The Schola Cantorum Basiliensis (SCB) is a music academy and research institution located in

Basel , french: link=no, Bâlois(e), it, Basilese , neighboring_municipalities= Allschwil (BL), Hégenheim (FR-68), Binningen (BL), Birsfelden (BL), Bottmingen (BL), Huningue (FR-68), Münchenstein (BL), Muttenz (BL), Reinach (BL), Riehen (BS ...

Switzerland ). Swiss law does not designate a ''capital'' as such, but the federal parliament and government are installed in Bern, while other federal institutions, such as the federal courts, are in other cities (Bellinzona, Lausanne, Luzern, Neuchâtel ...

, that focuses on

early music Early music generally comprises Medieval music (500–1400) and Renaissance music (1400–1600), but can also include Baroque music (1600–1750). Originating in Europe, early music is a broad musical era for the beginning of Western classical m ...

and

historically informed performance Historically informed performance (also referred to as period performance, authentic performance, or HIP) is an approach to the performance of Western classical music, classical music, which aims to be faithful to the approach, manner and style of ...

. Faculty at the school have organized performing ensembles that have made notable recordings of early music. One of the more popular of these is the 1994 album ''Chill to the Chant''.

History

Paul Sacher Paul Sacher (28 April 190626 May 1999) was a Swiss conductor, patron and billionaire businessperson. At the time of his death Sacher was majority shareholder of pharmaceutical company Hoffmann-La Roche and was considered the third richest person i ...

founded the school in 1933. Influential faculty included

August Wenzinger August Wenzinger (1905–1996) was a prominent cellist, viol player, conductor, teacher, and music scholar from Basel, Switzerland. He was a pioneer of historically informed performance, both as a master of the viola da gamba and as a conductor of ...

(

cello The cello ( ; plural ''celli'' or ''cellos'') or violoncello ( ; ) is a Bow (music), bowed (sometimes pizzicato, plucked and occasionally col legno, hit) string instrument of the violin family. Its four strings are usually intonation (music), t ...

and

viola da gamba The viol (), viola da gamba (), or informally gamba, is any one of a family of bowed, fretted, and stringed instruments with hollow wooden bodies and pegboxes where the tension on the strings can be increased or decreased to adjust the pitc ...

), Ina Lohr (violin), and

Max Meili Max Meili, a Swiss tenor, was born 11 December 1899 in Winterthur and died 17 March 1970 in Zürich, Switzerland. He first trained as a painter then turned to singing, leading to lessons with Felix von Kraus. Meili was mainly a concert singer, ...

(vocal music). In 1954 the Schola merged with two other Basel music schools to form the

City of Basel Music Academy The City of Basel Music Academy (german: Musik-Akademie der Stadt Basel) is an institution for music education, located in Basel, Switzerland. It comprises a music school, college of music, and a center for early music research and performance. ...

Faculty

Among the school's other notable faculty members, past and present, are musicians from many countries. By nationality, they include: *

Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a Sovereign state, sovereign country comprising the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous List of islands of Australia, sma ...

: keyboardist and conductor

Geoffrey Lancaster Geoffrey Lancaster (born 20 August 1954) is an Australian classical pianist and conductor. Born in Sydney, he was raised in Dubbo, New South Wales before moving to Canberra. He attended the Canberra School of Music where he studied piano with ...

Belgium Belgium, ; french: Belgique ; german: Belgien officially the Kingdom of Belgium, is a country in Northwestern Europe. The country is bordered by the Netherlands to the north, Germany to the east, Luxembourg to the southeast, France to th ...

: countertenor and conductor

René Jacobs René Jacobs (born 30 October 1946) is a Belgian musician. He came to fame as a countertenor, but later in his career he became known as a conductor of baroque and classical opera. Biography Countertenor Born in Ghent, Jacobs began his music ...

England England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...

: lutenist and ensemble leader

Anthony Rooley Anthony Rooley (born 10 June 1944 in Leeds) is a British lutenist. Career In 1969, Rooley founded and directed the early music ensemble The Consort of Musicke, which continues to be one of the chief vehicles for his inspiration, among many o ...

; soprano

Evelyn Tubb Evelyn Tubb is an English soprano, and long-time member of The Consort of Musicke and one of the world's greatest early music specialists, known for her innovative and original performances. Life She originally comes from the Isle of Wight and s ...

; viola da gambist

Alison Crum Alison Crum (born 23 November 1949, in the United Kingdom), is an English viol player. Biography She got her first viol while studying music at Reading University, and went on to study at the Royal Conservatory of Brussels with Wieland Kuijk ...

France France (), officially the French Republic ( ), is a country primarily located in Western Europe. It also comprises of Overseas France, overseas regions and territories in the Americas and the Atlantic Ocean, Atlantic, Pacific Ocean, Pac ...

: cellist and conductor Christophe Coin; flautist

Marc Hantaï Marc or MARC may refer to: People * Marc (given name), people with the first name * Marc (surname), people with the family name Acronyms * MARC standards, a data format used for library cataloging, * MARC Train, a regional commuter rail system o ...

; conductor

Dominique Vellard Dominique Vellard (born 1953) is a French tenor and specialist in medieval music. In 1979 he founded the Ensemble Gilles Binchois, a leading ensemble in the performance of Ars Nova music. He is also a composer. Selected discography Harmonic: *Gre ...

Germany Germany,, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It is the second most populous country in Europe after Russia, and the most populous member state of the European Union. Germany is situated betwe ...

: flautist/recorder player and conductor

Hans-Martin Linde Hans-Martin Linde (born 24 May 1930 in Werne, Germany) is a German noted virtuoso flute and recorder (musical instrument), recorder player of (mainly) baroque and early music. He authored a number of original and highly instructive books on the ...

; countertenor Andreas Scholl; tenor

Gerd Türk Gerd Türk is a German classical tenor. Biography Gerd Türk received his first musical training as a choir boy at the cathedral of Limburg. He studied in Frankfurt and then at the Schola Cantorum Basiliensis with Richard Levitt and René Jaco ...

; viola da gambist Veronica Hampe *

Italy Italy ( it, Italia ), officially the Italian Republic, ) or the Republic of Italy, is a country in Southern Europe. It is located in the middle of the Mediterranean Sea, and its territory largely coincides with the homonymous geographical re ...

: organist Lorenzo Ghielmi, organist, harpsichordist and conductor

Andrea Marcon Andrea Marcon (born 6 February 1963 in Treviso, Italy) is an Italian conductor, organist, harpsichordist, and scholar. In 1997, he founded the Venice Baroque Orchestra.Kozinn, Alla"Young Italians Stand at Attention, Which Their Ensemble Attracts" ...

; harpsichordist Francesco Corti; viola da gambist

Paolo Pandolfo Paolo Pandolfo is an Italian virtuoso player, composer, and teacher of music for the viola da gamba, born on January 31, 1964. He began his studies as a double bass and guitar player, becoming a skilled performer of jazz and popular music.Ernesto ...

Netherlands ) , anthem = ( en, "William of Nassau") , image_map = , map_caption = , subdivision_type = Sovereign state , subdivision_name = Kingdom of the Netherlands , established_title = Before independence , established_date = Spanish Netherl ...

: cantor and conductor Jan Boeke; harpsichordist, organist and conductor Gustav Leonhardt; violinist

Jaap Schröder Jaap Schröder or Jaap Schroeder (31 December 1925 – 1 January 2020) was a Dutch violinist, conductor, and pedagogue. He studied at the Amsterdam Conservatory and at the Sorbonne in France. In the 1960s he was a member of the Dutch early music ...

; sackbuttist Charles Toet; cantor and gambist Henk Waardenburg; flautist, gambist and music therapist Wil Waardenburg. *

Portugal Portugal, officially the Portuguese Republic ( pt, República Portuguesa, links=yes ), is a country whose mainland is located on the Iberian Peninsula of Southwestern Europe, and whose territory also includes the Atlantic archipelagos of ...

: lutenist and conductor Manuel Morais *

Spain , image_flag = Bandera de España.svg , image_coat = Escudo de España (mazonado).svg , national_motto = ''Plus ultra'' (Latin)(English: "Further Beyond") , national_anthem = (English: "Royal March") , i ...

: viola da gambist and conductor

Jordi Savall Jordi Savall i Bernadet (; born 1 August 1941) is a Spanish conductor, composer and viol player. He has been one of the major figures in the field of Western early music since the 1970s, largely responsible for popularizing the viol family of ...

: violinist and conductor Chiara Banchini; violist da gambist and cellist Hannelore Mueller; baritone Kurt Widmer *

United States of America The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territo ...

: bassoonist Donna Agrell, lutenists

Hopkinson Smith Hopkinson Smith (born December 7, 1946) is an American lutenist and pedagogue, longtime resident in Basel, Switzerland. Smith was born in New York City, the son of architectural writer and photographer G. E. Kidder Smith. He graduated from Har ...

and Crawford Young; cornettist

Bruce Dickey Bruce Dickey is an American cornett player. He is regarded as the doyen of the modern generation of cornett players, many of whom were his students at the Schola Cantorum Basiliensis and Early Music Institute at Indiana University, or students of ...

; and trumpeter Edward H. Tarr.

Alumni

Notable alumni have included such musicians such as Gustav Leonhardt,

, Barbara Thornton,

Christina Pluhar Christina Pluhar (Graz, 1965) is an Austrian theorbist, harpist, conductor, and director of L'Arpeggiata ensemble.Herz Europas "Christina Pluhar ist eine der innovativsten Musikerinnen der Alte-Musik-Szene, die in ihren Projekten die Grenzen d ...

, Elam Rotem, Jorge Guerrero Dantur and Benjamin Bagby.

Lutenists

Lutenists who have studied at the Schola include: *

Robert Barto Robert Barto (born 1950's in San Diego) is an American lutenist specializing in the music of the Baroque and Empfindsamkeit periods, in particular the ''oeuvres'' of Sylvius Leopold Weiss and Bernhard Joachim Hagen. Biography He is a graduate ...

(b. USA; studied with Eugen Müller-Dombois) * Luciano Contini (b. Italy; studied with Eugen Müller-Dombois and Hopkinson Smith) *

Eduardo Egüez Eduardo Egüez (born in Buenos Aires, Argentina in 1959) is a lutenist, theorbist, and guitarist acclaimed for his interpretations of music by J.S.Bach. Egüez began by first studying guitar with Miguel Angel Girollet and Eduardo Fernández (guitar ...

(b. Argentina; studied with Hopkinson Smith) *

Paul O'Dette Paul Raymond O'Dette (born February 2, 1954) is an American lutenist, conductor, and musicologist specializing in early music. Biography O'Dette, who was born in Pittsburgh, began playing the electric guitar in a rock band in Columbus, Ohio, w ...

(b. USA; studied with Eugen Müller-Dombois and

Thomas Binkley Thomas Binkley (Cleveland, Ohio, December 26, 1931 – Bloomington, Indiana, April 28, 1995) was an American lutenist and early music scholar. Thomas Eden Binkley studied at the University of Illinois (BM. 1956, PhD. 1959) and the University of Mun ...

) *

Anthony Bailes Anthony Bailes is a British lutenist. Anthony Bailes initially played the classical guitar, and after meeting Diana Poulton began to study the lute with her. He was awarded a grant by the Arts Council of Great Britain in 1971, and subsequently s ...

(b. Great Britain; studied with Eugen Müller-Dombois) *

Toyohiko Satoh is a Japanese lutenist and composer. Life and career At Rikkyo University in Tokyo, Satoh studied music history with Tatsuo Minagawa and guitar with Kazuhito Ohosawa. He gave his first guitar recital in the Tokyo Bunka Kaikan concert hall in 19 ...

(b. Japan; studied with Eugen Müller-Dombois) * Manuel Morais (b. Portugal; studied with Eugen Müller-Dombois) * Edin Karamazov (b. Bosnia-Herzogovina; studied with Hopkinson Smith) * Marc Lewon (b. Germany, studied with Crawford Young) *

Rolf Lislevand Rolf Lislevand (30 December 1961 in Oslo, Norway), is a Norwegian performer of Early music specialising on lute, vihuela, baroque guitar and theorbo. Biography From 1980 to 1984, Lislevand studied classical guitar at the Norwegian Academy of Mu ...

(b. Norway; studied with Eugen Müller-Dombois and Hopkinson Smith) * Evangelina Mascardi (b. Argentina; studied with Hopkinson Smith) * Rafael Benatar (b. Venezuela; studied with Eugen Müller-Dombois and Hopkinson Smith)

References

External links