SCWÄBISCH GMÜND Mon. 6 – Sat. 11 August, 2018 MASTERCOURSE in Schwäbisch Gmünd with ROBERT CROWE – VOICE SIGRUN RICHTER – LUTE SCHWÖRHAUS, Erika-Künzel-Platz 1 (Radgässle 8) 73525 Schwäbisch Gmünd Info: [email protected]; [email protected] REGISTRATION AND INFORMATION: A registration form and any further information will be sent by the two teachers upon request Robert Crowe: [email protected] Sigrun Richter: [email protected] Registration no later than July 15, 2018 Singers: please send an MP3 or a link to a recording (audio or video) of yourself singing a renaissance or baroque song, air or aria, recorded in the last 2 years. MASTERCOURSE FEES Full Week: active participant: € 290,- passive participant: € 150,- Daily fees: active participants € 70,- passive participants € 35,- The teachers will have the final decision as to active participation. Ensembles with other instruments are also very welcome. There is a single-manual, double- transposing, Italian harpsichord (Martin Schwabe, 1999) available for use, though daily tuning will be the responsibility of the individual players. Singers and Lutenists coming alone will have ample opportunity to work and perform with others in the course. So that we may better coordinate ensemble work, we request to be informed of repertoire for the course together with registration. ROBERT CROWE is a male soprano with nearly eighty roles in dramatic oratorio and opera to his credit. In 1995 he was the first male soprano in history to be a national winner of the Metropolitan Opera Competition. He has appeared in leading roles in the all 3 German Handel festivals, the Staatsoper unter den Linden, the Bayerischer Staatsoper, the National Theater in Mannheim, Het Concertgebouw, Spoleto Festivale die due Mondi, and many other venues in North America, Europe and India. Dr. Crowe is an active teacher of singing and regularly gives masterclasses in baroque and renaissance singing at many American universities. He finished his PhD in musicology at Boston Unviersity in 2017, advised by Joshua Rifkin with the dissertation: “Giovanni Battista Velluti in London, 1825-1829: Literary Constructions of the Last Operatic Castrato.” Also in May of 2017, he released his third solo CD: G. F. Handel’s complete “Amen, Alleluia” arias with Il Furioso on the Toccata Classics Label. He is currently at work on a critical edition of Velluti’s ca. 25 ornamented arias for A-R Editions. SIGRUN RICHTER is a well-known lutenist who concertizes as a soloist on both renaissance and baroque lutes as well as both accompanying and playing continuo in numerous ensembles across Europe. She completed her Artistic Diploma for the Lute at the Conservatory in Cologne. One of her primary interests is researching music of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. In addition to numerous radio and CD recordings as an ensemble player, Richter has completed a series of world premier recordings of French lute music, released by Les Accords Nouveaux. She has also concentrated upon the manner both of playing and building the seventeenth-century chitarrone: not only the 19-course, chromatic chitarrone, but also those that are brass-strung. Recently she has returned to the theme of seventeenth-centry French music, releasing her third CD in her “Accords Nouveaux” series: François Dufaut – Portrait of a great Lutenist. In 2017 came “Les Accords Nouveaux” IV with suites by Esaias Reusner. Between 1983-2000 Richter taught lutenists at the Conservatory for Music and Theater in Saarbrücken. She is now on the faculty of Dr. Hoch’s Conservatory and Music Academy in Frankfurt am Main, teaching lute and historical perforance practice.