Professor McGuire will be working on a monograph, The British Musical Festival, 1695-1940: A Social History of Taste, that investigates the musical festival in Great Britain, which was one of the most important means of concert music production in Britain in the 18th and 19th centuries. Through such festivals, the middle classes ultimately became arbiters of musical taste.  In addition, he will continue the development of the Musical Festivals Database, a fully searchable index of programs, personnel, ensembles and venues of musical festivals held in the United Kingdom between 1695 and 1940. This will be important to musicologists, music theorists, and social historians in allowing one to see, for instance, the creation of the musical canon that we know today – but more importantly, it shows just how malleable that canon has always been.  His Duke sponsor, Associate Professor of Music Philip Rupprecht, will help him connect with Duke courses where he can interact with our undergraduate students and with other members of the Music department.