Thurston Dart

Keyboard player, conductor, and musical scholar, born in London, UK. He studied at the Royal College of Music and London University, became professor of music at Cambridge (1962) and at London (1964), and was also director of the Philomusica of London (1955–9). A specialist in early music, he edited several editions of 16th-c and 17th-c English works.

Robert Thurston Dart (September 3, 1921 – March 6, 1971), was an eminent British musicologist, conductor and keyboard player. From 1964 he was Professor of Music at King's College London.

He studied keyboard instruments at the Royal College of Music in London from 1938 to 1939, and also studied mathematics at University College, Exeter (B.Sc. In 1947 he was appointed assistant lecturer in music at the University of Cambridge, subsequently lecturer (1952), and professor (1962). In 1964 he was named King Edward Professor of Music at King's College, University of London.

As a continuo player he made numerous appearances on the harpsichord, and made many harpsichord, clavichord and organ recordings, especially for the L'Oiseau-Lyre label; His book The Interpretation of Music (London, 1954) was highly influential, and he also wrote numerous seminal articles on aspects of musical sources, performance and interpretation.