Associate Professor Rosalind Halton

Harpsichordist and researcher,  Associate Professor at the University of Newcastle, Australia; and an Honorary Fellow of the Australian Academy of the Humanities.

Research areas: Italian baroque music, Alessandro Scarlatti; research and performance; French harpsichord repertoire; historically based performance practice. Central to my work is the concept of implementing ideas developed  during the research and performance processes.

Creative and research outputs. CD Recordings: The French Harpsichord, ABC Classics (winner of Soundscapes award, 1997); Louis Couperin and Friends, 2005;  3 CDs of newly edited works: Venere, Adone e Amore: Serenatas and Cantatas of Alessandro Scarlatti (ABC Classics, 2007).

Many solo and ensemble performances in Europe, Canada, Australia and New Zealand.  Broadcasts for Sunday Live (ABC Classic FM), and in leading Australian Festivals including Barossa, Huntingdon, Melbourne Autumn Festival with ensembles including Elysium, His Majesty's Sagbutts and Cornetts, The Australian Chamber Orchestra, SSO, Sydney Philharmonia, Chacona, and Affetto (NZ).

Editions of Italian baroque music: two major volumes of previously unpublished works by Alessandro Scarlatti by A-R Editions (US). The Web Library of Seventeenth Century Music (WLSCM), a U.S. based peer-reviewed online edition: over 30 editions of individual works.

Published research papers. On music of the Scarlatti family, performance in the 17th-18th centuries, the Italian cantata genre, journals including Musicology Australia, Eighteenth-Century Music, Studi Musicali.  Listed in academia.edu

Education: University of Otago (New Zealand); postgraduate studies at Oxford University (British Commonwealth Scholarship 1973-6); D.Phil. Oxford (analysis, music of Haydn) Harpsichord studies with David Ledbetter and Colin Tilney.    

Research supervision: 7 completed Ph.D.s and 12 Masters in a range of topics including pedagogy, baroque performance practice and research with a creative component. I am frequently consulted as Ph.D. and Masters examiner for major Australian universities.

Research Expertise
My field of research is in the combined area of baroque performance and historical source study. I am a researcher/performer who has recorded solo harpsichord CDs, as well as directing newly edited works from the Italian Baroque repertoire, especially the music of Alessandro Scarlatti (1660-1725). Scarlatti's cantatas are said to be little known, thus the research undertaken by me contributes to primary knowledge of this repertoire area. I am widely experienced with source materials of the 17th-18th centuries, including autograph material of Scarlatti and his predecessor Alessandro Stradella. As a solo harpsichordist I have recorded works of the French baroque, from the 17th- first half of the 18th centuries. I recently presented my research  (September and October 2025) in international conferences in Lisbon and Naples, commemorating the 300th anniversary of the death of Alessandro Scarlatti. 

Teaching Expertise
Teaching performance of baroque music to students across a wide range of instruments, from 1st year to Ph.D. level; especially ensembles of instruments and voice (s). Harpsichord teaching, and continuo playing; coaching singers in music of the 17th-18th centuries; editing from historical sources; history of performance practice and reception history. Music of the 17th-19th centuries (History and analysis). I have supervised numerous Ph.D., Masters and Honours candidates in a wide range of subjects with a creative/performance element, from baroque music to original composition work. Harpsichord tuition at undergraduate and postgraduate levels and examination of Ph.D. and Masters theses, mainly in areas of baroque performance and source studies for universities throughout Australia.

Administrative Expertise
Convenor of B. Music Honours program and Music Research Convenor (RHD) 2006-2011. Member of Research Committee for School of DFAM. Co-ordinator of Music electives, 'Performing Baroque Music', and 'Performing Classical Music' offered at 1st year to 3rd year levels. Previous position Senior Lecturer in Performance at U.N.E. (1986-1999) involved co-ordination of all performance programs to M.Mus.(Hons.) and regular service as Acting Head of Department.

Collaborations
2013-14 Collaborative article on instrumental music of Alessandro Scarlatti with Michael Talbot (Em. Professor of Music, University of Liverpool), published in Eighteenth-Century Music (U.K.) March 2015. -

2007-2011 Collaborative editorial project 'Solo Serenatas of Alessandro Scarlatti’, A-R Editions) with Dr. Marie-Louise Catsalis, Ph.D graduate of Newcastle University, and Lecturer at Stanford University, CA. The volume in the series ‘Recent Researches in Music of the Baroque Era’ (Middleton, Wisconsin) comprises the first modern editions of ten works, based on texts concerned with night themes. The work involved performances with students at the University of Newcastle, Stanford and Santa Clara Universities, CA. -

1999-2002 Recordings:  3-CD set released by ABC Classics in 2007 ‘Venere, Adone, e Amore’. Over 3 decades of researching unedited works from the Italian baroque cantata repertoire, my work involves collaboration with singers, literary scholars, fellow editors, performer-researchers, and recording producers. This collaborative activity mirrors the origins of the genre, built on the interaction of composer, singer, poet, copyist, player, and patron. Some of our leading graduates of Newcastle Conservatorium, including soprano Miriam Allan and cellist Jamie Hey (Australian Brandenburg Orchestra), have played a key role in this project. The 3 CD set was recorded over a period of four years from 1999-2002, involving the formation of the period instrument ensemble Chacona in collaboration with five outstanding Australian solo singers (four sopranos and one countertenor). The equal role of singers and instrumentalists is central to this repertoire. My paper ‘Explorations around Bass Parts and Key Schemes: Recording the Cantatas of Alessandro Scarlatti’ published in 2012, Performers’ Voices across Centuries and Cultures (ed. Anne Marshman, Imperial College Press) documents aspects of this collaborative process.

2011 New Zealand Musicology Society conference, 'Performance, Creativity, Collaboration' included the first modern performances of cantatas by two cellist-composers Lulier and Colombani with N.Z. soprano Rowena Simpson and cellist Polly Sussex, illustrated the role of collaborative performance in researching this repertoire, in my paper 'Collaboration and the Italian solo cantata'.