Student profiles
Faith Thompson
Twitter: https://twitter.com/FaithSBThompson
Email: faith.thompson@student.rncm.ac.uk
Website: https://www.linkedin.com/in/faith-thompson/
Thesis Title
Institution
Supervisors
Professor Barbara Kelly (University of Leeds)
Professor Denis Herlin (IReMUS – CNRS)
Dr David Jones (RNCM)
Research Summary
Though little known today, Gabriel Pierné (1863–1937) was one of the foremost conductors of early twentieth-century Paris. During his long-term direction of the Colonne Orchestra (1910–32), he premièred works by such composers as Debussy, Ravel and Stravinsky, and his series of weekend concerts was one of the most well-attended in Paris. In view of his long and prestigious conducting tenure, he has been deemed ‘one of the most powerful men on the postwar Paris [music] scene’ (Nichols 2002: 42). However, Pierné was also very active as a composer – more so than most of his fellow Parisian orchestral conductors – and primary sources show a strong awareness of his creative side. Faith’s research seeks to understand Pierné’s significant contribution as a conductor, as well as the reception of his composer-conductor identity, and the impact this dual role had on the propagation of his own music. By extension, Faith aims to shed new light on composer and conductor roles in early twentieth-century France, including the values which critics attached to them, and the effects of combining them.
Research Interests
Music in Third Republic France,
orchestral concert series,
early recordings,
music criticism
and composer-conductors.
Publications
Conference papers
‘Viewing Ravel’s Music through the Lens of Pierné’s: Artificiality, Originality and Productivity’, Music and the Arts in France – 1925: Anniversaries and Confluences, University of Leeds, 13–15 November 2025.
‘Vers une meilleure compréhension du « compositeur-chef d’orchestre » : le cas de Gabriel Pierné (1863–1937)’, Le Chef d’orchestre au centre du paysage musical francophone aux XIXe et XXe siècles: rôles, influences, identités, University of Montreal, 7 November 2025.
‘Gabriel Pierné as Conductor: Poetry over Precision’, Royal Musical Association (RMA) Annual Conference, University of Southampton, 10–12 September 2025.
‘Gabriel Pierné as Conductor: Poetry over Precision’, PGR Conference, Royal Northern College of Music, Manchester, 6–7 May 2025.
‘Promoting New Music in Interwar Paris: Gabriel Pierné and the Concerts Colonne’, PGR Conference, Royal Northern College of Music, Manchester, 14–15 May 2024.
‘Framing Gabriel Pierné’s Career, or Assumptions About the Composer-Conductor Identity’, BFE/RMA Research Students’ Conference, Cardiff University, 10–12 January 2024.
‘Untangling the Reception of Gabriel Pierné’s Music: Clues from La Revue musicale (1920–40)’, PGR Conference, Royal Northern College of Music, Manchester, 22–23 May 2023.
‘Gabriel Pierné, franckiste?’, César Franck and His Legacy, Royal College of Music, London, 9–10 December 2022
Journal articles
‘Programming New Music against the Odds: Gabriel Pierné and the Concerts Colonne in Interwar Paris’, Music & Letters, 106/3 (August 2025), 399–419.