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Bon Appétit: A Musical Feast by French Baroque Harpsichord Masters

Ketil Haugsand, harpsichord

January 07, 2018 (Sunday), 4:00 PM

Church of St Paul In the Desert

125 W El Alameda, Palm Springs, CA 92262, USA

A program of "from the top" harpsichord composers of the Eighteenth Century, opens Desert Baroque's "Fight, Flight & Fantasy" Winter Festival to be held in the Palm Springs region, performed by acclaimed and brilliant, Ketil Haugsand, professor emeritus of harpsichord at the Hochschule für Musik in Cologne. Haugsand counts as one of the important harpsichordists and Early Music personalities of today  appearing in several prestigious festivals and concert series in most European countries, U.S.A., Israel and in the Far East, both as recitalist, in chamber music, soloist, or conductor from the harpsichord, with the Norwegian Baroque Orchestra, the Norwegian Radio Orchestra, the Stavanger Symphony Orchestra, Lyra Baroque Orchestra, the Arte Real Ensemble and at the Komischer Oper Berlin. Important chamber music partners have been i.e., Laurence Dreyfus, Wieland Kuijken, Richard Gwilt, Peter Holtslag and several others.

Haugsand's program includes Suite in d minor, Book I, Louis Marchand; several of J.P Rameau's Piéces de Clavecin and Jean-Baptiste-Antoine Forqueray's, Piéces de Viole, which he transcribed for harpsichord in 1745.

The program will be performed without intermission.

Haugsand's recordings on CD include works by Jean-Baptiste-Antoine Forqueray, Jean-Philippe Rameau, Louis Marchand, Carlos Seixas, João Sousa Carvalho and others, for Simax Classics, Virgin Veritas and Linn Records have won significant international acclaim  and his interpretations of the Clavierübungen by J.S. Bach, especially the Goldberg Variations, have been singled out as highly original and outstanding landmark performances. Released on Simax Classics in 2013 were the six English Suites by Bach and last year, a complete recording of Jean-Philippe Rameaus Pieces de Clavecin.

The Norwegian born musician studied with Gustav Leonhardt at the Amsterdam Conservatory, where he was awarded the coveted Prix dExcellence in 1975. Later he was laureate at international harpsichord competitions in Paris and Brûges and held position as harpsichord and chamber music professor at the Norwegian State Academy of Music, in Oslo, between 1974 and 1995.

Prof. Haugsand is a highly demanded harpsichord teacher, one of the most experienced in the academic field, gives regularly summer courses in Norway and Italy  and is frequently invited as jury member at international harpsichord competitions.

In addition to this concert, Haugsand is on the faculty of Desert Baroque's Winter Weekend, "Fight, Flight & Fantasy," and will perform J.S. Bach's "Goldberg Variations" on Saturday, January 13, 2018, at the Lou Harrison House, Joshua Tree, CA.

Tickets: $25 general; $50 reserved

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