Dorian Bandy

Dorian Bandy is a musicologist and performer with wide-ranging interests in the 17th through early 19th centuries.

Dorian's academic work, which draws from music history, theory, and philosophy, focuses on Mozart and Beethoven. He is the author of Mozart the Performer: Variations on the Showman's Art, an interpretive guide to Mozart's output based on analytic accounts of his solo keyboard works, concertos, symphonies, and operas. Dorian's other research interests include German instrumental music c.1660-1720 and Lieder c.1780-1840, as well as various issues in aesthetics and the philosophy of music (including the work concept, meme theory, musical meaning, and the philosophy of historical performance), and philosophical artworks more broadly (especially Stephen Sondheim's musicals). His writings on these and related topics have appeared in publications ranging from leading academic journals to blogs such as violinist.com and aestheticsforbirds.com. He is a member of the Re:Enlightenment collective.

Alongside his scholarly work, Dorian is active as a conductor, baroque violinist, and historical keyboardist. His repertoire spans four centuries, and his performances—praised for their "impressive emotional scope" and a "virtuosity [that is] relentless, precise, and above all, dazzling" (The Whole Note)—have taken him to venues across Europe and North America, including London’s Wigmore and Cadogan Halls, Amsterdam’s Concertgebouw, and New York’s Symphony Space. As a conductor, he has served as music director of orchestras and opera companies on both sides of the Atlantic, garnering acclaim for his "unquestionable theatricality" and "palpable passion" (Opera Today) and ability, when conducting Mozart's operas, to "tread the line between joy and sadness" (Opera Now).