Peter Croton (born 1957, in New York City) is a Swiss-American lutenist and guitarist. He has attained prominence in his field through his numerous recordings, performances, publications, and teaching engagements. His recorded repertoire includes music from the

Renaissance The Renaissance ( , ) , from , with the same meanings. is a period in European history marking the transition from the Middle Ages to modernity and covering the 15th and 16th centuries, characterized by an effort to revive and surpass ide ...

Baroque The Baroque (, ; ) is a style of architecture, music, dance, painting, sculpture, poetry, and other arts that flourished in Europe from the early 17th century until the 1750s. In the territories of the Spanish and Portuguese empires including ...

and Classical periods, as well as his own compositions. His publications include a

figured bass Figured bass is musical notation in which numerals and symbols appear above or below (or next to) a bass note. The numerals and symbols (often accidentals) indicate intervals, chords, and non-chord tones that a musician playing piano, harpsi ...

manual for classical guitarists and publications of compositions for voice and

lute A lute ( or ) is any plucked string instrument with a neck and a deep round back enclosing a hollow cavity, usually with a sound hole or opening in the body. It may be either fretted or unfretted. More specifically, the term "lute" can ref ...

Career

Peter Croton began playing folk guitar as a child, and classical and jazz guitar as a teenager. He began his lute studies with Loris Chobanian at the

Oberlin Conservatory of Music The Oberlin Conservatory of Music is a private music conservatory in Oberlin College in Oberlin, Ohio. It was founded in 1865 and is the second oldest conservatory and oldest continually operating conservatory in the United States. It is one of ...

and continued with Eugen Müller-Dombois and

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 ...

at the Schola Cantorum Basiliensis. In 1984 he won first prize at the "Erwin Bodky" competition for Early Music in Cambridge, Massachusetts. He has performed widely on the lute and guitar as a soloist and with musical partners such as Theresia Bothe,

Derek Lee Ragin Derek Lee Ragin (born June 17, 1958) is an American countertenor. _Biography.html" ;"title="Derek Lee Ragin > Biography">Derek Lee Ragin > Biographyallmusic Early life Derek Ragin was born in West Point, New York and grew up in Newark, New Jerse ...

and Susanne Rydén. He has also appeared on numerous CD recordings. He specializes in instruments of the

family, but also occasionally performs and records on romantic guitar and jazz guitar. He teaches lute and thoroughbass at the Schola Cantorum Basiliensis, guitar-thoroughbass at the Conservatory of Music in Basel, and guitar-thoroughbass and historical performance practice at Bern University of the Arts (Musikhochschule). Since 2011 Peter Croton has been included in the

Marquis Who's Who in the World Marquis Who's Who ( or ) is an American publisher of a number of directories containing short biographies. The books usually are entitled ''Who's Who in...'' followed by some subject, such as ''Who's Who in America'', ''Who's Who of American Wome ...

Publications

*“Open House” (German Lute Society 2001), five new compositions for lute and voice, and one lute solo. *”Remembrance of things past” (Tree Edition 2009), four new musical settings of texts by William Shakespeare for voice and lute. *"Figured Bass on the Classical Guitar" (Amadeus Verlag 2005). *"A Dialogue on a Kisse" by Henry Lawes (Tree Edition 2009) editor and arranger.

Selected recordings

*Bach on the Italian Lute (Guild, 2008) *The Renaissance lute - yesterday and today (Musicaphon, 1996)) *THE LUTE PLAYER and other songs (Centaur Records, 2012), music by Peter Croton, with Theresia Bothe – vocals, and others *Remembrance of Things Past - lute songs & solos by John Dowland & Peter Croton (Guild, 2010), with Theresia Bothe – voice, and special guest Derek Lee Ragin - voice *Love Songs from Five Centuries – from Baroque to Folk (Centaur Records, 2006), songs and lute solos, with Theresia Bothe - soprano *Italian Lute Songs ( Channel Classics Records, 1993), with Derek Lee Ragin - countertenor *I’ll sing a song for you (Zah Zah/Guild, 2008), songs by Peter Croton, with Theresia Bothe - vocals, and others *Sweeter Than Roses (Balance, 1997), with Derek Lee Ragin, countertenor and Gerd Lünenberger, recorder

References

bach-cantatas.com
article "Peter Croton (Lute, Guitar, Arranger)", retrieved 1 November 2012
Schola Cantorum Basiliensis
article "Faculty: Peter Croton", retrieved 1 November 2012
Bern University of the Arts
(Musikhochschule), article "Staff: Peter Croton", retrieved 1 November 2012

article "Holders of the Erwin Bodky Prize", retrieved 1 November 2012
Marquis Who's Who
retrieved 1 November 2012 *Lute Society of America Quarterly - Summer 2010, review by Sean Smith of the CD "Remembrance of things past"

Notes

External links

Centaur Records

Tree Edition

Amadeus Verlag

Homepage
{{DEFAULTSORT:Croton, Peter Lutenists 1957 births Living people Musicians from New York City