 |
Rachel Podger FLSW (born 30 May 1968) [1] [2] is a British violinist and conductor specialising in the performance of Baroque music.
|
Rachel Podger FLSW (born 30 May 1968) [1] [2] is a British violinist and conductor specialising in the performance of Baroque music.
Podger was born in England to a British father and a German mother. She was educated at a German Rudolf Steiner school [1] then returned to study first with Perry Hart, then at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama with David Takeno, Pauline Scott, and Micaela Comberti. During her studies, she co-founded Baroque chamber groups The Palladian Ensemble and Florilegium, and worked with period instrument ensembles such as the New London Consort and London Baroque.
Podger often conducts Baroque orchestras from the violin. She was the leader of the Gabrieli Consort and Players and later of The English Concert from 1997 to 2002, touring extensively, often as soloist in Vivaldi's Le quattro stagioni and Grosso mogul concertos. In 2004 she took up guest directorship of the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment, opening with a tour in the United States with Bach's Brandenburg Concertos . She currently works as a guest director with Arte dei Suonatori (Poland), Musica Angelica and Santa Fe Pro Musica (both in the United States) and as soloist with The Academy of Ancient Music.
Podger is a professor of Baroque violin at both the Guildhall School of Music and Drama and the Royal Welsh College of Music and Drama and also teaches regularly at the Hochschule für Künste, Bremen. In September 2008, she took up the newly founded Micaela Comberti Chair for Baroque violin at the Royal Academy of Music in London and then became professor of Baroque violin at the Royal Danish Academy of Music in Copenhagen. In 2022, Podger was elected a Fellow of the Learned Society of Wales. [3]
When not touring with various orchestras and other classical players, Podger works with her partner in Brecon, Mid-Wales, helping young musicians through the Mozart Music Fund, which she founded in 2006, as well as holding workshops and giving recitals. [4] In 2006 they founded the annual Brecon Baroque Festival which is held over the penultimate weekend of October every year.
Podger plays a violin made in Genoa in 1739 by Pesarinius, a later student of Antonio Stradivari. She initially played a Stradivarius copy from 1988 by Rowland Ross, and has recorded Haydn and Mozart on the 1699 Crespi Stradivarius. [5]
Podger records for Channel Classics Records and other labels.
A concerto is, from the late Baroque era, mostly understood as an instrumental composition, written for one or more soloists accompanied by an orchestra or other ensemble. The typical three-movement structure, a slow movement preceded and followed by fast movements, became a standard from the early 18th century.
The English Chamber Orchestra (ECO) is a British chamber orchestra based in London. The full orchestra regularly plays concerts at Cadogan Hall, and their ensemble performs at Wigmore Hall. With a limited performance size, the orchestra specializes in 18th-century music and was created to perform Baroque Music. The orchestra regularly tours in the UK and internationally, and holds the distinction of having the most extensive discography of any chamber orchestra and being the most well-traveled orchestra in the world; no other orchestra has played concerts (as of 2013, according to its own publicity) in as many countries as the English Chamber Orchestra.
Trevor David Pinnock is a British harpsichordist and conductor.
The Tafelmusik Baroque Orchestra is a Canadian orchestra specializing in historically-informed performance and based in Toronto. The orchestra plays period instruments appropriate to the era of music, including baroque, classical and romantic eras.
The English Concert is a baroque orchestra playing on period instruments based in London. Founded in 1972 and directed from the harpsichord by Trevor Pinnock for 30 years, it is now directed by harpsichordist Harry Bicket. Nadja Zwiener has been orchestra leader (concertmaster) since September 2007.
Andrew Manze is a British conductor and violinist, noted for his interpretation of Baroque violin music.
Julia Fischer is a German classical violinist and pianist. She teaches at the Munich University of Music and Performing Arts and performs up to 60 times per year.
Simon Andrew Thomas Standage is an English violinist and conductor best known for playing and conducting music of the baroque and classical eras on original instruments.
Lisa Beznosiuk is an English flautist of Ukrainian and Irish descent, specializing in period performance of baroque and classical music on historical flutes.
Rachel Barton Pine is an American violinist. She debuted with the Chicago Symphony at age 10, and was the first American and youngest ever gold medal winner of the International Johann Sebastian Bach Competition. The Washington Post wrote that she "displays a power and confidence that puts her in the top echelon."
Alina Rinatovna Ibragimova is a Russian-British violinist.
La stravaganza [literally 'Extravagance'], Op. 4, is a set of concertos written by Antonio Vivaldi in 1712–1713. The set was first published in 1716 in Amsterdam and was dedicated to Venetian nobleman Vettor Delfino, who had been a violin student of Vivaldi's. All of the concertos are scored for solo violin, strings, and basso continuo; however, some movements require extra soloists.
Monica Huggett is a British conductor and leading baroque violinist.
The Diapason d'Or is a recommendation of outstanding (mostly) classical music recordings given by reviewers of Diapason magazine in France, broadly equivalent to "Editor's Choice", "Disc of the Month" in the British Gramophone magazine.
Martin Pearlman is an American conductor, harpsichordist, composer, and early music specialist. He founded the first permanent Baroque orchestra in North America with Boston Baroque in 1973–74. Many of its original players went on to play in or direct other ensembles in what became a growing field in the American music scene. He later founded the chorus of that ensemble and has been the music director of Boston Baroque from its inception up to the present day.
Johannes Pramsohler is a French-Italian violinist, conductor and record producer, specialised in Historically informed performance.
Isabelle Faust is a German violinist who has worked internationally as a soloist and chamber musician. She has received multiple awards.
Mela Tenenbaum is a classical violinist and violist, also playing viola d'amore. She performed with the Kyiv Philharmonic and other orchestras. She inspired composers such as Dmitri Klebanov to write pieces for her. She emigrated to the United States and was from the early 1990s concertmaster of the Philharmonia Virtuosi. She recorded works from Vivaldi to salon music, especially chamber music.
Bolette Roed is a Danish-born recorder player based in Copenhagen.
Micaela "Mica" Comberti was an English violinist. Her concert career lasted from 1977 until her death. Born to a German mother and an Italian father, she was taught at the University of Music and Performing Arts Vienna, the Royal Academy of Music and the Mozarteum University Salzburg. Comberti was involved in early music and played for The English Concert, St. James' Baroque, Ex Cathedra and the Collegium Musicum 90. She also taught at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama, the Royal College of Music and the Royal Academy of Music. An award and position at the Royal Academy of Music are named after the violinist.
| International | |
|---|---|
| National | |
| Artists | |
| Other | |
