Eleanor Smith

Eleanor Smith is a recent graduate of the University of Edinburgh where she was awarded her PhD in 2013 for her thesis 'The History and Use of the Claviorgan'. Eleanor has taught History of Music and second-year Harmony and counterpoint at Edinburgh Napier since 2012.

Eleanor is currently working with Prof.Tom Beghin and Chris Maene at the Orpheus Instituut in Belgium as a Research Fellow on their project researching Beethoven's Foreign Pianos, and exploring Beethoven’s journey with writing for the piano as he became deafer.

As a performer, Eleanor specialises in early baroque and post-English Restoration English vocal music. She intends to expand her doctoral researches on the claviorgan in future, considering how such instruments may have been used in accompaniment, continuo and improvisational practices - something which very much ties in with her performance activities as a singer with a particular interest in sixteenth and seventeenth century music for the stage.