Home > Culture > Features

On the violin, this maestro is history

The San Francisco Examiner described him as “the first modern superstar of the Baroque violin,” and a New York Times critic said that whenever the violin is at his chin, he’s “running wide in an imaginary laboratory of 18th-century sound.” The best part is that he’s performing at the Seongnam Arts Center tomorrow.
His name is Andrew Manze. An expert on Baroque music from the 17th and 18th centuries, he’s a part of the “authentic performance” movement, which aims to play classical music the way it was historically performed, using museum-piece instruments such as the harpsichord, viol, recorder and lute. Though the movement started as a purely academic experiment, by the 1980s it had become recognized as a sub-genre of classical music.
Manze plays the violin, but also conducts the English Concert group of performers.
His musical background is distinguished, indeed: He studied classics at Cambridge and music at the Royal Academy of Music in London before moving on to the Royal Academy at The Hague, in the Netherlands.
He was the associate director of the Academy of Ancient Music from 1996 to 2003 before succeeding Trevor Pinnock, who founded the English Concert in 1973, to become the artistic director for the group in 2003.
He now works as a soloist or as a conductor for some of the world’s leading orchestras, and is also an artist-in-residence at the Swedish Chamber Orchestra.
His recordings with the Academy of Ancient Music ― some done solo and some as a chamber musician ― won him a host of international accolades, including the Grammy, Edison, Diapason and Cannes Classical awards. His collaborative album with Richard Egarr also won him acclaim, including a nomination for the 2003 Grammy Awards.
Manze also teaches and writes about music, and regularly appears on the radio and on television, including the BBC’s Early Music Show.

by Lim Jae-un

The concert starts at 6 p.m. tomorrow. Tickets cost 30,000 won ($30) to 120,000 won. For information, call (031) 783-8000 or visit www.snart.co.kr.