Keyboardist and conductor Richard Egarr has been a figure of unusual versatility on the early music scene. He plays keyboards of various kinds, concentrating on the harpsichord, and has conducted both early music ensembles and modern symphony orchestras.

Egarr was born on August 7, 1963, in Lincoln in England's East Midlands. His first musical training came as a chorister at York Minster Cathedral, and he went on to study piano and organ at Chetham's School of Music. After earning his diploma as an organist at 16, Egarr became an organ scholar at Manchester Cathedral and then at Clare College, Oxford. He also took harpsichord courses at Oxford and earned his degree as a harpsichordist in 1986. Egarr went on for further studies with David Roblou at London's Guildhall School of Music and Drama and then for private lessons in Amsterdam with the famed harpsichordist Gustav Leonhardt. In 1991, he made his recording debut as a harpsichordist, releasing an album of music by Frescobaldi on the Globe Records label. Beginning in 1994, he made one of the few recording cycles of the complete keyboard works of Johann Jakob Froberger. Egarr landed a position as harpsichordist of the London Baroque ensemble and then, in 1995, became director of Amsterdam's Academy of the Begijnhof. Beginning in the late '90s, he often conducted London's Hanover Band ensemble.

With flourishing careers as both keyboardist and conductor, Egarr was named director of the Academy of Ancient Music, succeeding longtime director Christopher Hogwood, in 2006. He stepped down from that position in 2021 and was succeeded by Laurence Cummings. Egarr has conducted a wide variety of other groups and performances, including the ensembles Tafelmusik and the Handel and Haydn Society, modern-instrument groups, including the Scottish Chamber Orchestra, and a unique staged version of Bach's St. Matthew Passion, BWV 244, at England's Glyndebourne Festival in 2007. In 2019, he was named music director of San Francisco's Philharmonia Baroque Orchestra, and he has been principal guest conductor of the Residentie Orchestra in The Hague, Netherlands. Egarr has concertized worldwide on the harpsichord and is also one-half of an acclaimed Baroque duo with violinist Andrew Manze.

Egarr made notable recordings as a harpsichordist through the early 2000s decade. Many of his early recordings appeared on the Globe Records label, but beginning in 2000, he recorded for Harmonia Mundi. His recording debut as a conductor came on that label in 2008 with an album of Handel organ concertos in which he performed as soloist and conducted the Academy of Ancient Music from the keyboard. In the late 2010s, he also recorded for the Linn label; his releases there include a performance of Gilbert & Sullivan's H.M.S. Pinafore, and in 2019, he issued an album of keyboard music by Jan Pieterszoon Sweelinck. As director of the Academy of Ancient Music, he released albums on that ensemble's in-house label, including a recording of J.L. Dussek's Messe solemnelle in 2020 and a pair of Mozart piano concertos with fortepianist Robert Levin in 2023. ~ James Manheim

The Academy of Ancient Music is among the highest-regarded period-instrument orchestras in the world. Initially focused on the music of the Baroque, the Academy has grown to perform music from the Classical period as well as new music written for historical instruments. The orchestra has recorded and performed prolifically since its founding, working with leading performers and ensembles from the historical performance sphere and beyond.

Keyboardist Christopher Hogwood established the Academy of Ancient Music in 1973, using as his model an ensemble that had been founded in 1726 to perform music that was at least 150 years old. Thus, Hogwood's orchestra was one of the first in modern times to perform Baroque works on Baroque instruments. Hogwood chose members who were not only masters of their instruments but also scholars of the performance style of the period. The orchestra quickly gained recognition for its authentic performances and recordings, or at least stirred up musicological debate. In 1978, it spawned a Classical period orchestra to perform the works of Mozart, Haydn, and their contemporaries. That orchestra has recorded or taken on recording the complete symphonies of Mozart (the first such cycle on period instruments), Haydn, and Beethoven, and the complete piano concertos of Beethoven and Mozart. Recorded for Decca, these were under the direction of Hogwood, who also led recordings of Mozart's La clemenza di Tito, Haydn's Orfeo ed Euridice, and Handel's Rinaldo, all of which were prize winners and featured Cecilia Bartoli.

In 1996, Andrew Manze was named associate director, and Paul Goodwin was named associate conductor, allowing the Academy to expand its performance schedule and begin recording for the Harmonia Mundi label. The Academy also began extending invitations to others, such as Stephen Cleobury with the Choir of King's College, Cambridge; Edward Higginbottom with the Choir of New College, Oxford; Stephen Layton with Polyphony; and Masaaki Suzuki with the Japan Bach Collegium to be guest directors, furthering the Academy's vocal and choral repertoire. Instrumentalists Giuliano Carmignola, Richard Egarr, and Pavlo Beznosiuk were also asked to guest direct.

Goodwin began commissioning new works specifically for the distinctive instruments of the Academy, the first being 1997's Eternity's Sunrise for voice & baroque ensemble by John Tavener. Other commissioned works came from David Bedford; John Woolrich, whose Arcangelo for the group commemorated the 350th birthday of Arcangelo Corelli; and Thea Musgrave. Mahan Esfahani was commissioned to orchestrate Bach's Art of the Fugue, giving its premiere at the 2012 BBC Proms.

Manze stepped down from his post in 2003, as the Academy celebrated its 30th anniversary. The ensemble marked the year by also celebrating the Corelli anniversary and the 60th birthday of John Tavener in special concerts, and by beginning an exploration of the music of Mendelssohn, once again expanding its musicological horizons. Egarr was named associate director in 2005 and music director the following year, succeeding Hogwood, who was named director emeritus. The Academy's discography continues to grow, recording for the Decca, Signum Classics, and ABC Classics labels, among others. In 2013, the orchestra created and began recording on its own label, AAM Records, where it issued a recording of Dussek's Messe Solemnelle in 2020. That year, the Academy was also heard on a 2019 recording of Bach's St. Matthew Passion with the King's College Choir, under Cleobury. ~ Patsy Morita & Keith Finke

Andrew Manze has had dual careers, one in early music as a violinist and the other as a conductor in mainstream symphonic repertory. As a presenter on BBC radio, Manze has also been a key communicator between classical musicians and the general British public.

Manze was born on January 14, 1965, in Beckenham, near London. He attended Cambridge University, where he studied Classics. He moved on to music studies at the Royal Academy of Music in London and the Royal Conservatory in The Hague, studying with both Simon Standage and Marie Leonhardt. Manze then joined the Amsterdam Baroque Orchestra, remaining there until 1993. The following year, he began collaborating with harpsichordist Richard Egarr. One of their major releases presented a 1712 collection of violin sonatas by composer Jean-Féry Rebel. Meanwhile, Manze formed the group Romanesca with harpsichordist John Toll and lutenist Nigel North; the trio specialized in music of the 17th century. In 1996, Manze was appointed associate director and concertmaster of the Baroque group The Academy of Ancient Music. From 2003 to 2007, he was the music director of another major historical performance ensemble, The English Concert.

Manze became a popular presenter on BBC Radio and made his debut with the BBC Proms concerts in 1998. That concert was televised nationally, with Manze playing concertos by Pergolesi, Bach, Vivaldi, and Mozart and introducing the public to the enthusiasm and directness of the new ways of performing Baroque and Classical music. Manze was long a busy soloist on the international concert scene, appearing in one season with the Zurich Chamber Orchestra, the Swedish Chamber Orchestra, the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment, the early music group Tafelmusik, and the Berlin Philharmonic.

As Manze's career progressed, he shifted mostly to conducting. Increasingly often in the 21st century, Manze turned to mainstream Romantic and contemporary repertory, leading traditional symphony orchestras rather than early music ensembles. From 2006 to 2014, he was the chief conductor of the Helsingborg Symphony Orchestra. After a sequence of guest appearances with top German, English, and American orchestras, he was appointed chief conductor of the NDR Radiophilharmonie in Hannover, Germany, in 2014, and his contract there has been extended through 2023. He has taken up residence in Germany. The year 2016 saw the beginning of a Manze-led cycle of Ralph Vaughan Williams' symphonies with the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra. In 2018, he issued no fewer than nine recordings as a conductor and slowed only slightly in 2019 and 2020, when he led the NDR Radiophilharmonie in a recording of Beethoven's Symphony No. 5 in C minor, Op. 67, and Symphony No. 7 in A major, Op. 92. By 2022, when Manze and the NDR Radiophilharmonie backed clarinetist Annelien van Wauwe on the album Flow, his recording catalog comprised some 90 albums. In addition to conducting and performing, Manze has been active as a teacher, writer, and editor. ~ James Manheim & Joseph Stevenson