Laurie Stras

Laurie Stras is a musicologist and musician, whose research interests range from the 16th century to modern popular music. She is professor emerita of the University of Southampton ^[1] and has been a research professor at the University of Huddersfield. ^[2]

Stras studied harpsichord, piano and singing at the Royal College of Music, London, and has a doctorate from Royal Holloway and Bedford New College where her thesis was on the madrigals of Marc'Antonio Ingegneri. ^[1] She worked as a freelance singer and keyboard performer, and for four years was musical director of the Royal National Theatre. ^[1] In 2018 she took up a three-year post of research professor at the University of Huddersfield. ^[2]

Her research interests include early music, popular music and music in disability studies. Her publications include books on women's music in 16th-century Ferrara, Italy, and on "whiteness, femininity, adolescence and class in 1960s music", and she has published chapters or journal articles on a wide range of subjects including assistive technology in music, Connee Boswell (wheelchair-using jazz singer), Monteverdi, and eroticism in music, and revised the entry on Marc'Antonio Ingegneri in The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians . ^[3] In 2023-2024 she was supported by an Emeritus Fellowship from the Leverhulme Trust to work on The Biffoli-Sostegni manuscript and Suor Maria Celeste Galilei at San Matteo in Arcetri, to be published by Cambridge University Press in its "Elements" series. ^[4]

She is director of the women's vocal ensemble Musica Secreta, having been co-director with its founder Deborah Roberts until Roberts' death in 2024. ^{[5] [6]} Stras's work with the associated amateur and semi-professional choir Celestial Sirens gained her the "Individually-led project" award in the 2014 Engage Competition of the National Co-ordinating Centre for Public Engagement (NCCPE). ^{[7] [8]} Stras's research informs the ensemble's repertoire and performances, and she leads workshops such as "Music and Ritual in a 16th-century convent". ^[9]

She received the American Musicological Society 's 2019 Otto Kilkenny Award (given for "a musicological book of exceptional merit published by a scholar who is past the early stages of their career") ^[10] for her 2018 work Women and Music in 16th Century Ferrara. ^[11]

In 2017-2018 she served as president of the University of Southampton branch of the University and College Union. ^[1]

Stras was one of the authors, all of whom "have experienced prolonged covid-19 symptoms, and have participated in various kinds of Long Covid advocacy", of an October 2020 opinion piece in The BMJ on the importance of using the "patient made" term Long Covid . ^[12]

Selected publications

• Stras, Laurie (2018). Women and Music in Sixteenth-Century Ferrara. Cambridge UP. ISBN   9781108815482. ^{[13] [14]}
• Stras, Laurie, ed. (2016). She's So Fine: Reflections on Whiteness, Femininity, Adolescence and Class in 1960s Music. London: Routledge. ISBN   9781315087986. ^{[15] [16]}
• Blackburn, Bonnie J.; Stras, Laurie, eds. (2016). Eroticism in early modern music. London New York: Routledge. ISBN   9781472443335. ^{[17] [18]}
• Stras, Laurie (2016). "Subhuman or Superhuman?: (Musical) Assistive Technology, Performance Enhancement, and the Aesthetic/Moral Debate". In Howe, Blake (ed.). The Oxford Handbook of Music and Disability Studies. pp. 176–190. doi:10.1093/oxfordhb/9780199331444.013.19.
• Ledbetter, Steven; Stras, Laurie (2001). "Ingegneri ..., Marc'Antonio". In Sadie, Stanley; Tyrrell, John (eds.). The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians (2nd ed.). London: Macmillan. doi:10.1093/gmo/9781561592630.article.13795.

References

1. "Professor Laurie Stras". www.southampton.ac.uk. University of Southampton. Archived from the original on 31 May 2025. Retrieved 3 June 2025.
2. "New prof makes case for girl power in Italy's 16th century music". University of Huddersfield. Archived from the original on 30 November 2023. Retrieved 3 June 2025.
3. "Professor Laurie Stras: Emeritus Professor: Publications". University of Southampton. Archived from the original on 31 May 2025. Retrieved 5 June 2025.
4. "For promoters: Biographies". Musica Secreta. Retrieved 6 June 2025.
5. "Artist biographies". Musica Secreta. Archived from the original on 27 April 2025. Retrieved 3 June 2025.
6. Stras, Laurie (30 September 2024). "Deborah Roberts obituary". The Guardian. Retrieved 3 June 2025.
7. "Music researcher wins national public engagement award". www.southampton.ac.uk. University of Southampton. 12 June 2014. Archived from the original on 20 March 2025. Retrieved 4 June 2025.
8. "Celestial Sirens". NCCPE. National Co-ordinating Centre for Public Engagement. Retrieved 4 June 2025.
9. "Workshop Report – 15 February 2025". North West Early Music Forum. 15 February 2025. Archived from the original on 6 June 2025. Retrieved 6 June 2025.
10. "Otto Kinkeldey Award". American Musicological Society. Retrieved 3 June 2025.
11. "Past Recipients Archive". American Musicological Society. Archived from the original on 28 May 2025. Retrieved 3 June 2025.
12. Perego, Elisa; Callard, Felicity; Stras, Laurie; Melville-Jóhannesson, Barbara; Pope, Rachel; Alwan, Nisreen A (1 October 2020). "Why we need to keep using the patient made term "Long Covid"". The BMJ. Archived from the original on 4 October 2020. Retrieved 6 June 2025.
13. Fenlon, Iain (2020). "Review of Women and Music in Sixteenth-Century Ferrara. New Perspectives in Music History and Criticism". Renaissance Quarterly. 73 (3): 1096–1098. ISSN   0034-4338 . Retrieved 3 June 2025.
14. Gordon, Bonnie (1 August 2022). "Women and Music in Sixteenth-Century Ferrara, by Laurie Stras" . Journal of the American Musicological Society. 75 (2): 398–403. doi:10.1525/jams.2022.75.2.398. ISSN   0003-0139.
15. Hankins, Sarah E. (May 2012). "She's So Fine: Reflections on Whiteness, Femininity, Adolescence and Class in 1960s Music" . Popular Music. 31 (2): 316–318. doi:10.1017/S0261143012000153.
16. Bruseker, Nancy (2 March 2013). "She's So Fine: Reflections on Whiteness, Femininity, Adolescence and Class in 1960s Music". IASPM Journal. 3 (2): 113–114. doi: 10.5429/614 .
17. Winkler, Amanda Eubanks (2016). "Eroticism in Early Modern Music ed. by Bonnie J. Blackburn, Laurie Stras (review)". Music and Letters. 97 (1): 153–155. ISSN   1477-4631. Archived from the original on 30 March 2025. Retrieved 4 June 2025.
18. Winkler, Amanda Eubanks (February 2016). "Eroticism in Early Modern Music. Ed. by Bonnie J. Blackburn and Laurie Stras". Music and Letters. 97 (1): 153–155. doi:10.1093/ml/gcv121.

External links

• "Finding music in renaissance manuscripts": interview for Sound Expertise podcast, 18 May 2021, and transcript
• Laurie Stras publications indexed by Google Scholar