Igor Kipnis

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Igor Kipnis (September 27, 1930 – January 23, 2002) was a German-born American harpsichordist, pianist and conductor.

Biography

The son of

Phi Beta Kappa (Harvard, 1977), and in 1993 he was awarded an honorary Doctorate of Humane Letters by Illinois Wesleyan University
.

Kipnis lived in Redding, Connecticut. For five years he was president and artistic director of the Friends of Music of Fairfield County, the Connecticut chamber music series, in addition to having served thirteen years as co-artistic director of the Connecticut Early Music Festival. Dr. Kipnis was also a member of the faculty of Fairfield University in the early 1970s, teaching between tours.

He married Judith Robison on January 6, 1953. Their son, Jeremy R. Kipnis, became a film and record producer. Igor and Judith Kipnis divorced in May 1996, but reconciled shortly before her death on March 1, 2001.

He died in his home in

renal cancer
. His last concert was a solo piano recital in October 2001, in San Francisco.

Music career

Following his debut in 1959, harpsichordist,

clavichordist Kipnis performed in recital and as soloist with orchestras throughout the world, including North, Central, and South America, Western and Eastern Europe, Israel, and Australia
.

Igor Kipnis performed as harpsichord soloist with the

Indianapolis Early Music Festival, and Prague Spring International Music Festival
.

Kipnis's enormous harpsichord repertoire encompassed not only the traditional 16th through 18th Century composers but also included contemporary music and jazz as well. He is especially noted for his entertaining concert-length presentation, The Light and Lively Harpsichord, which samples the full range of the harpsichord repertoire, from

Bach to Brubeck, as well as for his informal mini-concerts whose format he has extensively pioneered at college student centers throughout the United States, and, additionally, for his performances and recordings on related early keyboard instruments, the fortepiano and clavichord
, and for directing ensembles from the keyboard.

In 1995, he formed a duo with New York pianist Karen Kushner, internationally performing works for (modern) piano, four hands.[1]

Broadcasting

A frequent guest on both television and radio, such as the syndicated program First Hearing, Kipnis for three seasons hosted his own The Age of Baroque over WQXR in New York and was host on WGBH-Boston's syndicated program, The Classical Organ. In 1978, he was the first harpsichordist to perform on the Grammy Awards telecast.

Editions, reviews and articles

International Classic Record Collector, The International Piano Quarterly, Gramophone Early Music, Goldberg, Early Music America, the internet music magazines Music & Vision and Stereo Times, Stereophile, Audio, FI, Schwann/Opus, Stereo Review, The American Record Guide, Clavier, Opus, Chamber Music Magazine, Early Keyboard Studies Newsletter, and The Yale Review, as well as having written for The Washington Post, the New York Post, and the New York Herald Tribune
. He was also involved in compiling A Harpsichord Resource Book for Greenwood Press, and editing the harpsichord and clavichord volume of a three-volume set – Encyclopedia of Keyboard Instruments, of which the harpsichord and clavichord volume was published in 2007, Routledge published the set – vol.1 The Piano (2003); vol.2 The Organ (2006); and Kipnis's vol.3 The Harpsichord and Clavichord (2007). Kipnis also wrote Instruments writing A Harpsichord Tutor for Oxford University Press, and, for Amadeus Press, preparing a biography of his father, the late Metropolitan Opera bass, Alexander Kipnis.

He was also for a time responsible for the covers and background sleeve notes for Westminster Records.[1]

He was the co-author of a book about

Mozart, Mozart and the Royal Society, which he published together with Bern Dibner for the Burndy Library
in 1985.

Recordings

He was a prolific recording artist, with 106 albums to his credit, of which 93 were solo. Among the honors he received were 9 Grammy nominations, three "Record of the Year" awards from

Keyboard
, in that magazine's annual readers' poll, named him "Best Harpsichordist" in 1978, 1979, and 1980 and "Best Classical Keyboardist" in 1982 and 1986.

Among his last record releases were The Virtuoso

Italian Concerto
and Second English Suite (together with works for clavichord), Harpsichord – Greatest Hits, as well as the complete Fantasias of J. S. Bach for harpsichord and clavichord (on Arabesque), A Treasury of Harpsichord Favorites and Mozart on the 1793 Fortepiano (two anthologies on Music & Arts), and Igor Kipnis – The First Solo Harpsichord Recordings (on VAI).

He recorded for

King, Start, Golden Crest and Newport Classic
.

References

  1. ^ a b Obituary 'Farewell to friends'. Classic Record Collector, Summer 2002, Vol 29.

External links

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