Jory Vinikour
Jory Vinikour was born in Chicago on May 12 1963 and has been living in Paris since 1990, where he studied on a scholarship from the Fulbright Foundation with Huguette Dreyfus and Kenneth Gilbert.
First prizes in the International Harpsichord Competitions of Warsaw (1993) and the Prague Spring Festival (1994) brought him to the public's attention, and he has since appeared in festivals and concert series such as Besançon Festival, Deauville, Monaco (Semaine de la Musique Baroque), Cleveland Museum of Art, Miami Bach Festival, Indianapolis Early Music Festival, Weill Recital Hall, etc.
A concerto soloist with a repertoire ranging from Bach to Nyman, he has performed as soloist with leading orchestras including Rotterdam Philharmonic, Netherlands Philharmonic, Flanders Opera Orchestra, Orchestre de la Suisse Romande, Lausanne Chamber Orchestra, Philharmonic of Radio France, Ensemble Orchestral de Paris, and Moscow Chamber Orchestra with conductors such as Armin Jordan, Marc Minkowski, Constantine Orbelian, John Nelson, and Fabio Luisi.
He performs (on a restored Pleyel harpsichord) in a recording of Frank Martin’s Petite symphonie concertante with the Lausanne Chamber Orchestra under the direction of Armin Jordan (Suisse Romande, 2005), and also performed the Harpsichord Concerto by the same composer with the Symphony Orchestra of the MDR in Leipzig’s Gewandhaus under the direction of Martin Haselböck in January of 2003.
Well-known as an accompanist, he has appeared extensively in recital with artists such as Hélène Delavault, Magdalena Kožená, Annick Massis, et al. He has accompanied legendary Swedish mezzo-soprano Anne Sofie von Otter in recitals in Sweden, Norway, Spain and Paris and at Teatro alla Scala in Milan. With luthenist Jakob Lindberg, their programme of English and Italian music of the 17th century, entitled "Music for a While" was released by Deutsche Grammophon in early 2005.
Mr. Vinikour appears regularly as harpsichordist/ continuist with Marc Minkowski's Les Musiciens du Louvre, Opéra National de Paris, Netherlands Opera, Salzburg Festival, Glyndebourne Festival, etc. and is heard on many recordings from Deutsche Grammophon, EMI, Erato, et al. Jory is a regular presence at the Zürich Opera, and has appeared on their stage (disguised as Handel!) with Cecilia Bartoli in Handel's Il Trionfo del Tempo e del Disinganno in Jurgen Flimm's celebrated staging.
Jory Vinikour has been deeply involved in the musical activities of the Château de Chimay (Belgium) since 2002. He has been responsible for the accompaniment of the singers competing in the Baroque Voice Competitions presided by William Christie, and has performed in recital alone and in duo with Christine de Chimay (guitar and harpsichord) in the historic Theater of the Château.
Vinikour's recording of Bach's Goldberg Variations, released on Delos International in 2001 received excellent reviews throughout the world. John von Rhein of the Chicago Tribune named it as one of 2001's top ten classical CD’s, an honor that was also accorded to Mr. Vinikour's recording of Bach's seven harpsichord toccatas in 1999.
Mr. Vinikour has performed harpsichord (dubbed for Gwyneth Paltrow playing Jacques Duphly's Courante, and Marc-Antoine Charpentier's In Hoc Festo for Saint-Denis Church's scene, etc...) in the 1995 Merchant Ivory film, Jefferson in Paris with William Christie's Les Arts Florissants. And also appeared and performed in William Klein's film Messiah with Marc Minkowski and Les Musiciens du Louvre.
For BNL records, he has released in 2006 a recording of the four harpsichord suites of Bernard de Bury. He has recorded the toccatas of Harold Meltzer, composed for him in 2005. (recording release anticipated in 2007)
Mr. Vinikour teaches harpsichord at the Austrian Baroque Academy (Gmunden).