A Baroque music specialist, period instrument pioneer and multi-faceted musician, Christopher Hogwood has died at the age of 73.
The founder of the period instrument orchestra The Academy of Ancient Music, Hogwood will be deeply missed.
Born in Nottingham, United Kingdom, Hogwood studied keyboard at Cambridge University with Gustav Leonhardt and Rafael Puyana. He pushed his harpsichord studies further with Zuzana Růžičková in Prague.
After founding the AAM in 1973, he directed the academy on six continents and recorded more than 200 CDs. His most iconic recordings include a 1980 version of Handel's Messiah with Emma Kirkby, which was named by BBC Music Magazine, per The Guardian, as one of the Top 50 recordings of all time.
Passionate about music of the 19th and 20th centuries, he had a particular focus on the early Romantics and the neoclassical school. He was known for his miscal spirit and unremitting interest in the continuation of period instruments and music of some of the most important eras in history.
Christopher Purvis, honorary president of the AAM, said of Hogwood, "Christopher had extraordinary generosity of spirit. He was a great ambassador for historically informed music, the movement of which he was a founder."
You will be sorely missed, Mr. Hogwood. Thank you for your contributions.
Check out his Handel rendition below:
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