Masterclass in Interpretation and Technique with Hopkinson Smith

Sat & Sun, 14/15 May 2022
10.00 –13.00 h and 14.30 –17.30 h

Kleiner Saal and Akademiezimmer Musik Akademie Basel, Leonhardstrasse 6, Basel

Contribution towards costs:
actively playing participants (max. 8):   180 CHF
participants, viewing and discussing:     80 CHF

Students enrolled at the Schola Cantorum Basiliensis or other institutes of the Hochschule für Musik / FHNW can ask for their fees to be waived.

The two-day masterclass is aimed at a wide range of musicians and music students in Switzerland and abroad and is especially intended for

• players of all plucked instruments, ancient and modern playing repertoires of their choice;
• violinists and cellists playing Bach solo works;
• other interested instrumentalists and singers.

The masterclass on interpretation and technique will focus on showing how logic can join with musicality, gesture and sensitivity in bringing some magic to the versions of the repertoires studied.

One-on-one lessons (45 min per active participant) and open discussions during the two days will take place in English and/or the languages of the participants.

Registration until 2 May 2022:
via .pdf to: scb-veranstaltungen.notexisting@nodomain.commab@fhnw.notexisting@nodomain.comch

Hopkinson Smith
Born in New York in 1946, Swiss-American lutenist Hopkinson Smith graduated from Harvard with Honors in Music in 1972. His instrumental studies took him to Europe where he worked with Emilio Pujol, a great pedagogue in the highest Catalan artistic tradition, and with the Swiss lutenist, Eugen Dombois, whose sense of organic unity between performer, instrument, and historical period has had lasting effects on him. He has been involved in numerous chamber music projects and was one of the founding members of the ensemble Hespèrion XX. Since the mid-80’s, he has focused almost exclusively on the solo repertoires for early plucked instrument, producing a series of prize-winning recordings for Astrée and Naïve, which feature Spanish music for vihuela and baroque guitar, French lute music of the Renaissance and baroque, English and Italian music of the 16th early 17th century and music from the German high baroque. His lute versions of Bach’s Sonatas and Partitas for violin and his Suites for the cello have opened up new channels of understanding of these works.

Hopkinson Smith has performed and given master classes throughout Eastern and Western Europe, North and South America, Australia, New Zealand, Korea and Japan sometimes combining the life-style of a hermit with that of a gypsy. He lives in Basel, Switzerland where after his emeritation at the Schola Cantorum Basiliensis he now teaches in postgraduate studies at the Institut für Hochschulentwicklung und Weiterbildung at the Musikakademie Basel. -  He loves to teach!