Neal Peres Da Costa is a graduate of the University of Sydney, the Guildhall School of Music, and the University of Leeds. He is Professor of Historical Performance and Program Leader of Postgraduate Research at the Sydney Conservatorium of Music. A performing scholar and world-recognised authority on 19th-century piano performing practice, his monograph Off the Record: Performing Practices in Romantic Piano Playing (New York: Oxford University Press, 2012) is hailed as a book ‘no serious pianist should be without’ (Limelight, 2012) and honoured as ‘a notable book’ on Alex Ross’s 2012 Apex List. 

Other influential publications include a 9-volume set of Urtext/performing editions of Brahms’ Sonatas for solo instrument and piano published by Performing Mozart in the Long Nineteenth Century: Carl Reinecke and the Leipzig Mozart Style Professor Neal Peres da Costa Program Leader (Postgraduate Research): Professor of Historical Performance Sydney Conservatorium of Music, The University of Sydney, Australia 13 “Please me, honey, squeeze me to that Mendelssohn strain” – The Multimedia Metamorphoses of Felix Mendelssohn’s “Spring Song,” Op. 62 no. 6 Dr. Monika Hennemann Royal Music Association, United Kingdom Bärenreiter-Verlag (2015/16) of which he was a chief editor. 

Neal has recently received prestigious Australian Research Council (ARC) funding for a three-year Discovery Project (2017-19) for performance research in 19th-century piano playing Neal regularly appears with the Australian Chamber Orchestra, Sydney Symphony Orchestra, Pinchgut Opera, Australian Haydn Ensemble, and the Song Company. With Ironwood, he is involved in cutting-edge creative research including the release of its highly-acclaimed CD Brahms: Tones of Romantic Extravagance (ABC Classics) including Brahms’ Piano Quintet op. 34 and Piano Quartet op. 25. Winner of the 2008 Fine Arts ARIA for Bach’s Sonatas for violin and obbligato harpsichord (ABC Classics, 2007) with Richard Tognetti and Daniel Yeadon, Neal’s discography also includes: Bach’s Complete Sonatas for Viola da Gamba and Harpsichord with Daniel Yeadon (ABC Classics, 2009), The Baroque Trombone with Christian Lindberg and the ACO (BIS, 2009); The Galant Bassoon with Matthew Wilke and Kees Boersma (Melba, 2009); Baroque Duets (Vexations 840, 2011) with Fiona Campbell, David Walker and Ironwood; Music for a While with Ironwood and Miriam Allan (2012); 3 with Genevieve Lacey and Daniel Yeadon (ABC Classics, 2012); Stolen Beauties with Anneke Scott and Ironwood (ABC Classics, 2015); Brahms: Tones of Romantic Extravagance (ABC Classics, 2016) which has been awarded “Recommended CD” by The Strad (UK); Beethoven Piano Concertos 1 and 3 (AHE, 2017; licensed by ABC Classics) and most recently Pastoral Fables with Alexandre Oguey – cor anglis (ABC Classics, 2018). 

He has also recorded extensively on the Channel Classics label with Florilegium, the British ensemble which he co-founded in 1991 and of which he was a member for 10 years.