Professor Tassilo Erhardt joins Liverpool Hope as new Head of Music

Professor Tassilo Erhardt could have had a very different career path if he had followed his original vocation to become a Benedictine monk. Instead, he has joined Liverpool Hope University as Head of Music and has plans to launch a new programme in sacred music.

After spending nine years at school with Benedictine monks he had resolved to become one himself. However, he is now married with two children – although one is called Benedict – and has followed an academic and musical career.

He has studied baroque violin with Ryo Terakado and Enrico Gatti at the Royal Conservatory in The Hague and with Pavlo Besnoziuk in London. As a violinist he has worked for famous baroque orchestras, including The Academy of Ancient Music, The King’s Consort and The Parley of Instruments.

He graduated in Musicology from Utrecht University and his link with the Benedictines continued when he studied Theology at Oxford University’s St. Benet’s Hall. At Liverpool Hope he will be reunited with his old college master and tutor for New Testament, Dom Henry Wansborough, who is now Professor of Biblical Studies at Hope.

Professor Erhardt’s chamber music ensemble Apollo & Pan has performed regularly at renowned early music festivals and has made numerous radio and CD recordings. He received his PhD (with distinction) from Utrecht University in 2005. His dissertation, entitled 'A Most Excellent Subject'. Händels Messiah im Licht von Charles Jennens' theologischer Bibliothek, was awarded with the Erasmus Research Prize 2006. His latest major research project on the sacred music of the Viennese imperial chapel master Antonio Bertali (1605-1669) received a major research grant from the Dutch research council.

Professor Erhardt said: “One rarely finds a place that encourages creative ambitions, academic rigour, and is, at the same time, carried by Christian values. I have found it in Liverpool Hope University."