Christopher Hogwood
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Christopher Jarvis Haley Hogwood CBE (born 10 September 1941) is a well-known British conductor, harpsichordist, writer and scholar.
Hogwood was born in Nottingham, and studied music and classical literature at Pembroke College, Cambridge. He went on to study performance and conducting under Raymond Leppard and Thurston Dart; and later with Rafael Puyana and Gustav Leonhardt. A British Council scholarship enabled him to study in Prague for a year.
In 1967 Hogwood founded the Early Music Consort with David Munrow, and in 1973 he founded the Academy of Ancient Music, specializing in performances of baroque and early classical music with period instruments. The Early Music Consort was disbanded following Munrow's tragic suicide in 1976, but Hogwood continued to perform and record with the Academy of Ancient Music and also guest conducted with many other orchestras.
Since 1981, Hogwood has conducted regularly in the United States. He served as Artistic Director of Boston's Handel and Haydn Society from 1986 to 2001, and has since held the title of Conductor Laureate. From 1983 to 1985 Hogwood was the artistic director of the Mostly Mozart Festival in the Barbican Centre in London. From 1987 to 1992 he was the musical director of the Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra in Minnesota, which appointed him its principal guest conductor.
Hogwood also conducts much opera. He made his operatic debut in 1983, conducting Don Giovanni in St. Louis, Missouri. He has worked with Berlin State Opera, La Scala Milan, Royal Opera Stockholm, Royal Opera House at Covent Garden, Chorégies d'Orange and Houston Grand Opera. With the Opera Australia, he performed Idomeneo in 1994 and La Clemenza di Tito in 1997 Iphigenie auf Tauris.
In May, 2006 it was announced that Richard Egarr would succeed Hogwood as Music Director of the Academy of Ancient Music on September 1 and that Hogwood would assume the title of Emeritus Director. Hogwood said he expected to conduct 'at least one major project' with the Academy each year. He will conduct them in Handel operas in concert each year from 2007 leading up to the Handel anniversary in 2009, beginning with Amadigi.
Although Hogwood is best known for the baroque and early classical repertoire, he also performs contemporary music, with a particular affinity for the neo-baroque and neoclassical schools including many works by Stravinsky, Martinů and Hindemith.
Hogwood’s publications include a survey of patronage through the ages ('Music at Court'), biographical studies of Haydn, Mozart and Handel, a history of the trio sonata, and investigations of British music including a book about Handel’s 'Water Music' and 'Music for the Royal Fireworks'.
His editing work includes music by composers as diverse as John Dowland and Felix Mendelssohn, and is currently the chairman of the new edition 'Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach: The Complete Works', which is endeavoring to complete the publishing of a collected edition of C.P.E. Bach's music by 2014. Recently completed editions include Purcell's Ode on St Cecilia’s Day 1692 and Elgar's Enigma Variations.
His solo recital work includes many discs on harpsichord and clavichord (the latter an instrument he has done much to promote), and he owns an important collection of historical keyboard instruments.
Since 1992 Hogwood has been international professor of Early Music Performance at the Royal Academy of Music, and a visiting professor at King's College London. His academic positions also include Honorary Professor of Music at the University of Cambridge and Fellowships at Jesus and Pembroke Colleges, Cambridge. In addition, Hogwood serves as a member of Lowell House's Senior Common Room at Harvard University. In 1989 he was appointed a Commander of the British Empire.
