Faculty

DOROTHY de VAL

BMus, MA (Toronto), ARCM (Royal College of Music, London), PhD (King's College, London)
Associate Professor, Musicology
Department of Music, York University

ddeval@yorku.ca

Dorothy de Val is a musicologist and pianist whose research interests include Scots Gaelic song, the first English folksong revival, pianos and pianism, and Haydn reception in England. Particular research interests include early 20th-century collectors and arrangers of folksong, particularly Broadwood and Grainger, and collectors of Gaelic song (Tolmie, Broadwood, Murray and Kennedy-Fraser).

Dr. de Val's book, In Search of Song: The Life and Times of Lucy Broadwood, is currently at press with Ashgate. She is also editing a collection of essays on Haydn with Patricia Debly of Brock University, based on a recent conference at York, “Celebrating Haydn: His Times and Legacy”. She is a contributor to the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography and many music reference works including The Haydn Companion, and is a regular reviewer for the journal Music and Letters.

Professor de Val's research extends into the field of dance, focusing on English social dance and Morris dance (especially Mary Neal and the Esperance Club). She co-organized a conference at York on English country dance in summer 2010, and performs regularly as pianist for English country dances with her group, Playford’s Pleasure.

Dr. de Val has taught at the Royal Academy of Music (London), Oxford Brookes University and the University of Oxford, and served as assistant curator of musical instruments at the Royal College of Music (London). She joined York University's Department of Music in 1999.