Centre for the History of Music in Britain, the Empire and the Commonwealth
CHOMBEC (Centre for the History of Music in Britain, the Empire and the Commonwealth) exists to encourage and provide a focal point for research into the history of music in the British Empire, in Britain, and within the West Country. Founded by Stephen Banfield in 2006 it is currently directed by John Pickard. Housed at the Victoria Rooms, CHOMBEC is located within the university’s Faculty of Arts and has developed partnerships with other centres within the faculty, as well as with a network of institutions and researchers worldwide.
Please explore these pages to find out more about our projects, events, archives, and the MA in British Music that has grown out of the Centre's work.
Latest News
British Academy Small Research Grant
Prof. Stephen Banfield has been awarded a British Academy Small Research Grant for his current research project, Music in the West Country: its social history since the late 17th century. Stephen has a work in progress report in the current edition of CHOMBEC News:
see the Newsletter page.
CHOMBEC News 8
CHOMBEC News 8 is now out: CHOMBEC News issues 1 to 4 are now available to download as PDFs. Please click here.
Events
A number of CHOMBEC events are coming up soon, including the 3rd CHOMBEC lecture and a British Opera Study-Day:
see the Events page.
Worlds to Conquer: the travelling virtuoso in the long 19th century
(4th CHOMBEC Conference)
Stephen Banfield will be holding the Worlds to Conquer conference on 5-7 July, 2010. For full details please click here.
New Director
John Pickard, who has been Acting Director for CHOMBEC since the beginning of the year, has now taken over as Director. John has also recently been awarded a Personal Chair in Composition and Applied Musicology. At the recent committee meeting John expressed his gratitude for the efforts of the founding director, Stephen Banfield, who remains on study leave.
New member of Management Committee
The CHOMBEC Management Committee is pleased to announce that Kirsty Reid, until recently the leader of the Colonialism Research Theme within the Colonialism Centre has joined the team. They would also like to thank John Irving and Ronald Hutton for their support during their time on the Committee.
[Feb. 2010]