About us

Research has always been a key element of the Schola Cantorum Basiliensis since it was explicitly founded as an “Institute for Teaching and Research in the Field of Early Music” in 1933.

Today the Research Department consists of permanent staff members, supported by colleagues from the teaching staff, and of research fellows of the projects. An important aim is to connect our research with current issues related to historical performance practice and thus to inform teaching at the Schola Cantorum Basiliensis as well as to interact with the international community of musicology. These efforts are documented by numerous research projects and cooperations and are also aided by the scientific advisory board of the Schola Cantorum Basiliensis.

Tess Wendy Knighton Bolton


ICREA Research Professor at Universitat Autonoma de Barcelona


Tess Knighton holds MA and PhD degrees from the University of Cambridge and is an Emeritus Fellow of Clare College, Cambridge. From May 2011 she has been an ICREA Research Professor at the Institució Milà i Fontanals (CSIC) in Barcelona. In July 2012 she was awarded a Marie Curie Foundation Integration Grant for a research project on the urban musics of early modern Barcelona. Her research interests embrace music and culture in the Iberian world from the 15th to the early 17th centuries, and she has published widely in this field. She was Editor of the OUP journal Early Music from 1993 to 2009 and since 2003 is Series Editor of the Studies in Medieval and Renaissance Music series for The Boydell Press. She forms part of editorial and advisvory committees of Monumentos de la Música Esañola, Revista de Musicología, Anuario Musical, Schola Cantorum Basiliensis, and 'Connected Cities' on the 'Historical Soundscapes' digital platform.

More information: www.icrea.cat/Web/ScientificStaff/tess-knighton-537

Supported by the Maja Sacher Foundation