CHARPENTIER70

Emma’s main research programme for 2026, CHARPENTIER70, is centred around the French composer Gustave Charpentier (1860–1956), marking the 70th anniversary of his death on 18 February 1956.

Best known for his 1900 smash hit opera Louise, Charpentier was a major presence in French cultural life throughout the first half of the twentieth century. Though he wrote little music after his second opera, 1913’s Julien, he continued to enjoy significant recognition from the French establishment - all while styling himself as a Montmartre bohemian, with all the associated rejection of the social order. As well as his compositional activities, he spearheaded a number of major social projects (primarily involving the artistic education of Parisian garment workers) and promoted unionisation and strike action for greater recognition of musicmaking as work.

The aim of CHARPENTIER70 is not only to celebrate and promote Charpentier’s music, but also to re-examine and nuance other elements of his life and legacy. This will be achieved through academic and general interest publications, concerts, talks and media appearances.

Emma will also be working with archivists at the Bibliothèque Historique de la Ville de Paris on an anniversary exhibition of Charpentier’s papers for autumn/winter 2026-2027, spending six weeks in Paris thanks to a Charlemont Grant from the Royal Irish Academy and a research residence at the Fondation Maison des sciences de l’homme.

Emma is available for commissioned work as part of CHARPENTIER70 - please use the website contact form to get in touch.

Outputs from CHARPENTIER70

Print Publications

‘Composing Autobiography: Gustave Charpentier, Musical Life Narratives, and the Bohemian Self’. Journal of Musicological Research. Special Issue: Music, Autobiography, and Constructing the Self, eds. Emma Kavanagh and Sarah Kirby. Forthcoming 2026

Academic Talks

‘Between Social Movement and Self-Promotion: Re-Assessing Gustave Charpentier’s Conservatoire Populaire de Mimi Pinson, 1902–1914’. UCD School of Music Research Seminar Series, University College Dublin, 25 March 2026

‘Between Social Movement and Self-Promotion: Gustave Charpentier, the Conservatoire Populaire de Mimi Pinson, and the Gendered Politics of Working-Class Musicmaking’. 22nd International Conference on Nineteenth-Century Music, University of Toronto, 25 - 27 June 2026

‘Between Social Movement and Self-Promotion: Gender, Class, and Politics at Gustave Charpentier’s Conservatoire Populaire de Mimi Pinson’. RMA-SMI-EADH Conference, Queen’s University Belfast, 29 August - 1 September 2026

Broadcasting and Media

BBC Radio 3, ‘Opera on 3: Gustave Charpentier’s Louise’. Broadcast on 20 December 2025 [Guest Expert]

Exhibitions

Anniversary exhibition at the Bibliothèque Historique de la Ville de Paris, mid-October 2026 to January 2027