EarlyMusicNews.org

"Manuel Minguillón was born and raised in Madrid, Spain. He obtained his bachelor degree in guitar performance from the Conservatorio de San Lorenzo de El Escorial where he studied with Gerardo Arriaga. Captivated by the music of the Renaissance, he continued his studies in Early Plucked Instruments at the Conservatorio de Arturo Soria, in Madrid, with Jesús Sanchez. Subsequently, Minguillón studied in Seville with Juan Carlos Rivera at the Conservatory Manuel Castillo, and thereafter perfected his skills under the guidance of master lutenist Hopkinson Smith in Basel, Switzerland. In 2005 he completed a Master's Degree in Lute and Early Plucked Instruments with the world renowned lutenist Paul O'Dette at the Eastman School of Music in Rochester, New York where he is currently completing a Doctorate in Musical Arts. Since 2004 he has served as Professor O'Dette's primary teaching assistant for lute at the Eastman School. " See website for more information. (ed.)

Added on: Mar 03, 2008 | Hits: 588

“Over the past decade Edin Karamazov has established himself as today’s most exciting and charismatic player of the lute, garnering rave reviews and critical acclaim across Europe and America for his dazzlingly virtuosic and emotionally committed performances of an adventurous repertoire that ranges from sixteenth-century classics to the music of today.

Edin Karamazov began his musical career as a classical guitarist before taking up the Baroque lute, which he studied at the Schola Cantorum Basiliensis in Basle, Switzerland.

He made his solo debut as a lutenist in 1998. Significantly, it was as a last-minute substitute for the legendary Julian Bream, the player who had single-handedly led the modern revival of interest in the lute a generation earlier. ..“

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Added on: May 20, 2009 | Hits: 588

"Voixhumaines is the alias of Ralph Rousseau Meulenbroeks, a successful Dutch soloist on the viola da gamba or bass viol. Ralph performs in solo and ensemble settings, giving solo concerts thoughout and outside Europe.

"Les Voix Humaines" is a famous piece by the renowned French viola da gamba player and composer Marin Marais (1656-1728). It is also the name used to envelope professional musical activities of Ralph Rousseau Meulenbroeks. " Visit website for more information. (ed.)

Added on: Mar 23, 2008 | Hits: 586

“

Susan King followed her passion for the music of this unique and lovely instrument from her home in Australia to the other side of the world. Today she lives in Paris, where she’s realising her dream of performing the original manuscripts written for the French Baroque lute at the court of Louis XIV in Versailles.

Whether  through intimate home concerts or private lessons, Susan aspires to introduce people to the quietly uplifting sound of her beautiful lute.“

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Added on: Mar 19, 2010 | Hits: 586

"Empire Viols formed in 1994 and has been in residence at Second Presbyterian Church since 1998. The core group of two viols and harpsichord frequently expands to include more viols or other instruments, while maintaining a focus on the rich duo viol repertoire of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. The 2008-2009 season features a tour of the southwestern United States. ... " Visit website for more information. (ed.)

Added on: Aug 06, 2008 | Hits: 583

“Eric Bellocq studied the guitar with Alexandre Lagoya at the Paris Conservatory, where he also graduated with a First Prize. He played the theorbo in the Baroque ensemble Les Arts Florissants, directed by William Christie from 1983 to 1990. He also regularly took part in opera productions and concert performances with La Chapelle Royale, Les Musiciens du Louvre, Les Talens Lyriques, La Grande Ecurie et la Chambre du Roy, Le Concert Spirituel, Akâdemia, Le concert d'Astrée and La Fenice. ..”

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Added on: May 18, 2009 | Hits: 574

“Tanya Tomkins, a virtuoso on both the Baroque and modern cello, is equally at home playing a Bach cello suite in an intimate house concert or anchoring the cello section of the internationally renowned Philharmonia Baroque Orchestra on concert stages around the world. NRC Handelsblad (The Netherlands) describes her as “a cellist with a very special and unusual intensity,” and the Cleveland Plain Dealer calls her "a performer who combines an intense dramatic fire with Apollonian poise.”

Added on: Jan 22, 2011 | Hits: 573

"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 19, 2008 | Hits: 569

"Alison Crum is one of the best known British exponents of the viol. As teacher, performer, and moving-spirit behind several well-known groups, she travels all over the world giving recitals and lectures, and teaching on summer schools and workshops.

She got her first viol while studying music at Reading University, and went on to study it in Brussels with Wieland Kuijken and, later, with Jordi Savall in Basle. She has made around eighty recordings - mostly with the Consort of Musicke, the Dowland Consort, Musica Antiqua of London, and the Rose Consort of Viols - but also featuring as a soloist on two discs of Marais, and most recently with Laurence Cummings, on a recording of the three Bach gamba sonatas, and playing Italian Virtuoso divisions on renaissance viols with Musica Antiqua on their latest release 'Word Play'.

She is President of the Viola da Gamba Society of Great Britain, and is Professor of Viol at Trinity College of Music in London.She directs many courses for viol players, including the International Viol Summer School, attracting players from all over the world, and has had published a series of graded music books centred around her highly acclaimed textbook 'Play the Viol' - now in its fifth reprint. " Visit website for more information. (ed.)

Added on: Mar 18, 2008 | Hits: 568

"Born in Holland in 1961 and after his cello studies Coen Engelhard is living in France, where he learns to play the viola da gamba and how to make them.

In Foix (Pyrenees) he discovered an unknown manuscript of viola da gamba music which he has revived. The CD ‘Le Manuscrit de Foix’ is part of this adventure.

Since 1996 Coen has been teaching viola da gamba at the Conservatory of Toulouse. He is an appreciated gamba soloist in Bach's Passions and is leader of Consortoulouse. " Visit website for more information. (ed.)

Added on: Aug 04, 2008 | Hits: 567

“ Solo-CD, Music by Carl Friedrich Abel ( www.hyperion-records.co.uk/al.asp?al=CDA67628 ), winner of Editor's Choice Gramophone Award 2008 .. .

Susanne Heinrich studied at the Meistersinger Conservatory of Nuremberg, and at the Frankfurt State Academy of Music, where she passed her recital diploma with the highest distinction. She was then granted the prestigious DAAD (German Academic Exchange Service) scholarship to study with Wieland Kuijken at the Royal Conservatory of The Hague. She has performed and recorded with many leading period-instrument ensembles of Europe, and has made over 15 recordings with the award-winning ensemble  “Charivari Agréable“. Susanne has been a member of the“Palladian Ensemble” (the “Palladians” from 2007) since 1994 and she has written for various journals, including “The Consort“, and  “Chelys“. Sought after as a teacher, her last position was Professor for Viols and Violone at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama, London; Susanne is now devoting some of her time to the chief editorship of  “Charivari Agréable Publications”. The revised New Grove Dictionary of Music & Musicians refers to her as one of the 'leading players' of this generation.“

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Added on: Apr 13, 2009 | Hits: 565

"Debra Lonergan performs with the early 17th century ensembles La Gente d’Orfeo and Anaphantasia, as well as Milwaukee's Ensemble Musical Offering, and the period string quartet Mirabel. She has played continuo in concert for several of today’s leading soloists, among them, Enid Sutherland, Jaap Schroeder, Stanley Ritchie, Marilyn McDonald and John Holloway.

Ms. Lonergan has made an extensive study of string pedagogy, and with nearly 30 years of experience teaching all ages, maintains an active studio in Ann Arbor, Michigan. " See website for more information. (ed.)

Added on: Mar 03, 2008 | Hits: 562

"PURPOSE OF THE SOCIETY

• To cultivate, foster, sponsor, and develop appreciation of the art, history, literature and uses of historical harps.

• To promote appreciation of and to raise the level of proficiency in the performance and use of historical harps.

• To keep historical harp makers and performers, along with other friends of the historical harp, informed about literatureand activities pertaining to historical harps, and to provide occasions for them to meet.

• To promote the use of historical harps as professional instruments, and to encourage their use among amateurs.

Added on: Apr 18, 2008 | Hits: 559

“For thousands of years, the sound of the lyre dominated European and Celtic music.  Today it is almost unknown.

Rediscover the sound of this captivating instrument, and of the bone flutes, skin drums and songs that shared its musical world.

Thor Ewing, the Lyre Man, is deeply versed in the lyre’s history, and in the music and song of the Early Middle Ages, from Anglo-Saxon and Viking times to the last days of the lyre in the twelfth and thirteenth centuries.  The repertoire can include music from as far apart as Ancient Greece, and modern British and Scandinavian folk traditions.

He is also an accomplished exponent of the storytelling traditions and verse of early Britain and Scandinavia.

The Lyre Man can call on other musicians where appropriate, to create a unique Ancient Ensemble.“

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Added on: May 11, 2009 | Hits: 559

“An internationally acclaimed multi-instrumentalist, Tim Rayborn has been active in the fields of world and early music for nearly 20 years. He plays dozens of musical instruments from medieval Europe, the Middle East, the Balkans, and Central Asia, including: lutes, plucked strings, flutes,
and percussion, as well as being a singer.

Tim lived in the UK for seven years, studying for his M.A. and Ph.D. in medieval studies at the University of Leeds. He concurrently worked as a musician, performing and recording.

He has toured the U.S. and Europe extensively (from Ireland to Turkey), performing with the London-based medieval group Tintagel, and his own group, Ensemble Florata (including concerts at the York and Beverley Early Music Festivals, Alden Biesen Castle in Belgium, Bunyola in Majorca, and the Spitalfields Festival in London). He has given a number of performances for BBC (in the UK and Jersey), appeared on Belgian classical radio in a live concert broadcast, toured in Canada and Australia, and worked with folk musicians in Marrakech and Istanbul. He has also taught at the San Francisco Early Music Society Medieval/Renaissance summer workshop.  …“

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Added on: Feb 07, 2011 | Hits: 559

"Paolo Zebolino musician, singer, actor and historian. His main instrument is the hurdy-gurdy, but he also plays the guitar and other stringed plucked instruments (saz, bouzouki, oud) or violin, fiddle bow. ... " (Google translation.) Visit website for more information. (ed.)

Added on: May 25, 2008 | Hits: 557

"Although in the past, the Society organised courses in making as well as many in playing these instruments, at present the activity of both branches of the Society is fairly dormant due to the apathy of the membership. On the positive side, there are several good gamba makers as well as lute makers. Special mention should be made of Petr Vavrous (gambas) and Jiri Cepelak (lutes) who have both been very supportive to the work of the Society. However we do continue to lend out many instruments both gambas and lutes. The Society also lends out music and CDs. ... "

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Added on: Jul 30, 2008 | Hits: 557

"Since starting his professional career as lutenist and theorbist in 1982, he has participated in a great number of concerts and early music festivals in Italy, France, Germany, Switzerland, Holland, Czechoslovakia, Poland, Israel, Great Britain, New Zealand, and Brasil. " See website for more information. (ed.)

Added on: Feb 09, 2008 | Hits: 553

"1st prize in cello playing under André Navarra at the Paris Conservatory. Completes his studies in early music in Vienna with Nikolaus Harnoncourt and viola da gamba with Jordi Savall at the Schola Cantorum in Basel.

Together with Erich Höbarth, Andrea Bischof and Anita Mitterer, he founded the Quatuor Mosaïques in 1984. The quartet is specialised in music from Vienna classic repertoire.

Besides activities as a chamber musician, Christophe Coin is regularly invited as a soloist and conductor in France and abroad.

Since 1991, he has directed the Ensemble Baroque de Limoges in a repertoire of 17th and 18th century music.

Musician and research worker, he has organised international Symposa to examine playing techniques and fabrication of early instruments since 1992 in Limoges.

His recordings have been well-received by the critics; two Gramophone Awards successively for Haydn's Opus 20 and Opus 33 quartets played by the Quatuor Mosaïques, and a Classical Music Victoire Award for his recording of the “cello piccolo” cantatas by Bach with the Ensemble Baroque de Limoges.

Christophe Coin teaches at the Paris Conservatory and at the Schola Cantorum in Basel. "

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Added on: Aug 04, 2008 | Hits: 548

"Rebecca Rosen began learning cello at the age of 9 in Los Angeles. In 2000, after she graduated summa cum laude from the University of California Los Angeles (UCLA) with a Bachelor of Arts degree in music theory, she began studying baroque cello with Professor Elisabeth LeGuin. Her education was broadened through her participation in intensive baroque workshops in San Francisco, Boston, and Amherst where she enrolled in masterclasses with Phoebe Carrai and Sarah Cunningham.

In 2002, Ms. Rosen was awarded the J. William Fulbright grant to study baroque cello with Jaap ter Linden at the Royal Conservatoire in The Hague, Netherlands. There she earned her Bachelor's and Master's degrees in early music performance.

She performs with such distinguished ensembles as Les Musiciens du Louvre, B'Rock, New Dutch Academy, La Scintilla (with Cecilia Bartoli), Al Ayre Espanol, La Stravaganza Köln, and a new orchestra of which she is co-founder, Collegium Musicum Den Haag.

This May, Ms. Rosen will perform two solo suites by J.S. Bach in the opening concert of the Internationale Barocktage Festival in Melk, Austria. " Visit website for more information. (ed.)

Added on: Apr 27, 2008 | Hits: 547

“Founded in 1886, the EAP is one of the few large plucked ensembles  in Europe. There are 50 amateur musicians divided into four panels (1st mandolins, 2nd mandolins, guitars and mandoles) plus mandocellos, the bass and flute.

The band plays mostly original compositions (Vivaldi, Calace, Wolke, Kuwahara, Mandonico ...) but the repertoire also includes transcriptions of major classical works (opera overtures, concertos ...). In June 2009, the orchestra played transcriptions of Bach and Handel in the “Passe ton Bach d’abord !” …” 

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Added on: Jan 11, 2012 | Hits: 546

"The Viola da Gamba Society of America (VdGSA) is a not-for-profit national organization dedicated to the support of activities relating to the viola da gamba in the United States and abroad. It is a society of players, builders, publishers, distributors, restorers and others sharing a serious interest in music for viols and other early bowed string instruments."

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Added on: Aug 05, 2007 | Hits: 542

"... Fascinated by the Baroque period, Louis began the lute- he was not yet fifteen. He started out by poring over musical research documents describing the antique music, gleaning whatever practical information he could. On the eve of his confirmation, he received what would become a lifelong passion: his first baroque lute. Working with another young enthusiast, Kleber Besson, his technique grew. Three times a day all through high school, the lute was as regular as meals. Louis played lute, theorbo and a 1927 folk guitar he had adopted on his first visit to New York to play blues. ...

In 1984 EMI records chose him to be their lute master of their Treasury of Bach; this box set included pieces with every instrument Bach has written for. By then, Louis was playing in the Saint Chapel in Paris. He then recorded the Dufaut disc in a small chapel in Switzerland. Louis also started playing harpsichord, organ and french hunting horn on the side. In 1989, a subsidiary of Universal Music requested a worldwide first: the recording of the "Divine Rhethoric", by Gaultier. The same year, national television produced a 30 minute documentary about Louis, the "Musician Minister": Louis was indeed a minister, but also an engineer and a PhD. in philosophy. ...

For the past ten years, Louis has been working incessantly on his latest masterpiece, the "Book of Perrine", recorded in Switzerland, which will finally be released in a few months. This recording is the apotheosis of his work, and is impatiently awaited by his fans. ... " Visit website for more information. (ed.)

Added on: Jul 28, 2008 | Hits: 540

“Rob MacKillop - Rob has recorded seven CDs of historical music, three of which reached the Number One position in the Scottish Classical Music Chart. In 2001 he was awarded a Churchill Fellowship for his research into medieval Scottish music, which led him to studying with Sufi musicians in Istanbul and Morocco. He broadcast an entire solo concert on BBC Radio 3 from John Smith's Square, London. He has presented academic papers at conferences in Portugal and Germany, and has been published many times. Rob has been active in both historical and contemporary music. Three of Scotland's leading contemporary composers have written works for him, and he also composes new works himself. In 2004 he was Composer in Residence for Morgan Academy in Dundee, and in 2001 was Musician in Residence for Madras College in St Andrews. He created and Directed the Dundee Summer Music Festival. He works as a Reader of schools literature for Oxford University Press, and as a reviewer for Music Teacher. He has also been Lecturer in Scottish Musical History at Aberdeen University, Dundee University (where he created an evening class), and at the Royal Scottish Academy of Music and Drama. He is presently Musician In Residence to Queen Margaret University in Edinburgh. ..“

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Added on: Jul 25, 2009 | Hits: 540

"This chapter of the Viola da Gamba Society of America (VdGSA ) is based in sunny Tucson, AZ. It was incorporated as a non-profit and tax-exempt [501 (c) 3] organization in October 2001. It pursues the same goal as its parent organization, i.e. the enjoyment of playing the viola da gamba, a musical instrument of the Renaissance period. To facilitate this goal, the VdGS - Southern AZ will conduct monthly meetings during the school season and it will organize an annual workshop."

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Added on: Sep 04, 2010 | Hits: 540