Bradley Brookshire
Professor of Music
Bradley Brookshire is a musicologist and harpsichordist in Manhattan. His particular musicological focus—although he has abandoned the designation musicologist, preferring to be called a social or cultural anthropologist of music—is the historiography of Bach performance practice as understood in an interdisciplinary context that is informed by social and cultural anthropology, hermeneutics, dialectical theory, and cognitive science. He completed his dissertation, “Edwin Fischer and Bach Pianism of the Weimar Republic,“ and received his PhD in musicology from the City University of New York’s Graduate Center in September 2016.
He also maintains an active performing career. He is harpsichordist for the Metropolitan Opera, where he is an assistant conductor. His solo harpsichord recording of J.S. Bach’s French Suites was named a Critic’s Choice recording of the year in 2001 by the New York Times. His 2007 recording of Bach’s Art of Fugue was similarly recognized with a five-star rating and a European distribution contract by Goldberg magazine.
Brookshire is an associate professor of music in the Conservatory of Music at Purchase College, where he teaches baroque performance practice and history.