Igor Kipnis
Igor Kipnis (
27 September 1930 -
24 January 2002) was a well-known
American harpsichordist and
pianist.
The son of
Russian
bass Alexander Kipnis (1891 - 1978), and born in
Berlin, he moved to the United States with his family in
1938. He learned the piano with his maternal grandfather,
Heniot Levy (1879 - 1946); attended the
Westport School of Music, and received his B.A. from
Harvard University. He studied
harpsichord with
Fernando Valenti, and made his concert debut in
New York in 1959. He was an honorary member of Phi Beta Kappa (Harvard, 1977), and in 1993 he was awarded an honorary Doctorate of Humane Letters by
Illinois Wesleyan University.
Kipnis lived in Redding, Connecticut. For five years he was President and Artistic Director of the Friends of Music of Fairfield County, the Connecticut chamber music series, in addition to having served thirteen years as co-artistic director of the Connecticut Early Music Festival.
His wife, Judith Robison, died March 1, 2001 of myocardial infarction, complicated by Supra Anti-Diuretic complications (Robison Syndrome).
He died in his home in
Redding, Connecticut of
renal cancer. His last concert was in October 2001. He was survived by his son, film and record producer Jeremy R. Kipnis and his wife Carolina R. Kipnis.
Following his debut in 1959, harpsichordist, fortepianist, duo-pianist, and clavichordist Kipnis performed in recital and as soloist with orchestras throughout the world, including North, Central, and South America, Western and Eastern Europe,
Israel, and
Australia.
Igor Kipnis performed as harpsichord soloist with the
New York Philharmonic, the Chicago, Pittsburgh, St. Louis, Louisville, Dallas, Denver, Baltimore, Milwaukee, Seattle, Vancouver, Honolulu, and National Symphonies, the Minnesota Orchestra, the Capella Cracoviensis, the Boston Pops, the
Munich Philharmonic, the
New Amsterdam Sinfonietta, the Los Angeles, St. Paul, Cologne, Israel, New Stockholm, McGill, and Polish Chamber Orchestras, the New York Chamber Symphony, the Smithsonian Chamber Players, the Sinfonia of Sydney, and the
Academy of St. Martin-in-the-Fields. His appearances at international festivals included those of Ansbach, the International Bach Academy, and Ludwigsburg in Germany, the Bath Festival in Great Britain, Gulbenkian in
Portugal, Lanaudière in
Canada, the Israel Festival, the Melbourne International Festival of Organ and Harpsichord, the Madeira Bach Festival, Poland's Music in Old Crakow, and Prague Spring.
Kipnis' enormous harpsichord repertoire encompassed not only the traditional 16th through the 18th Century composers but also includes contemporary music and jazz as well. He is especially noted for his entertaining concert-length presentation, The Light and Lively Harpsichord, which samples the full range of the harpsichord repertoire, from Bach to Brubeck, as well as for his informal mini-concerts whose format he has extensively pioneered at college student centers throughout the United States, and, additionally, for his performances and recordings on related early keyboard instruments, the fortepiano and clavichord, and for directing ensembles from the keyboard. In 1995, he formed a duo with New York pianist,
Karen Kushner, internationally performing works for (modern) piano, four hands.
A frequent guest on both television and radio, such as the syndicated program, First Hearing, Kipnis for three seasons hosted his own The Age of Baroque over WQXR in New York and was host on WGBH-Boston's syndicated program, "The Classical Organ." In 1978, he was the first harpsichordist to perform on the Grammy Awards telecast.
Oxford University Press has published numerous of his keyboard editions, including his anthology, A First Harpsichord Book. He was also noted for his record reviews and articles in such periodicals as The International Classical Record Collector, The International Piano Quarterly, Gramophone Early Music, Goldberg, Early Music America, the internet music magazines Music & Vision and Stereo Times, Stereophile, Audio, FI, Schwann/Opus, Stereo Review, The American Record Guide, Clavier, Opus, Chamber Music Magazine, Early Keyboard Studies Newsletter, and
The Yale Review, as well as having written for the
Washington Post, the
New York Post, and the
New York Herald Tribune. He was also involved in compiling a Harpsichord Resource Book for Greenwood Press, editing the harpsichord and clavichord volume of a two-volume Encyclopedia of Keyboard Instruments to be published by Garland, writing a harpsichord tutor for Oxford University Press, and, for Amadeus Press, preparing a biography of his father, the late Metropolitan Opera bass, Alexander Kipnis.
He was a prolific recording artist with 81 albums to his credit, of which 55 were solo. Among the honors he received were 6 Grammy Nominations, 3 "Record of the Year" Awards from Stereo Review , the 1969 Deutsche Schallplatten Prize, and the 1988 Gold Star award from the Italian periodical, Musica. Keyboard, in that magazine's annual readers' poll, named him "Best Harpsichordist" in 1978, 1979, and 1980 and "Best Classical Keyboardist" in 1982 and 1986.
Among his last record releases were The Virtuoso Scarlatti, fifteen sonatas played on five harpsichords after historical protypes built by Hubbard of Boston and Vivaldi‘s Four Seasons in which he directed members of the Connecticut Early Music Festival from the keyboard (both on Chesky), Sony CD reissues of The Spanish Harpsichord, the complete Bach Harpsichord Concertos with Neville Marriner conducting, Bach's Italian Concerto and Second English Suite (together with works for clavichord), Harpsichord - Greatest Hits, as well as the complete Fantasias of J. S. Bach for harpsichord and clavichord (on Arabesque), A Treasury of Harpsichord Favorites and Mozart on the 1793 Fortepiano (two anthologies on Music & Arts), and Igor Kipnis - The First Solo Harpsichord Recordings (on VAI).
He recorded for Epiphany, Chesky, Angel (EMI), Sony Music/CBS, VAI, Arabesque, Music & Arts Programs of America, London (Decca), Musical Heritage Society, Intercord, Teichiku, Nonesuch, MCA, CRI, Grenadilla, Vanguard, Nitepro, King, Start, MCA, and Golden Crest
