Martin Perkins

Martin Perkins is a director, musicologist, lecturer and performer specialising in Early Music. He is Head of Historical Performance at Royal Birmingham Conservatoire, and co-director of Musical & Amicable Society.

As a harpsichordist, Martin is active in the Midlands and London, performing with many different groups, including locally the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra and English Symphony Orchestra and is often called upon for his skills as a continuo player. As a director, he has performed music from Gabrieli to Poulenc, including staged operas by Handel, Mozart and Purcell. He has often appeared as a concerto soloist, performing works by Handel, Bach, Mozart, and Graun. For a brief spell until 2007, he was Director of Music at the University of Leicester, where he directed the University’s orchestras and choirs. Martin is co-founder and co-director of the Musical & Amicable Society, with whom he has directed and performed in hundreds of concerts since its inception in 2004.

Martin is a researcher with specialisms in performance practice, 18th-century British music and organology. He has written many papers and is a contributor to Oxford Music Online. As an editor of 17th and 18th-century music, Martin has published first editions of music by Vitali and Gunn for Edition HH and Septenary Editions, as well as pedagogical materials. His own publishing company, Cat on the Keys Music, produces critical performing editions of music by Graun, Vitali, Pixell, Janicchi, Schelle, Cazzati, Matteis and Telemann.