Hopkinson Smith

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Hopkinson Smith

Hopkinson Smith (born 1946) is an American lute

Lute

Lute can refer generally to any plucked string instrument with a neck and a deep round back, or more specifically to an instrument from the family of European lutes....
nist.

Born in New York

New York

The State of New York is a U.S. state in the Mid-Atlantic States and Northeastern United States regions of the United States and is the nation's List of U.S....
, he graduated from Harvard with Honors in Music. He came to Europe in 1973 to study with Emilio Pujol

Emilio Pujol

Emilio Pujol Vilarrubi was a composer and the leading twentieth century musicologist and classical guitar teacher....
, a great pedagogue in the highest Catalan

Catalan people

The Catalans are the people from Catalonia, an Autonomous Community of Spain, including people originating in that region but living elsewhere. The inhabitants of the adjacent portion of southern France ? known in Catalonia proper as Catalunya Nord , and in France as the Pays Catalan ? are often included in this definition....
artistic tradition, and also Eugen Dombois, whose sense of organic unity between performer, instrument and historical period has had a lasting effect on him.

In the mid 1970s, Hopkinson Smith was involved in the founding of the ensemble Hespèrion XX and his ten year collaboration with Jordi Savall

Jordi Savall

Jordi Savall i Bernadet is a Spain-Catalonia viol player, Conducting, and composer. He has been one of the major figures in the field of early music since the 1970s, largely responsible for bringing the viol back to life on the stage....
led to important experiences in chamber music which were a creative complement to his work as a soloist.

Since the mid 80s, Hopkinson Smith has focused principally on solo music for early plucked instruments.

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Encyclopedia

Hopkinson Smith (born 1946) is an American lute

Lute

Lute can refer generally to any plucked string instrument with a neck and a deep round back, or more specifically to an instrument from the family of European lutes....
nist.

Born in New York

New York

Emilio Pujol

Emilio Pujol Vilarrubi was a composer and the leading twentieth century musicologist and classical guitar teacher....
, a great pedagogue in the highest Catalan

Catalan people

Jordi Savall

Vihuela

Vihuela is a name given to two different guitar-like string instruments: one from 15th and 16th century Spain, usually with 12 paired strings, and the other, the Mexican vihuela, from 19th century Mexico with five strings and typically played in Mariachi bands....
, Renaissance

Renaissance

The Renaissance was a cultural movement that spanned roughly the 14th to the 17th century, beginning in Italy in the late Middle Ages and later spreading to the rest of Europe....
lute

Lute

Lute can refer generally to any plucked string instrument with a neck and a deep round back, or more specifically to an instrument from the family of European lutes....
, theorbo

Theorbo

A theorbo is a plucked string instrument. As a name, theorbo signifies a number of long-necked lutes with second peg-boxes, such as the liuto attiorbato, the French th?orbe des pi?ces, the English theorbo, the archlute, the German baroque lute, the Ang?lique or angelica....
, Renaissance

History of the classical guitar

The history of the classical guitar and its repertoire spans over four centuries, including its ancestor the baroque guitar. Throughout the centuries, the classical guitar has evolved principally from three sources: the lute, the vihuela, and the Renaissance guitar....
and Baroque

Baroque guitar

The Baroque guitar is a guitar from the Baroque music , an ancestor of the modern classical guitar. The term is also used for modern instruments made in the same style....
guitars and the baroque lute.

With his recitals and series of over 20 solo recordings, he continues to rediscover and bring to life works that are among the most expressive and intimate in the entire domain of early music. His 2000 recording of the lute arrangements of the Bach sonatas and partitas for solo violin has been called 'arguably the best you can buy of these works – on any instrument' by Gramophone magazine.

Internationally recognized as a leading personality in the field of early music and one of the world's great lutenists, Hopkinson Smith gives concerts and master classes throughout Europe, Asia, Australia and North and South America. He currently lives in Basel

Basel

Basel is Switzerland's third most populous city . With 731,000 inhabitants in the tri-national metropolitan area , Basel is Switzerland's third-largest urban area....
, Switzerland

Switzerland

Switzerland is a landlocked Swiss Alps country of roughly 7.7 million people in Western Europe with an area of 41,285 km?. Switzerland is a federal republic consisting of 26 states called Cantons of Switzerland....
, where he teaches at the Schola Cantorum Basiliensis

Schola Cantorum Basiliensis

Schola Cantorum Basiliensis is a music academy and research institution located in Basel, Switzerland, and focusing on early music and historically informed performance....
.

Hopkinson Smith

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