EarlyMusicNews.Org

"I would like again to mention the wonderful support that both the American and English Gamba Societies have given to the Czech Society. Without their practical support in supplying music and strings especially, the growth that has taken place over the last thirteen years would probably not have happened. Poppy Holden also brought several instruments here in her Prague Van Project in the early 90s. Gerda Toerring also generously lent us two instruments. A further bass and treble were made at the making Course given by Michael Plant. ... (see further editorial notes on the website ed.)"

Added on: Aug 05, 2007 | Hits: 294

“Lutenist/theorbist Andreas Martin is perhaps best known for his recent splash in the early music world with his recording of Bach works for lute in 2004. This Harmonia Mundi disc, rated 5/5 stars in Goldberg magazine, represents a culmination of years of his close musical study and interest. It has led to comments such as “[Martin]...shows a deep knowledge of Bach’s music...an intensive Bach, brilliantly and marvellously distinguished...“(Pablo Vayón), „Meditative…subtle dynamics and evident lyricism…dance-like” (Michael Ullman, Fanfare Magazine), or “his phrasing [is] almost vocal in nuance” (Anna Picard, The Independent on Sunday).

Native to Frankfurt am Main, Germany, Martin’s early studies include the classical guitar in the Musikhochschule with Mario Sicca (Stuttgart), in the Conservatorio de Musica Giuseppe Verdi with Ruggero Chiesa (Milan), and Anglo – Saxon and Romance Languages and Philosophy at the University of Heidelberg. In order to expand upon his interest in Renaissance literature and music, he next enrolled in the esteemed Schola Cantorum in Basel, under the tutelage of lutists Eugen Dombois, Hopkinson Smith and Peter Croton. There he was also influenced by such artists as Emma Kirkby, Evelyn Tubb, Anthony Rooley and Nigel North.

His current life as a concert artist has taken Martin round the world. Recent highlights of solo appearances include the Festival de Musica Antigua, Barcelona (2004) or the Europabachfestival of Paris (2005).

He has also performed on television (Arte, Südwest 3) and radio (SWR 2 and BBC 3--concerts in Wales 2005 “Bach by Candlelight at Ewenny”).“

Visit website for more information. (ed.)

Added on: May 20, 2009 | Hits: 351

“Annette Otterstedt 

I should have invented the lyra viol if Frank Traficante had not discovered it for me beforehand. I was very young yet when I asked my teacher Johannes Koch to tell me about scordaturas for the viol. The only instance he knew was tuning the bottom string to C. I was disappointed, since I had already marked down the viol with its six strings as ideally suited for chordal play and various tunings. So I was not surprised when, browsing through my doctoral supervisor's (Carl Dahlhaus's) library, I came across a 'Musica Britannica' volume containing works by William Lawes, among them a suite for three lyra viols. There was the instrument to fill the gap. ..“

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Added on: Jul 14, 2009 | Hits: 312

“Claas Harders began learning viola da gamba at the age of seven. He continued his studies with Jaap ter Linden and Sarah Cunningham at the Akademie für Alte Musik Bremen as well as at the Conservatoire National Supérieur de Musique de Lyon with Marianne Muller.

Further studies with Freek Borstlap, Paolo Pandolfo, Wieland Kuijken, Jordi Savall, Wendy Gillespie, and Ariane Maurette.

In addition to the viola da gamba, he is a much sought-after lirone player. He plays regularly with chamber music ensembles throughout Europe and has appeared at festivals such as Ambronay (France), Abu Gosh (Israel), Styriarte (Austria), Barockfest Münster, Musikfest Bremen, and the Festival Oude Muziek (Netherlands).“

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Added on: Jul 14, 2009 | Hits: 320

"The Deutsche Lautengesellschaft e.V. (German Lute Society) was founded in Stuttgart 1996. To support research, to encourage the performance of lute music and to increase the public awareness of this instrument are the main aims of the activities in international contacts, like to the other European Lute Societies and the Lute Society of America for example. " Visit website for more information. (ed.)

Added on: Apr 18, 2008 | Hits: 393

German Viola da Gamba Society ... site is in German. (ed.)

Added on: Aug 06, 2007 | Hits: 623

"Musician, gamba-player, has played music as long as she can think. For her, music is the foremost means of communication between human beings, more precise and intense and unmistakable than language, of greater emotional significance than any other experience besides love. To her, music is a means of connecting not only the past and the future but also a way of socially integrating the most conflicting aspects of existence.

She travels the world, playing concerts and recording CDs with different groups or soloizing, mostly in the field of 17th and 18th century music but also letting the music take her to places she never even dreamed of.

When she is not travelling she lives in a farmhouse in northern Germany with her family and a few chickens, horses, cats and rabbits.

She passionately teaches her twelve students at the Hochschule der Künste in Bremen, Germany, everything she knows about music, playing the gamba, and how not to be jealous if someone plays better than you. " Visit website for more information. (ed.)

Added on: Aug 04, 2008 | Hits: 292

“… A desire to write music, thwarted by a distrust of institutionalized new music, was temporarily appeased by an additional curriculum of music theory. He worked together with the composer Richard Cornell, who encouraged him to write his own pieces. He passed both courses of study with ‘Magna Cum Laude’ distinctions. Subsequently he studied privately with the lutenist Steve Stubbs in Europe.“

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In 1984 Lee Santana moved to Germany where he still lives as a free-lancing lute-player and composer. In the course of the years he has had the honour to perform with numerous very good ensembles as well as with interesting directors and soloists. He is active as a soloist  and as duo partner of the gambist Hille Perl. Together they founded the trio LOS OTROS with Steve Player and the quartet THE AGE OF PASSIONS with Petra Müllejans and Karl Kaiser. He also plays in Hille’s ensemble ‘Sirius Viols’. All these projects, as well as programs of his own music have been documented on numerous CDs.

After  three futile years teaching at the Hochschule für Künste in Bremen, Lee Santana is back full force on the concert circuit and in the recording studio. Several highlights this year include a new solo CD entitled „Pentagram“ with works of Bach, Vallet and Santana, as well as his first ECM recording with the legendary Manfred Eicher. He will  also have the honour of accompanying his daughter Marthe Perl on her final exam.

When he is not touring he is hiding out with his family on an old farm somewhere in northern Germany.

Added on: Apr 24, 2011 | Hits: 251

“Inspired by the intriguing sound of the viola da gamba, the musicians Barbara Pfeifer, Sabine Kreutzberger, Adina Scheyhing and Franziska Finckh founded the viol consort Les Escapades in 2000. The name refers to intrigues or liaisons and gives the flavour of the ensemble’s programmes: besides their concerts as a viol quartet they perform frequently with other instrumentalists, singers, dancers and actors in unusual concerts which create space for a new listening experience. The four players studied at noted centres for Early Music (The Hague, Basel, Trossingen). Numerous solo appearances by individual members of the ensemble, as well as involvement in various chamber music projects, shape and enrich their teamwork in the consort. The consort has become well-known through recordings for Southwest German Radio (SWR) and SWR­TV, and collaboration in several choral projects. Ich will in Friede fahren, published by Christophorus records (Note 1) in March 2009, is the result of a long, intensive and stimulating collaboration with the countertenor Franz Vitzthum.“

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Added on: May 09, 2009 | Hits: 438

“Lutz Kirchhof devotes himself to the rediscovery of the lute and its music. As international well-known lute soloist he released numerous CD productions as an exclusive artist of SONY MUSIC.

In 1996, Lutz Kirchhof initiated the foundation of the German Association for Lute (DEUTSCHE LAUTENGESELLSCHAFT).“

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Added on: May 20, 2009 | Hits: 408

"Marc Lewon specialises in medieval instruments of the lute family and medieval Germanic languages and literature. After gaining a Master's degree in musicology and medieval German from Heidelberg University (Germany), he moved to Basel to further his practical music studies in the Medieval Department of the Schola Cantorum. There he studied lute with Crawford Young, vielle with Randall Cook and singing with Kathleen Dineen. In 2006 he completed his diploma in medieval lute, graduating with honours. In 2007 he will conclude his studies in medieval fiddle and publish a facsimile edition of the fragmentary ”Frankfurt-Neidhart Manuscript” (c1300) containing early minnesang melodies.

He plays regularly with a number of ensembles including Freiburger Spielleyt, Dulce Melos, and Le Basile and is head of the project ensemble ”Leones”. Besides being a busy performer, he gives courses in medieval music and publishes articles and editions on the subject. " Visit website for more information. (ed.)

Added on: Apr 20, 2008 | Hits: 384

"From 1971 to 1981 he studied violin and viola (with A. Casagrande) and composition (with M. Perrucci) at the musical Institute "G.B.Pergolesi" in Ancona and at the musical highschool Conservatorio "G.Rossini" in Pesaro. Later he joined the Orchestra Filarmonica Marchigiana and played with various chambre orchestras, ensembles for early music, baroque and contemporary music. In 1982 he founded in Innsbruck with P. Rabanser the international early music ensemble Oni Wytars and he is still performing with this group. In 1989 he worked for the Royal Swedish Concert Agency. " See website for more information. (ed.)

Added on: Feb 10, 2008 | Hits: 379

“ORLANDOviols is a viol consort, inspired by the historical context of consort music but also by the sounds of our modern communication society.

Added on: Jan 20, 2011 | Hits: 203

“Robert Barto graduated from the University of California, San Diego, having specialised in historical lute performance. A Fulbright scholarship brought him to Europe, where he continued his studies with Michael Schaeffer in Cologne and Eugen Dombois in Basle.

In 1984, he was awarded first prize at the International Lute Competition in Toronto, as well as top prize in a competition of all the instrumental soloists at the Musica Antiqua Competition in Bruges, Belgium.

Robert Barto has performed throughout Europe and North America, including solo recitals in the Festival of Flanders, London's Purcell Room, the Utrecht Festival and the "Music Before 1800" event in New York City. In 2000 he gave solo performances at the Lufthansa Baroque Festival in London, Bavarian Radio's Bach Night in Munich and presented a special tribute to Silvius Leopold Weiss for the city of Dresden.

Robert Barto's five volumes of baroque lute sonatas by Silvius Leopold Weiss and 2 CDs of the complete solo works of Joachim Bernhard Hagen have met with great enthusiasm from critics and the public alike.“

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Added on: May 18, 2009 | Hits: 310

Violone and Kontrabass performer. Visit website for more information. (ed.)

Added on: Aug 02, 2008 | Hits: 457

Visit website for more information. (ed.)

Added on: Jul 11, 2009 | Hits: 368

"Alfred Fernández was born in 1970 in Barcelona, where he studied classical guitar with Jordi Codina, Fernando Rodríguez and Manuel González.

Later on he became interested in studying in depth the Early Music repertoire for plucked string instruments (lute, vihuela, baroque guitar, theorbo, etc.). Formed mainly in a self-taught way, he has received advise of prestigious lutenists such as Lluís Gàsser, William Waters, Paul O’dette and Rolf Lislevand. ... " Visit website for more information. (ed.)

Added on: Jul 14, 2008 | Hits: 506

“Born in Basel, Switzerland in 1972, into the heart of a family of Catalan musicians, Arianna Savall, after an initial stage of general and musical education, began to study classical harp at the age of ten, and after returning to Barcelona, continued under the direction of Magdalena Barrera. She concurrently began to study voice at the Conservatory of Terrassa with María Dolores Aldea in 1993. She was awarded her professional qualification in harp from the Conservatory of Terrassa in 1996, and that of voice in 2000. In 1992, she began studies in historical performance with Rolf Lislevand at the Conservatory of Toulouse (France), and took several courses under the tutorship of Andrew Lawrence-King and Hopkinson Smith, as well as that of her parents, Montserrat Figueras and Jordi Savall. …”

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Added on: Oct 03, 2011 | Hits: 207

"Gregorio Paniagua was born in Madrid. At 16,he was named Captain of the Real Madrid Junior Basketball team by coach P.Ferrandiz. Medical studies at the Complutense University and the Jiménez Diaz Foundation. Received his first lessons in painting from his grandmother Dña. María de Calderón-a pupil of Vicente Lopez-pupil of Goya. Violoncello at the Royal Conservatory under the cathedra of Don Ricardo Vivó. Viola da gamba with August Wenzinger, Director of Schola Cantorum Basiliensis. Orchestral Direction under Maestro Sergiu Celibidache. An expert in ancient music and early instruments,particulary the vihuela-lute-hurdy gurdy, and viola da gamba. Founded ATRIVM MVSICAE de Madrid in 1964. In his private workshop,has reproduced musical instruments based on musicological researches into manuscripts-reliefs-sculptures-pottery and vase paitings from classical Greek to the Romanesque, Gothic, Renaissance & Barroco periods of Spain and Europe. Painting expositions in Madrid-Moxacar-Almeria-Valladolid-S.Lorenzo de El Escorial-Including a private exhibition at the Juana Mordó Art Gallery. As Director of ATRIVM MVSICAE, has performed in Europe-América-Asia and Australia. Frecuent Collaborator in ancient music courses in Spanish and international universities and guest soloist performer in auditoriums, temples, cathedrals, theatres and museums. His recordings have rated excellent reviews and achieved various awards, notably the Gold Record Award presented at the Japan International Art Festival,Tokyo 1971 for "Cantigas de Santa María- Alfonso X El Sabio". Visit website for more information. (ed.)

Added on: Mar 12, 2008 | Hits: 418

“Fahmi Alqhai is considered one of the most brilliant and prestigious young gamba players and performers of early music of his generation. He was born in Seville, Spain, in 1976. As his father is Syrian and his mother Palestinian, he spent the first 11 years of his life in Syria where he started to study music at a very young age. Later he studied in Spain as a self-taught person until he entered the Conservatorio Manuel Castillo in Seville to study viola da gamba with Ventura Rico. He continued his education in the famous schools Schola Cantorum Basiliensis (Basel, Switzerland) with Paolo Pandolfo and in the Conservatorio della Svizzera Italiana (Lugano, Switzerland) with Vittorio Ghielmi. During his musical studies he made his degree in Dentistry at the University of Seville.“

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Added on: Nov 13, 2011 | Hits: 175

"Jordi Savall i Bernadet (born 1941, in Igualada, Catalonia) is a Catalan viol player, conductor, and composer. He has been one of the major figures in the field of early music since the 1970s, largely responsible for bringing the viol (viola da gamba) back to life on the stage. His repertory ranges from Medieval to Renaissance and Baroque music. " (Wikipedia) See website for more information. (ed.)

Added on: Feb 24, 2008 | Hits: 469

“Josetxu Obregón was born in Bilbao, Spain. He received his musical training in Spain, Germany and the Netherlands, and holds Bachelor’s and Master’s Degrees in violoncello, chamber music, and conducting. He specialized in the field of early performance. At the Royal Conservatory in The Hague Mr. Obregón focused on the Baroque cello. He has studied with such masters as Anner Bijlsma, Marcio Carneiro and Luis Claret. He is the recipient of eleven prizes awarded him at international competitions like those organized by Jeunesses Musicales International in Portugal and Spain (2003 and 2007), Santander Chamber Music ompetition
2005, etc; and is a member of the faculty of the Royal Conservatory of Music in Madrid.

Mr. Obregón has appeared in recitals in more than thirteen European countries, the United States, México and Japan and has performed as a soloist with various orchestras in Spain, Portugal, the Netherlands, the United Kingdom and Germany. He has performed both Haydn Cello Concertos, Boccherini and Vivaldi Cello Concertos with original instrument orchestras. He has also performed Concertos of such composers as Elgar, Tchaikovsky and Gubaidulina. Mr. Obregón has played the violoncello with the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra and Rotterdam Philharmonic Orkest, and was the principal cellist of the EUBO – The European Union Baroque Orchestra, in l’Arpeggiata (France), the Orchestra of the Age Of Enlightment (UK), Arte dei Suonatori (Poland) and has shared the stage with Christina Pluhar, Lars Ulrich Mortensen, Maggie Faultless, Fabio Bonizzoni, and other notables. He is also the founder and Artistic Director of the Spanish Early Music Ensemble, La Ritirata, which records for the Spanish labels Verso and Arsis.”

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Added on: Nov 14, 2011 | Hits: 194

"Born in 1980 in Seville of Syrian father and Palestinian mother, he studied viola da gamba with Ventura Rico. He travels to Europe. In Milan he entered in the Accademia Internazionale della Musica and Switzerland entered the Conservatorio della Svizzera Italiana, perfecting his studies in viola da gamba. He received lessons from the best European musicians as Enrico Onofri, Lorenzo Ghielmi, Trevor Pinnock, Kees Boeke, Stefano Montanari, Diego Fasolis, and with Vittorio Ghielmi viol. He is a member of Accademia del Piacere, a group that specializes in music for viola da gamba. He is a member of Gruppo Seicento, Ishbilya Consort, Speculum, etc. and has worked with La Venexiana, Armoniosi Concerti, Sorcerous Stabber Orphen Lyra and many others, with whom he has travelled around the world. Currently preparing a double disc for BRILLIANT CLASSICS on the family Forqueray. ... "

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Added on: Jul 31, 2008 | Hits: 443

"The Sociedad de la Vihuela is a cultural association created at the national level on September 25, 2004 in order to disseminate and promote knowledge and study of historic stringed instruments such as: vihuela, lute, theorbo, guitar renaissance, baroque, romantic and classical, etc..

These objectives are carried out by organizing concerts, workshops, meetings and conferences as well as through the publication of specialized publications. ... "

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Added on: Jul 30, 2008 | Hits: 546

Federation of Viola da Gamba Societies.

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Added on: Jul 11, 2009 | Hits: 339