10 Jun 08

Professor Sir Curtis Price will take office in September 2009

Curtis Price has been Principal of the Royal Academy of Music since 1995, and has overseen an extremely successful period in the Academy’s history.

Professor Price said of his election: ‘I'm delighted the Fellows have elected me to succeed Alan Ryan as Warden of so distinguished an institution. These are exciting times for Oxford, and I look forward to working hard within New College for the greater good of the University.’

The current Warden, Professor Alan Ryan, said: ‘My colleagues have made an excellent choice, and I couldn’t be happier. I look forward to working with Curtis Price next year to effect a seamless transition, and then to watching the College flourish under his leadership.’

Curtis Price was born in Springfield, Missouri, USA and studied at Southern Illinois University and Harvard University. He moved to the UK in 1981 to take up a post at King’s College London, where he became King Edward VII Professor of Music in 1988, before taking up his current post at the Royal Academy of Music in 1995.

Professor Price has an international reputation as a historian of music and drama, and has published extensively on the music of Henry Purcell and on historical performance practice. He was awarded the Einstein Award of the American Musicological Society in 1976 and the Royal Musical Association’s Dent Medal in 1984. He was President of the Royal Musical Association from 1999 to 2002, and was knighted in 2007.

Founded in 1379 by William of Wykeham, New College is one of the oldest and largest colleges of Oxford University, with a strong academic profile across the full range of subjects. The Warden is the head of the College, responsible for its academic leadership, representing the College to the wider world, and chairing its governing body of 63 Fellows.