Historical Keyboard Performance at the Duruflé Academy

Historical Keyboards at the MDA

Historical Performance is a way of looking at music, one in which the performer takes on some of the responsibilities of a scholar. Our aim is to provide students with the tools needed to make historically informed decisions about the pieces they perform. This requires an understanding of the music’s cultural context, familiarity with the practical aspects of historical instruments and performing conventions, and an appreciation of how performance styles and traditions have changed over time.

The Maurice Duruflé Academy of Music’s historical keyboard performance program aims to give students a command of solo literature from the late Renaissance through to the mid-romantic periods, as well as extensive ensemble experience leading to fluent continuo realization with both singers and instrumentalists, as well as performances on period instruments of such pieces as Franz Schubert’s op. 100 Piano Trio in Eb Major.

Students study performance practice, organology, clavichord performance, and harpsichord/fortepiano tuning and maintenance. Historical Keyboard majors at the Maurice Duruflé Academy of Music have the opportunity to perform on restored keyboard instruments throughout the triad and piedmont areas, as well as abroad.