Robert Toft
Office: TC 114
Phone: (519) 661-2111 x85104
Email: rtoft@uwo.ca
Over the years, Robert Toft (PhD, King’s College, University of London, UK) has pursued a variety of projects within the research-creation paradigm. His interests focus on three broad areas: historical performance, popular music, and audio recording. Equally at home in each field, he has given master classes on historical principles of singing at leading conservatories and music schools in many countries, and his book on recording has been included in the list of the 100 Best Music Production Books of All Time (bookauthority.org). His monograph on 1960s popular music, Hits and Misses: Crafting Top 40 Singles, 1963 – 1971, is published by Continuum/Bloomsbury.
Robert’s work on historical performance has been widely praised by performers and scholars. For example, Bel Canto: A Performer’s Guide (Oxford University Press) has been described as “revolutionary” (Choral Journal) and “a must-read for singers, teachers of singing, vocal coaches, and conductors” (Early Music America), while With Passionate Voice: Re-Creative Singing in Sixteenth-Century England and Italy (Oxford University Press; Japanese edition published by Dowa Shoin) has been noted for its “unique blend of profound, searching scholarship [and] inspired application for teaching and guiding young performers” (Anthony Rooley, pre-publication review). In addition, two of his articles have been anthologized in collections of “the most important and influential published articles” that have “shaped” their fields (popular music and historical performance).
His practical and scholarly work has received international awards, including a Distinguished International Visitors Fellowship from the Australian Research Council for projects at the Universities of Melbourne and Sydney. In Canada, the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council recognized Robert’s unique combination of performance and scholarship with two research-creation grants, and he is currently a Partner Investigator with an international team working on an Australian Discovery Project that received funding of $550,000 from the Australian Research Council.
Robert’s production company, Talbot Records, issued its first recording in 2017. Inspired by the intensely dramatic performing styles of the sixteenth to nineteenth centuries, its main series, Radically Hip, connects modern audiences to the impassioned eloquence of the past. Radically hip artists liberate themselves from the written page to re-create the score, audaciously embracing a powerful form of expression rooted in historical principles.
Reviewers have described the first release, Secret Fires of Love, as “overwhelmingly satisfying” (classicalexburns.com) and “of the utmost importance ... this disc ... deserves the attention of every performer ... it could change the way vocal music is performed quite drastically” (MusicWeb International). Another release, devoted to piano works by Mozart and Beethoven, performed on the Faculty’s fortepiano, has been characterized as “daring and exciting … if you want to experience this music in a completely new way, then this exciting CD is definitely something for you” (Pizzicato).
