Mitzi Meyerson is an American

harpsichordist A harpsichordist is a person who plays the harpsichord. Harpsichordists may play as soloists, as accompanists, as chamber musicians, or as members of an orchestra, or some combination of these roles. Solo harpsichordists may play unaccompanied son ...

and

photographer A photographer (the Greek language, Greek φῶς (''phos''), meaning "light", and γραφή (''graphê''), meaning "drawing, writing", together meaning "drawing with light") is a person who makes photographs. Duties and types of photographe ...

Biography

She was born into a musical family in

Chicago (''City in a Garden''); I Will , image_map = , map_caption = Interactive Map of Chicago , coordinates = , coordinates_footnotes = , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name ...

Illinois Illinois ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Midwestern United States, Midwestern United States. Its largest metropolitan areas include the Chicago metropolitan area, and the Metro East section, of Greater St. Louis. Other smaller metropolita ...

, where she began her concert career at the age of seven. After completing her university and graduate studies in Chicago and

Oberlin, Ohio Oberlin is a city in Lorain County, Ohio, United States, 31 miles southwest of Cleveland. Oberlin is the home of Oberlin College, a liberal arts college and music conservatory with approximately 3,000 students. The town is the birthplace of the ...

, she moved to

London London is the capital and largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary down to the North Sea, and has been a majo ...

to co-found the ensemble Trio Sonnerie (with

Monica Huggett Monica Huggett (born 16 May 1953 in London, England) is a British conductor and leading baroque violinist. Biography At the age of 16, Huggett started studying at the Royal Academy of Music, London, with Manoug Parikian and Kato Havas, baroque ...

and Sarah Cunningham), with whom she performed and recorded extensively. Mitzi Meyerson specializes in researching little-known or lost works for the harpsichord, which she then brings to light in recordings. Without exception, these CD documents are received with the highest acclaim, many of them winning international awards and prizes. She recently discovered the lost collection of "Chamber Airs for the Violin with Through Bass" by Richard Jones, a composer in London at the time of

Handel George Frideric (or Frederick) Handel (; baptised , ; 23 February 1685 – 14 April 1759) was a German-British Baroque composer well known for his operas, oratorios, anthems, concerti grossi, and organ concertos. Handel received his training i ...

. The world premiere recording of these works had just been released on the Glossa label. Ms. Meyerson has released over sixty recordings, all to excellent critical acclaim; notable amongst them are solo albums of

Dietrich Buxtehude Dieterich Buxtehude (; ; born Diderik Hansen Buxtehude; c. 1637 – 9 May 1707) was a Danish organist and composer of the Baroque period, whose works are typical of the North German organ school. As a composer who worked in various vocal a ...

Jacques Duphly Jacques Duphly (also Dufly, Du Phly; 12 January 1715 – 15 July 1789) was a French harpsichordist and composer. Early career as an organist He was born in Rouen, France, the son of Jacques-Agathe Duphly and Marie-Louise Boivin. As a boy, h ...

, "Musikalischer Parnassus" of

Johann Caspar Ferdinand Fischer __NOTOC__ ) , baptised = ( cs, }), Royal Bohemia, Austria , death_date = , death_place = Rastatt, Margravial Baden , occupations = organist, composer, , flourished = , era = Baroque , known_for = bringing many French elements through ...

, Ordres from the 4th Book of Francois Couperin, "Componenti Musicali" of

Gottlieb Muffat Gottlieb Muffat (25 April 1690 – 9 December 1770), son of Georg Muffat, served as ''Hofscholar'' under Johann Fux in Vienna from 1711 and was appointed to the position of third court organist at the ''Hofkapelle'' in 1717. He acquired additi ...

, and the complete works for harpsichord by Richard Jones. Her CD prizes include the "Choc" award from Monde de la Musique", "Editor's Choice" from Gramophone Magazine, and the

Diapason d'Or The Diapason d'Or (French for "Golden Tuning Fork") is a recommendation of outstanding (mostly) classical music recordings given by reviewers of '' Diapason'' magazine in France, broadly equivalent to "Editor's Choice", "Disc of the Month" in the ...

. Ms Meyerson's recent releases include two double-disc sets of

Claude Balbastre Claude Balbastre (8 December 1724 – 9 May 1799) was a French composer, organist, harpsichordist and fortepianist. He was one of the most famous musicians of his time. Life Claude Balbastre was born in Dijon in 1724. Although his exact birthdat ...

Balbastre's Musique de Salon
/ref> (2004) (Glossa), which, together with the previous recording of

Georg Böhm Georg Böhm (2 September 1661 – 18 May 1733) was a German Baroque organist and composer. He is notable for his development of the chorale partita and for his influence on the young J. S. Bach. Life Böhm was born in 1661 in Hohenkirchen. He ...

harpsichord works were awarded the prestigious Deutsche Schallplatten Kritik prize for the best recordings of the year on an international level. The two-disc complete harpsichord works of Richard Jones was chosen as "CD of the Month" by Toccata magazine, "Editor′s Choice" in Concerto Magazine, and received unilaterally excellent reviews from many publications including Gramophone Magazine, which described it as "the best harpsichord disc of the year". Mitzi Meyerson has discovered several additional collections of completely unknown works, which are awaiting CD production . She continues to do active research in this field. Ms Meyerson is a full professor of historical keyboard instruments (harpsichord and fortepiano) at the

Universität der Künste The Universität der Künste Berlin (UdK; also known in English as the Berlin University of the Arts), situated in Berlin, Germany, is the largest art school in Europe. It is a public art and design school, and one of the four research universiti ...

Berlin Berlin ( , ) is the capital and largest city of Germany by both area and population. Its 3.7 million inhabitants make it the European Union's most populous city, according to population within city limits. One of Germany's sixteen constitue ...

. This position was especially created for Madame

Wanda Landowska Wanda Aleksandra Landowska (5 July 1879 – 16 August 1959) was a Polish harpsichordist and pianist whose performances, teaching, writings and especially her many recordings played a large role in reviving the popularity of the harpsichord in t ...

, and this university was the first institution ever to offer harpsichord studies in modern times. Mitzi Meyerson has many outside interests. She is a certified

doula A doula () is a trained professional who provides expert guidance for the service of others and who supports another person (the doula's client) through a significant health-related experience, such as childbirth, miscarriage, induced abortion o ...

(birth assistant), has been a university lecturer on doula training, and has personally assisted at dozens of births. She has a keen love of

photography Photography is the art, application, and practice of creating durable images by recording light, either electronically by means of an image sensor, or chemically by means of a light-sensitive material such as photographic film. It is employed ...

and has been featured in several successful one-woman shows in Germany and England. Mitzi Meyerson divides her time between her research, a busy teaching schedule, and concert engagements throughout the world.

References

External links

Mitzi Meyerson's homepage

Academy Instructor for the 2012 Westfield Center Harpsichord Academy {{DEFAULTSORT:Meyerson, Mitzi American expatriates in the United Kingdom American harpsichordists American music educators American women music educators Living people Musicians from Chicago American performers of early music Women performers of early music Year of birth missing (living people) Educators from Illinois Classical musicians from Illinois 21st-century American women