Richard Egarr

Richard Egarr has worked with all types of keyboards: he has performed repertoire ranging from fifteenth-century organ intabulations, to Dussek, Schumann and Chopin on early pianos, to Berg and Maxwell Davies on modern piano. He is director of the Academy of the Begijnhof, Amsterdam, and is in great demand both as soloist and as accompanist for many of today’s finest artists. His collaboration with long-time duo partner Andrew Manze has been setting new performance standards since 1984.

As a conductor, Egarr has presented a wide range of repertoire – from Baroque opera and oratorio, to works by twentieth-century composers such as John Tavener and orchestral transcriptions by Stokowski. Recently named Music Director of the Academy of Ancient Music, he appears regularly with this and other ensembles: the Orchestra of the Age of En-lightenment, the Orchestra of the Paris Conservatory, the Dutch Radio Chamber Orchestra, the Vienna Chamber Orchestra, and the Chamber Orchestra of Europe.

Richard Egarr now records exclusively for harmonia mundi usa and has made five recordings of music by

J.S. Bach: the Harpsichord Concertos with Andrew Manze and the Academy of Ancient Music; the Gamba Sonatas with Jaap ter Linden; the Violin Sonatas with Manze and ter Linden; a critically acclaimed recital, “Per cembalo solo…” (Gramophone Editor’s Choice); and the Goldberg Variations, hailed as “a spectacular disc” by the London Times. His most recent solo recording is devoted to Mozart Fantasias and Rondos, performed on an 1805 fortepiano. Egarr’s recordings with Andrew Manze also include the violin sonatas of J.F. Rebel, Pandolfi (Gramophone Award, 2000), Handel (Billboard ® Top Classical Album), Corelli (Gramophone Recording of the Month; the Prix Caecilia, 2003), Biber’s Rosary Sonatas (Edison Award, 2005), and Mozart’s Violin Sonatas, dubbed “the most stimulating

and satisfying Mozart recording of the year” (Chicago Tribune).