Laura Tunbridge

Laura Tunbridge, FBA, MAE (born 1974) is a British musicologist and academic, specialising in 19th and 20th-century music, Robert Schumann, and opera. She has been Professor of Music at the University of Oxford since 2017 and a Fellow of St Catherine's College, Oxford since 2014. Previously, she taught at the University of Reading and the University of Manchester.^[1][2]

Biography

Tunbridge was born in London, England in 1974.^[3] She studied music at The Queen's College, Oxford, graduating with a Bachelor of Arts (BA) degree in 1996.^[4][5] She studied for a Master of Arts (MA) degree in musicology from the University of Nottingham, graduating in 1997 with a distinction.^[5] She then moved to the United States where she studied for Master of Fine Arts (MFA) and Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) degrees at Princeton University:^[4] she completed her PhD in musicology in 2002.^[5]

Tunbridge began her academic career as a lecturer in music at the University of Reading from 2002 to 2004.^[6] She then moved to the University of Manchester where she was a senior lecturer in music analysis and critical theory.^[6] In October 2014, she joined the University of Oxford, and was elected a Henfrey Fellow and tutor in music at St Catherine's College, Oxford.^[3][4] In 2017, she was awarded a Title of Distinction as Professor of Music.^[1]

In 2020, she was elected a Member of the Academia Europaea (MAE).^[6] In 2021, she was elected a Fellow of the British Academy (FBA), the United Kingdom's national academy for the humanities and social sciences.^[7] She has been appointed as the Heather Professor of Music at the University of Oxford from October 2025.

Selected works

• Tunbridge, Laura (2007). Schumann's late style. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. ISBN 978-0521871686.
• Tunbridge, Laura (2010). The song cycle. Cambridge Introductions to Music. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. ISBN 978-0521896443.
• Kok, Roe-Min; Tunbridge, Laura, eds. (2011). Rethinking Schumann. New York: OUP USA. ISBN 978-0195393859.
• Tunbridge, Laura (2018). Singing in the age of anxiety: lieder performances in New York and London between the World Wars. Chicago: University of Chicago Press. ISBN 978-0226563572.
• Tunbridge, Laura (2020). Beethoven: A Life in Nine Pieces. London: Viking. ISBN 978-0241414279.