This is a rebroadcast from June 18, 2018.
Recognized as one of the outstanding harpsichordists of his generation, Jory Vinikour has cultivated a highly-diversified career that takes him to the world’s most important festivals, concert halls, and opera houses as recitalist and concerto soloist, partner to many of today’s finest instrumental and vocal artists, coach, and conductor.
Born in Chicago, Jory journeyed to Paris to study with Huguette Dreyfus and Kenneth Gilbert, facilitated by a Fulbright scholarship. First Prizes in the International Harpsichord Competitions of Warsaw (1993) and the Prague Spring Festival (1994) brought him to the public’s attention, and he has since appeared in festivals and concert series throughout much of the world.
A concerto soloist with a repertoire ranging from Bach to Poulenc to Nyman, he has performed with leading orchestras including Rotterdam Philharmonic, Orchestre de la Suisse Romande, Lausanne Chamber Orchestra, Philharmonic of Radio France, Ensemble Orchestral de Paris, Netherlands Chamber Orchestra, MDR Symphony Orchestra, Cape Town Symphony Orchestra, Moscow Chamber Orchestra, and the Royal Scottish National Orchestra, with conductors such as Stéphane Denève, Martin Haselböck, Marek Janowski, Armin Jordan, Benjamin Levy, Fabio Luisi, Marc Minkowski, John Nelson, Gordan Nikolic, Constantine Orbelian, Victor Yampolsky, et al. He participated in a recording of Frank Martin’s Petite Symphonie Concertante with the Lausanne Chamber Orchestra under the direction of Armin Jordan (Suisse Romande, 2005).
Widely acclaimed as an accompanist, he has worked extensively with artists such as Hélène Delavault, Vivica Genaux, Magdalena Kožená, Annick Massis, Marijana Mijanovic, Dorothea Röschmann, and Rolando Villazón. He has accompanied legendary Swedish mezzo-soprano Anne Sofie von Otter in recitals in Sweden, Norway, Spain, and Paris, as well as at Milan’s storied Teatro alla Scala. With lutenist Jakob Lindberg, their programme of English and Italian music of the Seventeenth Century, entitled Music for a While, was released by Deutsche Grammophon in early 2005.
As an active exponent of contemporary repertoire for the harpsichord, he has given the premieres of works written specially for him by composers including Harold Meltzer, Frédéric Durieux, Stephen Blumberg, Patricia Morehead, and Graham Lynch. He has also given important performances of works by Ligeti and Michael Nyman, as well as several Twentieth-Century concerti, including Cyril Scott’s 1937 Harpsichord Concerto, which Jory prepared and edited for Novello Editions. Sono Luminus released Toccatas, his recording of modern American harpsichord works, in late 2013.
Jory appears regularly as harpsichordist at the finest opera houses and festivals in Europe: Paris Opera, Netherlands Opera, Salzburg Festival, Teatro Real de Madrid, Baden-Baden, Glyndebourne, etc. in Baroque and Classical repertoire, as well as in more contemporary works (notably Stravinsky’s The Rake’s Progress and Zimmermann’s Die Soldaten) and is heard on many recordings from Deutsche Grammophon, EMI, Erato, Sony Classics et al., including critically-acclaimed DGG recordings of Mozart’s Die Entführung aus dem Serail, Le nozze di Figaro, Don Giovanni, Così fan tutte, and La clemenza di Tito, conducted by Yannick Nézet-Séguin. In July 2018, he played fortepiano continuo and glockenspiel for the next installment in Nézet-Séguin’s Mozart cycle, Die Zauberflöte, scheduled for release in 2019.
His recording of Bach’s Goldberg Variations, released on Delos International in 2001, received excellent reviews throughout the world. John von Rhein of the Chicago Tribune named it as one of 2001’s Top Ten Classical CDs, an honor that was also accorded to Jory’s recording of Bach’s Toccatas in 1999. His 2009 Delos release of Händel’s 1720 Suites for Harpsichord has received wide critical acclaim, American Record Guide naming it the finest recording of these works. Partnering with flautist Joshua Smith, their recording of Bach’s Sonatas for flute and harpsichord garnered attention from around the world. His debut recording for Sono Luminus, the Complete Harpsichord Works of Jean-Philippe Rameau, was nominated for a 2012 GRAMMY® award in the category of Best Classical Solo Instrumental Recording. Jory received a second GRAMMY® nomination for his Sono Luminous disc Toccatas. His impressive discography has continued to expand with critically-praised titles including a Delos recording of Padre Antonio Soler’s Six Concerti for two keyboards with Philippe LeRoy. His Sono Luminus recording of Bach’s Partitas for solo harpsichord (BWV 825 – 830) was released on 18 November 2016.
In January and February 2019, Jory conducted a double-bill of Mozart’s Bastien und Bastienne and Der Schauspieldirektor at Salzburg’s Mozartwoche, at the invitation of Rolando Villazón. His operatic work continued when he led Florentine Opera’s March 2019 production of Claudio Monteverdi’s L’incoronazione di Poppea. He then traveled to the San Francisco Bay Area for performances Händel’s Saul with Philharmonia Baroque Orchestra and Nicholas McGegan before returning to his native Chicago to play Bach’s Sonatas for violin and harpsichord with Rachel Barton Pine. In May 2019, he joined Orchester Wiener Akademie and Martin Haselböck for a performance of Poulenc’s Concert champêtre in Vienna’s storied Musikverein. In Summer 2019, he returned to North America for appearances in Montréal, at the Aspen and Ravinia Festivals, and Morningside College in Sioux City, Iowa, and he rejoined Rachel Barton Pine in a performance of music by Bach in Washington’s National Gallery of Art on 6 October. In November 2019, he conducted Ars Minerva’s modern-première production of Domenico Freschi’s opera Ermelinda in San Francisco. December found him in Minnesota’s Twin Cities to conduct performances of Bach’s Brandenburg Concerti and Händel’s Messiah.
In March 2018, Jory made his much-anticipated début with The Cleveland Orchestra as harpsichord soloist in performances of Francis Poulenc’s Concert champêtre, of which work he is a noted champion and to which he returned in two performances with Saarländisches Staatsorchester in November 2018.
In December 2017, Jory débuted with the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra on the podium—and at the keyboard—for three performances of music by Corelli, Marcello, Torelli, and Vivaldi, featuring soloists Avi Avital (mandolin) and Jelena Dirks (oboe). He welcomed 2018 in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, where he led Florentine Opera’s double bill of Blow’s Venus and Adonis and Purcell’s Dido and Aeneas.
Jory made his operatic conducting début on 6 August 2016, leading West Edge Opera’s [Berkeley, California] production of Georg Friedrich Händel’s Agrippina, staged at Oakland’s abandoned Sixteenth Street Station, and he led Chicago Opera Theater’s production of Henry Purcell’s The Fairy Queen in November 2016. In December 2016, he led Aberfoyle Baroque’s unique presentation of The Art of the Fugue – The Opera. Capitol Opera Richmond’s production of Mozart’s Bastien und Bastienne brought him to Richmond, Virginia, for performances in February and March 2017. In August 2017, Jory conducted soprano Verónica Cangemi and Camerata Bariloche in a concert featuring music by Händel and Mozart, presented in Buenos Aires’s Centro Cultural Kirchner.
Other recent engagements include his début as conductor/soloist with the Hong Kong Philharmonic, as well as an appearance with Lyric Opera of Chicago in Händel’s Rinaldo, for which he earned exceptional praise from the press. He performed Poulenc’s Concert Champêtre with the Netherlands Radio Chamber Orchestra under the baton of Benjamin Levy. Jory directed the Korea Chamber Orchestra (Seoul) in an all-Bach programme in May 2012, was guest director of Perm, Russia-based musicAeterna in a mixed programme, and co-directed, alongside violinist Monica Huggett, Juilliard415 Baroque Orchestra at Carnegie Hall. Jory has given masterclasses for Rocky Ridge Music Center in Colorado; the Austrian Baroque Academy in Gmunden, Austria; the European Academy at the Palazzo Ricci Montepulciano; the University of Chicago; the Gnessin Academy; and the Moscow Tchaikovsky Conservatory.
An extension of his widely-respected endeavors as both harpsichordist and conductor, Jory’s advocacy for historically-informed performance practices and expanding access to world-class performances of Early Music is manifested in his founding and leadership of Great Lakes Baroque, an organization committed to bringing Baroque music to metropolitan Milwaukee.
For conducting engagements, Jory is represented by Schwalbe and Partners.
Biography courtesy of the artist’s website.
In both art and life, violinist Rachel Barton Pine has an extraordinary ability to connect with people. Celebrated as a leading interpreter of great classic and contemporary works, her performances combine her innate gift for emotional communication and her scholarly fascination with historical research. She plays with passion and conviction, thrilling audiences worldwide with her dazzling technique, lustrous tone, and infectious joy in music-making.
Pine’s 2019-20 season includes a two-week residency with the Singapore Symphony, as well as performances with the Royal Scottish National and Seattle Baroque Orchestras, the Madison Symphony, and the Tel Aviv Soloists. In recital, she will appear as part of Lincoln Center’s Great Performers series.
Pine and harpsichordist Jory Vinikour will be presented by the National Gallery in Washington D.C., the San Francisco Early Music Society, the Chamber Music Society of Salt Lake City, Early Music Columbus, and the San Diego Music Society in support of their recent recording, Six Sonatas for violin and obbligato harpsichord by Johann Sebastian Bach (Cedille).
Her new recording of the Dvořák and Khachaturian Violin Concertos (Avie, November, 2019) with the Royal Scottish National Orchestra and conductor Teddy Abrams highlights the influence of each composer’s local ethnic music – Dvořák by Czech folk music and Khachaturian by Armenian folk and other music of the Caucasus.
Pine has appeared as a soloist with many prestigious ensembles including the Atlanta, Baltimore, Chicago, Dallas, Iceland, Montreal, New Zealand, San Diego, St. Louis and Vienna Symphonies; the Buffalo, Calgary, Rochester and Royal Philharmonics; the Louisville and Philadelphia Orchestras, the Royal Scottish Philharmonic, the Belgian and Russian National Orchestras; and the Israel, Mozarteum and Scottish Chamber Orchestras. She has worked with many renowned conductors including Marin Alsop, Zubin Mehta, Neeme Järvi, Placido Domingo, Semyon Bychkov, John Nelson, and Erich Leinsdorf, and with prestigious collaborators including Daniel Barenboim, Christoph Eschenbach, and William Warfield.
Among numerous contemporary composers with whom she has collaborated are David Chesky, Billy Childs, John Corigliano, Joe Deninzon, Mohammed Fairouz, Luis Jorge González, Earl Maneein, Daniel Bernard Roumain, José Serebrier, and Augusta Read Thomas. She has premiered concertos written for her by Fairouz, Maneein, and the Canadian composer Marcus Goddard, and performed the Panamanian premiere of Roque Cordero’s 1962 Violin Concerto. She also gave the world premiere of the last movement of Samuel Barber’s long-lost 1928 Violin Sonata, as well as of a sonata fragment by Beethoven in 2005.
In addition to her career as a violin soloist, Pine is an avid performer of baroque, renaissance, and medieval music. Her Vivaldi: The Complete Viola d’amoreConcertos, recorded with Ars Antigua (Cedille), appears in the 2019 Oscar-winning film “The Favourite.” Pine performs with the period instrument ensemble Trio Settecento and has served on the Board of Directors of Early Music America.
Pine writes her own cadenzas and has performed many of her own arrangements as encores. With Carl Fischer’s publication of “The Rachel Barton Pine Collection,” Pine became the only living artist and first woman in Carl Fischer’s Masters Collection series. Her edition of Bach’s Six Sonatas and Partitas was published in 2017. She is also the music advisor and editor of “Maud Powell Favorites,” the only published compilation of Powell’s transcriptions, cadenza for the Brahms Violin Concerto, and the music dedicated to, commissioned by, or closely associated with Powell.
Pine is an active philanthropist, leading the Rachel Barton Pine Foundation since 2001. This past season, the RBP Foundation received international press with the release of “Music by Black Composers, Violin Volume I,” the first in a series of pedagogical books of sheet music exclusively by Black classical composers, with additional orchestral instruments to be covered in future volumes. Early in her career, Pine noted that young people learning classical music seldom have the opportunity to study and perform music written by Black composers. Over the past 15 years, the RBP Foundation’s Music by Black Composers initiative has collected more than 900 works by more than 350 Black composers from the 18th-21st Centuries, representing North and South America, the Caribbean, Europe, Africa, and Asia. Also published are “The Rachel Barton Pine Foundation Coloring Book of Black Composers” and an illustrated timeline poster of 300+ Black classical composers from around the world, and many additional resources on MBC’s website. Coinciding with these publications, Pine released Blues Dialogues: Violin Works by Black Composers (Cedille Records), featuring classical works with a very strong blues flavor written by 20th and 21st Century composers of African descent.
Pine has a prolific discography, with 38 albums on labels including Avie, Cedille, Warner Classics, and Dorian. Her recordings with some of the world’s most prestigious ensembles and conductors include Brahms & Joachim Violin Concertos (Carlos Kalmar and the Chicago Symphony Orchestra) and Elgar & Bruch Violin Concertos (Andrew Litton and the BBC Symphony Orchestra), which pays homage to Sir Neville Marriner. Pine and Sir Neville’s Mozart: Complete Violin Concertos with the Academy of St Martin in the Fields charted at number three on the classical charts. Pine’s Testament: Complete Sonatas and Partitas for Solo Violin by Johann Sebastian Bach and Violin Lullabies debuted at number one on the classical chart and her Bel Canto Paganini hit number three.
Pine holds prizes from several of the world’s leading competitions, including a gold medal at the 1992 J.S. Bach International Violin Competition in Leipzig, Germany. She performs on the “ex-Bazzini, ex-Soldat” Joseph Guarnerius del Gesu (Cremona, 1742), on lifetime loan from her patron.
Biography courtesy of the artist’s website.