La Transfiguration and Vatican II’. Tempo, no.212, pp.8 -11.

April 1995: ‘Charm and Simplicity - the works of Olivier Messiaen's final years'. Tempo, no.192, pp. 2 - 7.

Theses

Understated charm: style and technique in the last works of Olivier Messiaen, 2 volumes (PhD; Sheffield, February 2000).

Mystery and light: Olivier Messiaen's La Transfiguration de Notre-Seigneur, Jésus-Christ , 2 volumes (MPhil; Sheffield, September 1994).

Recent review articles

October 2008: ‘Messiaen Studies edited by Robert Scholl; Olivier Messiaen: A Research and Information Guide by Vincent P. Benitez’, in Tempo no.246 pp.70-72.

January 2008: ‘Peter Hill & Nigel Simeone: Olivier Messiaen: Oiseaux exotiques’, in Tempo no.243 pp.65-70.

January 2005: ‘Ravel: Analyses des Œuvres pour Piano de Maurice Ravel [in French] by Olivier Messiaen and Yvonne Loriod-Messiaen. Durand (United Music Publishers); Technique of my Musical Language by Olivier Messiaen, English translation by John Satterfield, Alphonse Leduc (United Music Publishers).’ in Tempo no.231 pp.61-2.

January 2004: ‘Traité du rythme, ornithologie et couleur, Tome V, volumes 1 & 2, Tome VI & Tome VII by Olivier Messiaen’ in Tempo no.227, pp.41-45.

Recent Conference Papers

June 2008: ‘A love without influence? Messiaen and Mozart’ – Messiaen 2008 International Centenary Conference, Birmingham Conservatoire.

November 2007: ‘Recording Messiaen: a Romantic in a modernist world’ – French Analysis and Performance, BYU Hawaii.

September 2007: ‘Recording Messiaen: a Romantic in a modernist world’ - CHARM/RMA conference, Royal Holloway.

March 2007: ‘Symbols, Tam Tams and Wisdom: The Influence of Vatican II and Transcendence in Messiaen‘s La Transfiguration de Notre-Seigneur, Jésus-Christ’ – FMCS Meeting 2007, Yale.

August 2005: ‘The Mysterious Workings of Liberty: Mechanical Procedures in Messiaen’s Natural and Theological Works’ – Fourth Biennial International Conference on Twentieth-Century Music, Sussex.

June 2003: ‘Natural selection: understanding the distribution of material in Messiaen’s birdsong choruses’ – Third Biennial International Conference on Twentieth-Century Music, Nottingham.

June 2002: ‘Mystery and light: Faith and the faithful in La Transfiguration' – Messiaen 2002 International Conference, Sheffield University .

June 2001: ‘Harmonic transfiguration: the evolution of Messiaen's approach to tonality, colour and self-analysis' – Second Biennial International Conference on Twentieth-Century Music, Goldsmiths'.