The Academy of Ancient Music (Biography)  Richard Egarr's bio

The Academy of Ancient Music

‘The Academy of Ancient Music is in world-beating form once more'
Gramophone, April 2007

‘with Richard Egarr's brilliance as its music director, this orchestra is playing better than ever'
Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, April 2007

‘The Academy of Ancient Music sounded sparkling and fresh. For three decades, this British chamber ensemble has given illuminating performances.'
Washington Post, April 2006

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The Academy of Ancient Music is one of the world's first and foremost period-instrument orchestras. Concerts across six continents and over 250 recordings since its formation by Christopher Hogwood in 1973 demonstrate the AAM's pre-eminence in music of the Baroque and Classical periods.

Richard Egarr succeeded Hogwood as Music Director in September 2006, and his inaugural season has won glowing praise from critics and audiences alike. His first tour of the USA as AAM Music Director in April 2007 included a critically acclaimed debut with the orchestra at Carnegie Hall. His first recording directing the AAM – Handel's Opus 3 sonatas – won warm praise on both sides of the Atlantic and was awarded the 2007 Gramophone Award for baroque instrumental music.

Performances with Egarr in 2007-08 showcase the full scope of the AAM's capabilities, from major choral works to Handel's intimate Opus 1 sonatas; from Bach's landmark Brandenburg Concertos to little-known masterpieces by Marini and Muffat. Highlights will include the next four recordings in an ongoing AAM series for Harmonia Mundi, performances of Handel's Messiah around Europe with the newly-formed Choir of the AAM and numerous projects in the UK.

The vitality of the AAM's music-making continues to be fostered by a range of guest directors. This season, Hogwood — now Emeritus Director — conducts the second of his series of three Handel operas leading up to the composer's anniversary in 2009, the renowned baroque expert Masaaki Suzuki and violinists Giuliano Carmignola and Pavlo Beznosiuk all lead projects, and the AAM continues to work with Polyphony and the Holst Singers and with the choirs of King's College Cambridge and Trinity College Cambridge.

The orchestra's pioneering recordings under Hogwood for Decca's L'Oiseau-Lyre label cover much of the Baroque and Classical orchestral canon, from concertos and symphonies to opera and oratorio. This includes the first recordings on period instruments of many works, such as Mozart's complete symphonies, and prize-winning opera recordings of Handel, Haydn and Mozart with soloists including Emma Kirkby, Cecilia Bartoli and Joan Sutherland.

In addition to the numerous Decca releases, further projects have resulted in recordings for EMI, Chandos, Erato and Harmonia Mundi. These include discs of Bach, Handel, Vivaldi and Purcell with the Choir of King's College Cambridge, Pergolesi, English coronation music and Handel's Messiah with the Choir of New College Oxford, and several discs for Harmonia Mundi of music from Bach to Tavener under Goodwin, Egarr and Andrew Manze.

The AAM is Orchestra-in-Residence at the University of Cambridge.

Visit www.aam.co.uk for further details of the AAM's activities worldwide.

October, 2007 -please destroy all previously dated materials

 

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Richard Egarr, harpsichord soloist and director (biography)

Richard Egarr is one of the most versatile musicians performing today. He has worked with all types of keyboards and performed repertoire ranging from fifteenth-century organ intabulations to Dussek and Chopin on early pianos and Berg and Maxwell Davies on modern piano. He is in great demand as a soloist and chamber musician as well as a conductor.

Richard enjoyed his musical training as a choirboy at York Minster, at Chetham's School of Music in Manchester, and as organ scholar at Clare College Cambridge. His study with Gustav Leonhardt further inspired his work in the field of historical performance. Today he is director of the Amsterdam-based Academy of the Begijnhof as well as the Academy of Ancient Music.

As a conductor, Richard has worked with specialised ensembles and modern orchestras alike, directing a wide range of repertoire from Bach's St Matthew Passion to John Taverner's Ikon of Light. Recent guest productions include Handel's Esther, Acis & Galatea, Alcina and L'Allegro, il Penseroso ed il Moderato, many performances of Messiah, Haydn's The Creation, Purcell's Fairy Queen, Bach's B minor mass, Telemann's St Matthew Passion and Stokowski arrangements with the Chamber Orchestra of Europe.

Last season, Richard directed a staged version of Purcell's Dido & Aeneas - a production that will be revived in 2008. His debut at the Flemish Radio Orchestra (conducting Berlioz's Symphonie Phantastique) prompted a second invitation, and he also appeared with the Scottish Chamber Orchestra and at Glyndebourne, where he recently conducted a staged version of Bach's St Matthew Passion.

As soloist, Richard has performed extensively in the major music festivals throughout Europe and Japan. He has toured the USA in 2006 with Bach's Goldberg Variations to great critical acclaim. Richard has also appeared as orchestral soloist, recently with the Dutch Radio Chamber Orchestra, the Orchestra of the 18th Century and the Netherlands Wind Ensemble.

In chamber music, Richard forms an ‘unequalled duo for violin and keyboard' (Gramophone) with violinist Andrew Manze. They have toured Europe and North America with music from the Stylus Phantasticus and late baroque. They have recently turned to later repertoire with performances of Mozart, Schubert, Beethoven and Hubert Parry.

Richard Egarr records exclusively for Harmonia Mundi USA. His solo discs include works by Frescobaldi, Gibbons, Couperin, Purcell, J.S. Bach and the complete recording of the keyboard works of Johann Jakob Froberger. Recent recordings include ‘Per Cembalo Solo' (Gramophone Editor's Choice), Bach's Goldberg Variations and a disc with Fantasies & Rondos by Mozart. Many of his numerous and exciting recordings with violinist Andrew Manze have been awarded international prizes, including a Gramophone award, a Grammy nomination, a Prix Caecilia and an Edison Award. With the Academy of Ancient Music he has recorded the complete Bach harpsichord concertos and Handel's Concerti Grossi Op.3.

October, 2007 -please destroy all previously dated materials