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Monica Huggett (born 16 May 1953 in London, England) is a British conductor and leading baroque violinist.
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Monica Huggett (born 16 May 1953 in London, England) is a British conductor and leading baroque violinist.
At the age of 16, Huggett started studying at the Royal Academy of Music, London, with Manoug Parikian and Kato Havas, baroque violin with Sigiswald Kuijken.
Huggett co-founded and served as leader of the Amsterdam Baroque Orchestra under Ton Koopman from 1980 to 1987. She was made a Fellow of the Royal Academy of Music in 1994, and serves as professor of baroque violin at the Hochschule für Künste Bremen, Germany. She won Gramophone Awards for her recordings of Bach's Sonatas and Partitas for solo violin (1997) and Biber's violin sonatas (2002).
Huggett was Artistic Director of the Portland Baroque Orchestra from 1995 until 2021. She has also served as the director of The Hanover Band and guest director of the Arion Baroque Orchestra, Montreal; [1] Tafelmusik, Toronto; Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment; Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra; Philharmonia Baroque, San Francisco; Norwegian Chamber Orchestra; [2] and Concerto Copenhagen. Huggett also worked with Christopher Hogwood at the Academy of Ancient Music; with Trevor Pinnock and the English Concert; and toured the US in concert with James Galway.
Huggett continues as Artistic Director of the Irish Baroque Orchestra [3] and is guest director of the Seville Baroque Orchestra. [4] She also founded the baroque Ensemble Sonnerie [5] and Hausmusik London [6] as a chamber ensemble which concentrates on romantic music.
Huggett's expertise in the musical and social history of the baroque era, coupled with her unique interpretation of baroque music, has made her a much sought-after resource for students of the baroque violin. She has given master classes in Banff, Dartington, Vicenza, Dublin, The Hague, Medellin and The Royal College of Music.
In 2008 she was appointed director of the new graduate program in historical performance at The Juilliard School in New York City. [7]
| This section of a biography of a living person does not include any references or sources .(March 2020) |
"This is a disc that merits the attention of anybody who appreciates the highest flights of violin playing, from whatever period" The Daily Telegraph, August 2001
ASV Gramophone Award Winner 2002 (Baroque Instrumental)
5* BBC Music Magazine, October 2001
“9” rating in Repertoire Magazine (France)
BBC Music Magazine Critics' Choice - December 2001
“With the tonal sweetness of Huggett’s three violins resonating pleasingly through the many double- and multiple-stoppings and her bowing demonstrating a delicious lightness and freedom, she admirably displays her eloquent command of Biber’s sublime and richly symbolic language. Huggett’s [approach] is ravishing in its sonorities, her supporting cast adding significantly to the exotic sounds of the various scordaturas and the overall effect of her intelligent, stylish and expressive playing.” The Strad Magazine, November 2004
“Huggett's playing - on three violins - shines with ease and expression” The Times
“Huggett’s imaginative approach and lively response to detail are among the most rewarding aspects of her version of these emotionally rewarding pieces.” 5* BBC Music Magazine, December 2004
“Of all the recordings now available of Biber...this [is] by far and away the most spectacular, exuberant, colourful and downright ravishing of them all. Huggett positively revels in the virtuosity of Biber’s original...Huggett’s beautifully crafted performance of the complex and, at times, profoundly moving solo Passacaglia rounds off what is a matchless recording from every perspective.” International Record Review, Nov 2004
“No matter how many versions of the Bach violin concertos you already own, this one is a must.” International Record Review
Vivaldi: (The four seasons inside). Il cimento dell'armonia e dell'inventione Op.8. Virgin Classics. La cetra Op.9. Virgin Classics.
A chaconne is a type of musical composition often used as a vehicle for variation on a repeated short harmonic progression, often involving a fairly short repetitive bass-line which offers a compositional outline for variation, decoration, figuration and melodic invention. In this it closely resembles the passacaglia. It originates and was particularly popular in the Baroque era; a large number of Chaconnes exist from the 17th- and 18th- centuries.
The passacaglia is a musical form that originated in early seventeenth-century Spain and is still used today by composers. It is usually of a serious character and is often based on a bass-ostinato and written in triple metre.
Heinrich Ignaz Franz Biber was a Bohemian-Austrian composer and violinist. Biber worked in Graz and Kroměříž before he illegally left his employer, Prince-Bishop Karl Liechtenstein-Kastelkorn, and settled in Salzburg. He remained there for the rest of his life, publishing much of his music but apparently seldom, if ever, giving concert tours.
Max Rostal was a violinist and a viola player. He was Austrian-born, but later took British citizenship.
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Rachel Podger FLSW is a British violinist and conductor specialising in the performance of Baroque music.
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Evgeny Sviridov is a Russian violinist and academic teacher based in Germany who turned from the Russian romantic style to the Baroque violin which he studied in Cologne. He has been concertmaster for the ensemble Concerto Köln beginning in 2015, and has lectured Baroque violin at the Hochschule für Künste Bremen from 2018.
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