Trevor Pinnock

Although Trevor Pinnock’s name is synonymous with that of The English Concert, the period instruments ensemble he co-founded in 1972, his has been a conspicuously varied career. Whether as a keyboard soloist, chamber musician, conductor or festival director, he has combined pragmatism and unwavering fastidiousness to make music notable for its ungimmicky integrity, authority and, as a soloist, unobtrusive virtuosity. Born in Canterbury in 1946, he enjoyed a thorough musical grounding in the Cathedral Choir. Later, he gravitated towards the organ and harpsichord, and subsequently toured as a continuo player with the Academy of St Martin in the Fields. But he was also mastering modern harpsichord repertoire by Roberto Gerhard, Frank Martin and Francis Poulenc, evidence of that curiosity and open-mindedness that continues to look beyond the confines of the early music world. His extensive discography, for example, includes works by Mahler, Zemlinsky and Busoni, as well as a broad Baroque spectrum including opera, and the complete symphonies of Mozart. A regular guest conductor with orchestras ranging from the Philharmonics of Berlin and Vienna to the Boston and Chicago Symphony Orchestras, he is still pursuing new paths, and in 2022 he was appointed principal conductor of the Kioi Hall Chamber Orchestra Tokyo.