Flanders Music Centre is now Kunstenpunt / Flanders Arts Institute.

Sigiswald Kuijken

SIGISWALD KUIJKEN
Sigiswald Kuijken was born in 1944 close to Brussels. He studied violin at the conservatories of Bruges and Brussels, completing his studies at the latter institution with Maurice Raskin in 1964. He came into contact with early music at a very young age, together with his brother Wieland. Studying on his own, he gained a thorough knowledge of specific 17th- and 18th-century performance techniques and conventions of interpretation on violin and viola da gamba This led to the introduction, in 1969, of a more authentic way of playing the violin, whereby the instrument was no longer held under the chin, but lay freely on the shoulder; this was to have a crucial influence on the approach to the violin repertoire and was consequently adopted by many players starting in the early 1970s.

From 1964 to 1972, Sigiswald Kuijken was a member of the Brussels-based Alarius Ensemble (with Wieland Kuijken, Robert Kohnen and Janine Rubinlicht), which performed throughout Europe and in the United States. He subsequently undertook individual chamber music projects with a number of Baroque music specialists, chief among which were his brothers Wieland and Barthold and Robert Kohnen, as well as Gustav Leonhardt, , Frans Bruggen Anner Bylsma and René Jacobs.

In 1972, with the encouragement of Deutsche Harmonia Mundi and Gustav Leonhardt, he founded the Baroque orchestra La Petite Bande, which since then has given innumerable concerts throughout Europe, Australia, South America, China and Japan, and has made many recordings for a number of labels (including Deutsche Harmonia Mundi, Seon, Virgin, Accent, Denon, Hyperion, Challenge, ...).

In 1986 he founded the Kuijken String Quartet (with François Fernandez, Marleen Thiers and Wieland Kuijken), which specialises in the quartets and quintets (with Ryo Terakado as first violist) of the Classical period. Recordings of quartets and quintets by Mozart and Haydn have appeared on Denon.

Since 1998 Sigiswald Kuijken occasionally brings together two generations Kuijken (his daughters Veronica and Sara and his brother Wieland) to perform string quartets of later periods (Debussy, Schumann, Beethoven, Schubert) often combined with Lieder by Marie Kuijken, soprano and also daughter of Sigiswald, and Veronica Kuijken, piano. Recordings of the two generations have been made for Arcana and Challenge Records.

In 2004 Sigiswald Kuijken reintroduced in practical performance the Violoncello da spalla (shoulder cello, very probably the instrument Bach had in mind when writing his six cello solos): concerts and recordings of Bach, Vivaldi, ...

From 1971 to 1996, Sigiswald Kuijken taught Baroque violin at the Koninklijk Conservatorium in The Hague and from 1993 to 2009 at the Koninklijk Muziekconservatorium in Brussels. In addition, he has for many years been in demand as a guest teacher at a number of institutions (including the Royal College of Music in London, Salamanca University, the Accademia Chigiana in Siena, the Conservatoire of Geneva, the Musikhochschule of Leipzig).

Since 1998, Sigiswald Kuijken occasionally conducts "modern" symphonic orchestras in romantic programs ( Beethoven, Schumann, Brahms, Mendelssohn).

On 2 February 2007, Sigiswald Kuijken received an honorary doctorate of the K.U. Leuven.
He was granted in February 2009 the prestigious 'Life Achievement Award of the Flemish Government'.

In December 2015 he received the 'Golden medal from the Royal Flemish Academy of Belgium for Sciences and Arts', and in January 2016 he received the 'Klara career prize' from Klara.

In 2018, Sigiswald was awarded a 'Lifetime Achievement Award' by Rema.

Selective discography

	Rameau Louis Philippe (2008) Baroque Barthold Kuijken, Jean-Philippe Rameau, Sigiswald Kuijken		Bach Johann Sebastian - Motetten (2008) Baroque La Petite Bande, Sigiswald Kuijken, Johann Sebastian Bach
	Bach Johann Sebastian - Cantatas BWV 1-18-23 (2008) Baroque Jan Van der Crabben, La Petite Bande, Johann Sebastian Bach, Sigiswald Kuijken		Vivaldi Antonio - Le Quattro Stagioni (2007) Baroque La Petite Bande, Sigiswald Kuijken
	Mozart Wolfgang Amadeus - The Sonatas for Fortepiano and Violin (2007) classicism Luc Devos, Sigiswald Kuijken, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart		Bach Johann Sebastian - Cantatas BWV 179-35-164-17 (2007) Baroque Gerlinde Sämann, Johann Sebastian Bach, Sigiswald Kuijken, Petra Noskaiova, Jan Kobow, Dominik Wörner, Ewald Demeyere, La Petite Bande (...)
	Bach Johann Sebastian - The cello suites BWV 1007-1012 (2007) Baroque Sigiswald Kuijken, Johann Sebastian Bach		Bach Johann Sebastian - Motetten (2006) Baroque La Petite Bande, Johann Sebastian Bach, Sigiswald Kuijken
	Schumann Robert - Les trois quatuors opus 41 (2006) Kuijken Kwartet, Sigiswald Kuijken, Wieland Kuijken, Sara Kuijken, Veronica Kuijken, Robert Schumann		Bach Johann Sebastian - Cantatas BWV 98-180-56-55 (2006) Baroque La Petite Bande, Sigiswald Kuijken

Author of

	Sigiswald Kuijken - La gratitude		Musica Antiqua Revisited (2010) oude muziek Björn Schmelzer, Sigiswald Kuijken
	Op de Jakobsweg (2007) Sigiswald Kuijken, Marleen Thiers

Selectieve discografie als medewerker

	Heinrich Schütz - Resurrection of Christ (2019) Baroque La Petite Bande, Heinrich Schütz, Sigiswald Kuijken		van Beethoven Ludwig - Strijkkwartetten op. 59 en Strijkkwintet op. 29 (2011) classicism Kuijken Kwartet, Marleen Thiers
	A guide to period instruments (2010) early music, Baroque, romanticism Diverse uitvoerders		Bach Johann Sebastian - Das Musikalisches Opfer (2006) Baroque Kuijken Kwartet, Johann Sebastian Bach
	German Church Cantatas and Arias (1992) Baroque René Jacobs, Het Kuijken Consort, Het Parnassus Ensemble		German Church Cantatas and Arias (1979) Baroque René Jacobs, Het Kuijken Consort, Dietrich Buxtehude, Het Parnassus Ensemble, Johann Christian Bach, Georg Philipp Telemann
	De Vlaamse Barok ten tijde van Rubens (1967) Baroque, early music Philippus Van Wichel, Alarius Ensemble, Vocaal kwartet van Brussel, Nicolaus a Kempis, Carolus Hacquart, Gaspar van Weerbeke, Pierre De la Rue, Antoine Brumel (...)

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