Ms. Elisabeth Wright

Harpsichordist Elisabeth Wright is noted for her versatility as soloist and chamber musician, her expertise in the art of basso continuo improvisation, and for her distinguished teaching. Professor Emerita of harpsichord and fortepiano at the Historical Performance Institute of the Jacobs School of Music at Indiana University where she taught for 39 years, she is in frequent demand for masterclasses and seminars pertaining to performance practices of 16th to 18th century music. Following graduate studies with Gustav Leonhardt at the Amsterdam (now Sweelinck) Conservatory, she has maintained a vibrant international career performing in such noted venues as Wigmore Hall, La Sala dei Giganti, Querini Stampata, Palazzo Poggio Imperiale, the Stibbert Museo, Boston and Berkeley Early Music Festivals, Cervantino, Utrecht, Rotterdam, Bolzano, Tage Alter Musik, Lufthansa of London, Semana de Música Antigua Estella, Piccolo Spoleto, Chamber Music NW, Santa Fe Chamber Music Festival, Aston Magna, Mostly Mozart, touring throughout Europe, the Americas, Canada, Australia, Russia and China. Soloist with Tafelmusik, Pacifica, Seattle, Portland and Lyra Baroque Orchestras, she concertized for decades with the eminent Baroque violinist Stanley Ritchie as Duo Geminiani, and performs with Música Ficta and numerous other noted ensembles and artists. She has recorded for Classic Masters, Milan-Jade, Focus, Arion, Arts Music, Música Ficta, Pro Música Antiqua, Centaur and Lindoro. A perpetual student of languages and interested in the relationship between text and music, her research on musical settings of Giambattista Marino’s poetry was published in The Sense of Marino: Literature, Fine Arts and Music, edited by Francesco Guardiani for Legas Press. Additionally, she translated Galliano Ciliberti’s survey of Bonporti’s Life and Works in The Complete Works of Francesco Antonio Bonporti, edited by Max Sobel for IU Press. Founding member of The Seattle Early Music Guild and Bloomington Early Music Association, she has served as adjudicator for the international Jurow harpsichord competition, outside evaluator and guest Professor at the Royal Conservatory in The Hague, on the board of Early Music America, as panelist for the National Endowment for the Arts, PEW and PennPat and for early keyboard societies, conferences, and academies. She is the 2024 recipient of Early Music America’s Howard Mayer Brown Award for lifetime achievement in the field of early music.  

Recent activities include concerts for Lyra Baroque, recitals and masterclasses in Rochester, MN and Bloomington, IN, two chamber tours in the Pacific NW for the Salish Sea Festival, four programs at the Piccolo Spoleto Festival and tours with Música Ficta in Mexico, Poland, Colombia and the USA. Two recording projects completed in 2023 will be released in the coming months: The second and third cds of Música Ficta’s recording of 17^th and 18^th century music contained in the Bogotá Cathedral Archives, and Pièces de Clavecin by Jean Henry D’Anglebert for solo harpsichord, all of which will be released on the the Spanish label, Lindoro.

Discography:

 – Alternen las avecillas, Villancicos y otras obras musicales de la Catedral de Bogotá s. XVII-XVIII, Música Ficta, ©2024 Lindoro

– Bach: il francese e l’italien, solo works for harpsichord of Johann Sebastian Bach, including the Ouverture in the French Manner and Partita VI in e minor, ©2016Centaur Records

-Música Ficta: Dos Estrellas lo siguen: Xácaras y danzas del siglo XVII en España y América Latina, ©2016 Centaur Records

– Reasoned Madness, solo works for harpsichord of Johann Sebastian Bach, including the Chromatic Fantasy and Fugue, the toccata in e minor, the fantasia and fugue in a minor, and the d minor English Suite, ©2014 Música Ficta Records.

–Italia: Bellissimo Seicento, Italian music of the early 17^th century, with Manfredo Kraemer, baroque violin, Michael McCraw, dulcian, Dolores Costoyas, theorbo, ©2013 early music.com

– Duo Geminiani: Sonatas for Violin and harpsichord Obbligato of Johann Sebastian Bach with Stanley Ritchie, Baroque violin, Focus Records ©1983; remastered edition ©2012

-Música Ficta: Cuando muere el Sol (Tonos humanos y divinos de Sebastián Durón 1660-1716), ©2011 Arion- Flores de Música: 17^th century Spanish solo keyboard music by Juan Cabanilles and from the collections of Martin y Col, ©2009 Música Ficta Records

– Albalonga Ensemble: Venetian composers in Guatemala & Bolivia- Galuppi & Facco (manuscripts found in the Cathedral of Guatemala and national Bolivian Archives) with Anibal Cetrangolo, Artistic Director, Roberta and Silvia Pozzer, sopranos, Vicenzo Di Donato, tenor and others; ©2008 Arts Music

– Música Ficta: Del Mar del Alma, músicas y letras de la Bogotá colonial (s.XVII – XVIII), ©2008 Arion

– Música Ficta: Esa Noche Yo Bailá, fiesta y devoción en el Alto Perú del s. XVII, ©2006 Arts Music

-Música Ficta: Sepan Todos que Muero, Música de villanos y cortesanos en
el Virreinato del Perú, s. XVII-XVIII ©2004 Centaur Records

– The Soulful Bach and Telemann, with Daniel Lichti, baritone, Allison Edberg, Baroque violin, Ann Marie Morgan, Baroque cello, Washington McClain, Baroque oboe, Catharina Meints, Baroque cello ©2003 Centaur Records

– Johann Sebastian Bach: Compositions for Traverso Flute; Kim Pineda, traverso; Elisabeth Wright, harpsichord. ©1994 Focus Records

– Seventeenth Century German Music for viols and harpsichord: Les Filles de Sainte Colombe; with Wendy Gillespie, Mary Springfels, Sarah Cunningham and Margriet Tindemans, viols. ©1986 Classic Masters