Head of Academic Studies

Email: kerry.houston@TUDublin.ie

PhD MA MTh LRSM LLCM(TD) 

Head of Academic Studies

Kerry was a chorister at St Patrick’s Cathedral, Dublin where he studied organ with the late W. S. Greig and as a scholarship student in the College of Music with Peter Sweeney. He took his undergraduate and postgraduate degrees in music at Trinity College Dublin, where he was the organ scholar and the conductor of Chapel Choir. He took his Master’s degree in Theology at the Pontifical University Maynooth. Kerry taught in the music departments at Trinity and NUI Maynooth before joining the staff of the Conservatory in 2005.

He is a former President of the Society for Musicology in Ireland, a founder member of the Irish working group of Repertoire International des Sources Musicales and is chair of the Irish committee of Répertoire International de Littérature Musicale as well as being on the editorial board of the Encylopedia of Music in Ireland. Kerry has contributed to Die Musik in Geschichte und Gegenwart and A Historical Anthology of Irish Church Music, Irish Musical Studies, Vol. 6 (Four Courts Press 2001). Other publications include three chapters on music in Saint Patrick’s Cathedral, Dublin: a History (Four Courts Press: 2009). He was a contributor and co-editor with Barra Boydell to Irish Musical Studies Volume 10, Music, Ireland and the Seventeenth (Four Courts Press: 2009) and is co-editor with Maria McHale and Michael Murphy for Irish Musical Studies Volume 12 which is concentrating on musical documents relating to the long nineteenth century. He has also contributed to Volumes II and III of Treasures of Irish Christianity (Veritas: 2012 & 2015). He will also be contributing to the forthcoming volume Death and the Irish (ed. Salvador Ryan).

Kerry was subject editor an contributor to the Enclylopedia of Music in Ireland (UCD Press: 2013) which is the largest musicological project ever undertaken in Ireland 

Kerry is Director of the Research Foundation for music in Ireland (musicresearch.ie) which is based at the Conservatory and promotes the research of Music in Ireland and Music of Ireland. This project was initially housed at Maynooth University but was hoisted by the Conservatory in the five years up to its publication.

Future projects include the preparation of a complete critical edition of the sacred music of Daniel, Thomas and Ralph Roseingrave in collaboration with Andrew Johnstone (Trinity College Dublin) and a catalogue of music manuscripts at Saint Patrick’s and Christ Church Cathedrals, Dublin in collaboration with Susan Hemmens (Marsh’s Library). Other projects include The Organs and Organists of Saint Patrick’s Cathedral, Dublin (with David Leigh), Music ion the Church of Ireland in the long nineteenth century (Ed. Aidan Thomson) and Irish Missionaries in China: a reassessment of Dublin University Far Eastern Mission.

Kerry’s research interests include source studies with a particular interest in sources for sacred music in England and Ireland 1660–1900; editing and stemmatic analysis; harmonic theory and history of music education; reception history with particular interest in Mendelssohn; theology and number symbolism in music. He has given papers related to these areas at numerous national and international conferences.

email: kerry.houston@tudublin.ie