Jory Vinikour, Harpsichord
Jory Vinikour is recognized as one of the outstanding harpsichordists of his generation. A highly diversified career brings him to the world’s most important festivals and concert halls as recital and concerto soloist, partner to several of today’s finest singers, and as one of the most visible continuo performers. Born in Chicago, Jory came to Paris in 1990 on a scholarship from the Fulbright Foundation to study with Huguette Dreyfus and Kenneth Gilbert. 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 Nyman, he has performed as soloist with leading orchestras including Rotterdam Philharmonic, Flanders Opera Orchestra, Orchestre de la Suisse Romande, Lausanne Chamber Orchestra, Philharmonic of Radio France, Ensemble Orchestral de Paris, Netherlands Chamber Orchestra, Cape Town Symphony Orchestra, and Moscow Chamber Orchestra with conductors such as Marek Janowski, Armin Jordan, Fabio Luisi, Marc Minkowski, John Nelson, Gordan Nikolic, Constantine Orbelian, and Victor Yampolsky. 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), and also performed the Harpsichord Concerto by the same composer with the Symphony Orchestra of the MDR in Leipzig’s Gewandhaus under the direction of Martin Haselböck in January of 2003.
Increasingly known as an accompanist, he has appeared extensively in recital with artists such as David Daniels (European tour in 2007), Hélène Delavault, Magdalena Kozena, Annick Massis, Marijana Mijanovic et al. He has accompanied legendary Swedish mezzo-soprano Anne Sofie von Otter in recitals in Sweden, Norway, Spain and Paris and at La Scala in Milan. With luthenist Jakob Lindberg, their programme of English and Italian music of the 17th century, entitled Music for a While was released by Deutsche Grammophon in early 2005.
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 CD’s, an honor that was also accorded to Mr. Vinikour’s recording of Bach’s seven harpsichord toccatas in 1999. Mr. Vinikour will release a double-CD collection of Handel’s keyboard music at the end of 2008, followed by recordings of the keyboard music of Pancrace Royer and Jacques Duphly.
Recent events include a performance of Bach’s Goldberg Variations in Reykjavik, Iceland; perrformances at the Piccolo Spoleto Festival; a recording of Handel arias with Mexican tenor Rolando Villazon and the Gabrieli Consort, directed by Paul McCreesh; Upcoming events include performances of Poulenc’s Concert Champetre with the Thüringer Symphoniker directed by Oliver Weder in late 2008, and the same work with the Royal Scottish National Orchestra conducted by Stéphane Denève in March, 2009 and performances for the Oslo Chamber Music Festival. Mr. Vinikour will be guest director of the Austrian Baroque Academy for the 2008 session. As well, he will perform English composer Cyril Scott’s Harpsichord Concerto with the Orion Chamber Orchestra, under Toby Purser’s direction in London this September. This work has not been heard since its premiere in 1937. Mr. Vinikour’s restitution of the score will be published by Chester-Novello.
