Dr Dr Anne Desler is a scholar and performer specialising in the 18th-century dramma per musica (Italian serious opera). Her research focuses on dramatic and musical performance practice, star singers, historiography, aesthetics and cultural contexts. Anne has published articles and book chapters on 18th-century opera and is working on a monograph on the famous castrato Carlo Broschi 'Farinelli'.  In 2018-19, she carried out research for another monograph, entitled Opera Performed: Nicola Grimaldi ‘Nicolini’ - Singer, Actor, Director, Promoter, funded by a Leverhulme Research Fellowship. As a result of her interest in historiography and popular music studies, she has also published an article on canonisation in Popular Music.  

As a singer, Anne has appeared in baroque opera productions and concerts in the US and Europe with Europa Galante, Musica Angelica and Modo Antiquo, among others, in venues such as the Opéra de Paris, Sala Verdi (Milano), Teatro Massimo (Palermo), Philharmonie Köln (Cologne) and the Getty Centre (Los Angeles). Her rendition of the title role in the first complete recording of Vivaldi’s Orlando furioso earned international critical acclaim. In addition, Anne has performed repertory ranging from medieval to contemporary music and plays a variety of early instruments as well as electric guitar.

Anne studied at the University of California, Irvine (BMus in Vocal Performance), University of Helsinki (MA in Musicology), the University of Southern California (DMA in Historical Performance Practice) and the University of Glasgow (PhD in Musicology). After teaching part-time at Rose Bruford College of Theatre and Performance, Birkbeck College and the University of Glasgow, she took up a Lectureship in Music and Theatre at the University of Hull in 2012 and moved to the University of Edinburgh in 2014. 

Anne is Director of Performance and Director of Undergraduate Studies for the Reid School of Music.