Anthony Gritten

Anthony Gritten is Head of Undergraduate Programmes at the Royal Academy of Music in London. A distinguished scholar-performer, he completed his doctorate at Cambridge University on Stravinsky's neoclassical music under Alexander Goehr. As a Fellow of the Royal College of Organists, Gritten has given over 400 recitals across the UK, France, and Canada, establishing himself as a leading interpreter of organ repertoire.

His academic journey includes positions at the University of East Anglia, the Royal Northern College of Music, and Middlesex University before his current leadership role at the Royal Academy of Music. Gritten's scholarly profile is marked by an interdisciplinary approach that bridges performance practice with philosophical inquiry.

Gritten's research interests focus on the intersection of music, philosophy, and performance studies. His work explores musical gesture, the phenomenology of performance, and the philosophical dimensions of musical practice. He has made significant contributions to understanding the works of John Cage, Charles Rosen, and Stravinsky through the lens of performance philosophy. His research reveals how embodied experience shapes musical interpretation and how philosophical concepts manifest in performance practice.

His scholarly output demonstrates a sustained engagement with questions of indeterminacy, distraction, and ecological awareness in musical performance. Gritten's work has helped establish Performance Philosophy as a legitimate field of academic inquiry, connecting practical musical concerns with broader philosophical questions about meaning, interpretation, and embodiment.

• Fellow of the Royal College of Organists

Gritten has supervised numerous doctoral students in the field of performance philosophy and artistic research. His administrative leadership as Head of Undergraduate Programmes has shaped curriculum development at the Royal Academy of Music, emphasizing the integration of practical performance with theoretical and philosophical inquiry.

He has been instrumental in developing research frameworks that validate practice-based research in music, contributing to the institutional recognition of artistic research as a legitimate scholarly pursuit.