The musical tastes of Jane Austen will be the subject of a lecture and performance by internationally renowned soprano Julianne Baird at The University of Western Australia's Callaway Auditorium on Tuesday 24 May 2011. 

Ms Baird will discuss and perform music from the Jane Austen Songbook, reflecting from her research on what they tell us about the great English novelist's musical tastes and the cultural milieu of her time. 

In the words of Professor Baird:  "Music and the social status it expressed was an integral part of Jane Austen's life. Her novels are replete with details of domestic musical activities... through her Songbook, she herself springs to life:  her special likes and dislikes, her boisterous sense of humour, her passions..." 

Julianne Baird is a Distinguished Professor at Rutgers University and an internationally acclaimed early music scholar-performer and recording artist, described by Fanfare Magazine as the "unsurpassed mistress of late Renaissance and Baroque music".

She holds three degrees in musicology including a PhD from Stanford University, and her contribution to the field has been recognised through numerous awards and honours, including the American Musicological Society's Noah Greenberg Award, the Musica Sacra Artistic Achievement Award, and election to the prestigious American Academy of Teachers of Singing.

Julianne Baird will be accompanied in her performance of songs from Jane Austen's special collection of 18^th- and 19^th-century popular music by Stewart Smith, keyboard and Paul Wright, violin. 

Media references

Audrey Barton (UWA Institute of Advanced Studies)  (+61 8)  6488 4797
Janine MacDonald (UWA Public Affairs)  (+61 8)  6488 5563  /  (+61 4) 32 637 716