David McGuinness

Professor David McGuinness is a Professor of Practical Music at the University of Glasgow. His academic career spans research, performance, and media production. He holds a PhD on early 17th-century English church music, later pivoting to composing for theatre/TV and classical keyboard performance. He directed Concerto Caledonia for 30+ years, producing 16 albums and collaborating across genres. He was a BBC Radio 3 producer and composer for Channel 4's Skins.

His research focuses on historical and traditional music, including the AHRC-funded Bass Culture in Scottish Musical Traditions (2012-15) and The Edinburgh Allan Ramsay project (2018-23). He advises students in historical music, performance research, and practice-as-research. Grants include £375k from AHRC for Scottish bass culture studies and collaborative projects with institutions like Temple University and Sydney Living Museums.

Major works include Shepherds and Tea Tables: Songs of Allan Ramsay (2023), I Trawl the Megahertz (2019), and scholarly editions like Collected Works of Allan Ramsay (2022). His performance projects range from Baroque reenactments to modern interdisciplinary collaborations.