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Dr Shirley Thompson graduated from the University of Hull in 1987 with a first class BMus degree. Following a PGCE, she spent three years teaching at a Northamptonshire secondary school. She subsequently won a British Academy Major Scholarship to study for a PhD at Hull and was awarded a doctorate in 1998 for a thesis on the music of the French Baroque composer Marc-Antoine Charpentier (‘The Autograph Manuscripts of Marc-Antoine Charpentier: Clues to Performance'). In 1996 Shirley was appointed Lecturer (then Senior Lecturer) in Music at the University of Wolverhampton. She moved to Birmingham Conservatoire in 2001, where she is currently Senior Lecturer in Academic Studies and Assistant BMus Course Director.

Shirley's research has continued to focus on French Baroque music and Charpentier in particular. Since her PhD she has published a number of articles and reviews, and has prepared numerous editions of Charpentier's music for such well respected performers as Emma Kirkby, Ex Cathedra and the St James' Baroque Players, including music for two BBC Promenade Concerts. In 2004, Shirley organized a conference at the Conservatoire, ‘Charpentier and His World', to mark the tercentenary of the composer's death, an event which attracted scholars from all over the world.

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Current Projects

'Charpentier and the debauched monks: questions of authenticity in newly-discovered vocal trios'
(This article develops material initially delivered in the form of a conference paper in 2004; its findings are a by-product of research undertaken in Brussels in 2003-4 with the aid of a British Academy small research grant.)

'An assessment of the anonymous, probably French repertoire in B-Bc 33.675-34.130'
(This article builds on research undertaken in 2003-4 with the aid of a small research grant from the British Academy.)

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Publications & other public output

Articles

2002: 'Once more into the void: Marc-Antoine Charpentier's croches blanches reconsidered', Early Music, xxx, pp. 82 – 92.

2001: 'Reflections on Four Charpentier Chronologies'. Journal of Seventeenth-Century Music, vii, Link

1994: Co-author (with Graham Sadler) of 'Marc-Antoine Charpentier and the basse continue', Basler Jahrbuch für Historische Musikpraxis, xviii, pp. 9 – 30.

2007: 'Colouration in the Mélanges: Purpose and Precedent' in Catherine Cessac (ed.), Les manuscrits autographes de Marc-Antoine Charpentier. Études du Centre de Musique Baroque de Versailles. Sprimont: Mardaga, pp. 121 – 36.

2005: 'A mute question: Charpentier and the sourdines', in Catherine Cessac (ed.) Marc-Antoine Charpentier, un musicien retrouvé. Études du Centre de Musique Baroque de Versailles. Sprimong: Mardaga, pp. 183 – 97; reprinted from Bulletin de la Société Marc-Antoine Charpentier, xvii (2000): 7 - 18.

Charpentier, Actéon changé en biche, for a public performance by Birmingham Conservatoire students in November 2004 (Adrian Boult Hall, Birmingham).

Charpentier, works for series of five concerts 'Praying for reign: Private music of a king in waiting' supported by the Arts Council and given in late 2004/early 2005 (venues: Southampton, Bristol, Tonbridge, York, Hull ). Performers: Emma Kirkby, Sophie Daneman, Julia Gooding, Peter Harvey, David Roblou, Laurence Cummings, Pamela Thorby, Gail Hennessy, Catherine Latham, Elizabeth Kenny, Mark Levy, David Miller, Paula Chateauneuf.

Charpentier, Messe à quatre choeurs and Salve regina à trois choeurs: performed by Ex Cathedra in Birmingham and London and recorded by Hyperion in January 2003; CD released January 2004

Charpentier, Extremum Dei judicium for 1999 BBC Promenade Concert, Royal Albert Hall, London, performed by Ex Cathedra

Charpentier, Mass: Assumpta est Maria; In obitum; De profundis for 1994 Lufthansa Festival, Wigmore Hall, London, performed by St James's Baroque Players

Charpentier, Messe pour les trépassés; Dies irae; Motet pour les trépassés, for 1993 BBC Promenade Concert, Royal Albert Hall, London, performed by St James's Baroque Players

2001: Revision of 'Duplessis' in The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians: Second Edition, ed. Stanley Sadie & John Tyrell. London: Macmillan, vii, pp. 721 – 2.

2008: ‘French Baroque Chamber Music’, Early Music, xxxvi, pp. 142-144.

2006: 'Lalande, "le Lully latin"', Early Music, xxxiv, pp. 678-681.

2006: 'Scandal and Songbirds in the French Baroque', Early Music, xxxiv, pp. 329 - 331.

2005: 'French Baroque devotions', Early Music, xxxiii, pp. 337 – 339.

2004: 'A Charpentier gallery', Early Music, xxxii, pp. 613 - 614.

2002: 'Charpentier, sacred and secular', Early Music, xxx, pp. 645 - 649.

2001: 'Charpentier, Clérambault, Mondonville', Early Music, xxix, pp. 140 – 142.

'Charpentier's Motets melêz de symphonie: A Nephew’s Offering', 14th Annual Conference of the Society for Seventeenth-Century Music, University of Toronto, Canada, April 20-23, 2006.

'Choreography in French opera and ballet scores: the example of Rameau and Charpentier' (with Graham Sadler), Conference of the European Society of Dance Historians, Bedern Hall, York, October 28-30, 2005.

'Colouration in the Mélanges: Purpose and Precedent' given at the International Conference, 'Les Mélanges de Marc-Antoine Charpentier: La composition, la copie et l'interpretation', Château de Versailles, France, commencing 30 September 2004.

'Charpentier and the debauched monks: questions of authenticity in newly-discovered vocal trios', given at 'Charpentier and His World' International Conference at Birmingham Conservatoire, in April 2004.

Pre-Concert Talks

'Charpentier: clues to performance', The University of Hull, January, 2005.

'Charpentier's music for the Dauphin', St George's, Brandon Hill, Bristol, November 2004.

'Charpentier's music for Mlle de Guise', Suffolk Villages' Music Festival, August 2002.

Successful Funding Applications

January 2004: British Academy conference grant.

Autumn 2003: European Regional Development Fund grant.

Spring 2003: British Academy research grant.