Public research Seminar: Elisabeth Salverda
Royal Birmingham Conservatoire - Workshop 2
200 Jennens Road, B4 7XR
Free - booking required
Public Research Seminars take place simultaneously in person, and online. If you wish to join us online, please book via the 'Book Now' tab and you shall be sent Zoom codes by email shortly before the seminar.
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François Couperin’s dream? Contemplating the Luthéal as a speculative sonic object
Elisabeth Salverda - KU Leuven and Orpheus Institute, Ghent
The 1919–1922 Luthéal piano attachment, a sound machine used by the composer Maurice Ravel (1875–1937) to transform piano timbre, was said to have realised a centuries-old dream by the Baroque composer François Couperin (1668–1733) for an expressive harpsichord.
Reflecting on harpsichord-piano-performer relationships at the confluence of organology and musical practices, this seminar draws on archival material to revisit keyboard instrument genealogies and to explore the imaginative potential of historical details in translation.
Elisabeth Salverda is a piano technician and sound artist, joining Royal Birmingham Conservatoire as a Visiting Research Degree Scholar 2025–2026 to work with RBC’s Historical Instrument Collection. Her practice-based PhD in Music (KU Leuven and the Orpheus Instituut, Ghent) explores a series of early 20th-century timbral devices for keyboard instruments at the Musical Instruments Museum in Brussels. Sponsorships in 2025 include a grant from The Galpin Society for the Study of Musical Instruments.
Running time approx. one hour and 30 minutes
If you wish to join us online, please register at https://www.bcu.ac.uk/conservatoire/events-calendar and you shall be sent Zoom codes by email shortly before the seminar.
Seminars are in RBC Workshop 2 and can also be accessed online via Zoom. A link to view the seminar via Zoom will be emailed ahead of the session.
Real and virtual doors will open around 3.25pm, the seminar begins at 3.30pm and discussion will conclude around 4.55pm.