TrevorPinnock

/
  • Conductor
  • Harpsichord
Trevor Pinnock laughing and smiling wearing a purple scarf and black jacket
Trevor Pinnock laughing and smiling wearing a purple scarf and black jacket

About Trevor

Principal Conductor: Kioi Hall Chamber Orchestra Tokyo Principal Guest Conductor: RAM Chamber Orchestra Artistic Director: Anima Mundi Festival

Trevor Pinnock is renowned worldwide as a harpsichordist and conductor who pioneered the modern revival of early music performance.

In 1972 he founded the English Concert whose reputation for ground-breaking performances on period instruments led to an extensive contract with Deutsche Grammophon and international tours. In 2023, DG marked the 50th anniversary of the founding of the English Concert by releasing a 100-disc box set of their complete recordings. Pinnock’s many solo recordings include suites by Rameau and Louis Couperin, Bach’s Goldberg Variations and Partitas and The Well-Tempered Clavier. His most recent orchestral recording project was with students from the RAM and Glenn Gould School performing Bach keyboard Partitas in groundbreaking arrangements for chamber orchestra by Thomas Oehler.

In 2003, Pinnock stepped down from the leadership of the English Concert and since that time has divided his work between conducting, solo and chamber music engagements. He has worked regularly with Koniklijk Concertgebouworkest Amsterdam, Deutsche Kammerphilharmonie Bremen and Mozarteumorchester Salzburg. With the Kioi Hall Chamber Orchestra, he will present Così fan tutti in concert and Bach's Goldberg Variations arranged by Koffler. At the Old Theatre, Vilnius, he conducts a new production by Gintaras Varnas of Acis and Galatea. He returns to National Arts Centre Orchestra, Orquesta Filharmonica de Gran Canaria and The English Concert. He performs chamber music with Emmanuel Pahud and Jonathan Manson, and will continue his educational projects at the Royal Academy of Music, London.

Trevor Pinnock is Artistic Director of the Anima Mundi Festival in Pisa and Principal Conductor of the Kioi Hall Chamber Orchestra, Tokyo and the Royal Academy of Music Chamber Orchestra, London. He was awarded a CBE in 1992.

Trevor is based in London

Download programme biography   

Contact

For availability and general enquiries:

Melanie Moult

Melanie Moult

Associate Director

For contracts, logistics and press:

Fiona Russell

Fiona Russell

Senior Assistant Manager

Representation

General management with Askonas Holt

Partner managers:
Italy: Franco Panozzo, Artist Management Company
Spain: Carmen Prieto, Primusic

Season Highlights

Jul 2024
Bad Kissingen Festival
Mozart Symphony No.27 in G major Beethoven Piano Concerto No.1 in C major Mozart Symphony No.41 in C major 'Jupiter' Mozarteum Orchester Jan Lisiecki (piano)
Sep 2024
Cattedrale Pisa
Dvorak: Stabat Mater Slovenian Philharmonic Orchestra and Choir Trevor Pinnock ( conductor) Simona Saturova (soprano_) Sasha Cooke (mezzo) Georg Zeppenfeld (bass)
Oct 2024
Auditorio Alfrdeo Kraus, Las Palmas
Wagner: Siegfied Idyll Haydn: Symphony no. 92 in G 'Oxford' Schumann: Symphony no. 1 in B flat 'Spring' Orquesta Filharmonica de Gran Canaria Trevor Pinnock (conductor)
Nov 2024
Auditorio Alfrdeo Kraus, Las Palmas
Handel: Suite from The Water Music Mozart: Piano Concerto No. 20 in D minor K466 Mendelssohn: Symphony No. 3 in A minor 'Scottish' Orquesta Filharmonica de Gran Canaria Trevor Pinnock (conductor) Alexandra Dovgan (piano)
Dec 2024
National Arts Centre, Ottawa
Handel: Messiah National Arts Centre Orchestra Cantata Singers of Ottawa and Capital Chamber Choir
Mar 2025
Kioi Hall, Tokyo
Mozart: Cosí fan tutte Kioi Hall Chamber Orchestra Tokyo Trevor Pinnock (conductor) Fiordiligi: Mandy Fredrich Dorabella: Ayako Yukawa Guglielmo: Konstantin Krimmel Ferrando: Mauro Peter Despina: Lauryna Bendžiūnaitė Don Alfonso: Yasushi Hirano
May 2025
Old Theatre, Vilnius
Handel: Acis and Galatea St Christoforas Chamber Orchestra Jauna Muzika Choir Trevor Pinnock (harpsichord, director)
Trevor Pinnock smiling
portrait of Trevor Pinnock wearing a purple scarf and dark jacket
picture of Trevor Pinnock sat at his harpsichord taken from above
Trevor Pinnock sitting on a roof terrace

News

Press

  • Bach: Partitas

    recording
    Oct 2023
    • Und Trevor Pinnock, mittlerweile 76 Jahre jung, befeuert die exzellenten, mit kanadischen Gästen angereicherten Solisten der Royal Academy zu einer ungemein frischen, tänzerisch beschwingten, quicklebendigen Performance, die swingt und groovt, als weilte Bach, der Urheber, noch unter uns. Hier beginnt das Universum zu tanzen und wir stellen erneut fest: J.S. Bach ist und bleibt der modernste Komponist aller Zeiten.

  • Bach: Goldberg Variations

    recording
    Apr 2021
    • Pinnock, known for his devotion to early music, has turned up a splendid alternative to the composer’s original keyboard work that works just about perfectly. While some tempos allow us to luxuriate a little more in the composer’s richly expressed ideas, it is difficult to think of anyone disliking what is heard here. I’d even extend my welcome and say I absolutely love this new dimension of Goldberg listening...Do not under any circumstance miss this.

      • American Record Guide
      • 26 April 2021
  • Well Tempered Clavier Book I

    Recording
    Jul 2020
    • The quality of these performances is immediately apparent in the opening prelude and fugue, the former unaffectedly simple and the latter beautifully pointed with a clear sense of structure and an attractive hint of inequality. There are also moments of exhilarating virtuosity as in the superbly limpid Presto in the second prelude and the life-enhancing lightness of the B flat major Prelude.

    • Pinnock leads us through Bach’s exploration of all 24 major and minor keys with unerring style, impeccable technique and a youthful sense of wonder...for all-embracing readings that, like the music itself, will stand the test of time, Pinnock now goes straight to the top of my list.

  • Beethoven: Violin Concerto

    Kammerorchester Basel, Vilde Frang
    Oct 2017
    • Mit Beethovens Violinkonzert in D-Dur änderte sich der Charakter der Musik fundamental. Auch mit modernem Instrumentarium vermochte Trevor Pinnock als Experte historisch informierten Musizierens eine Klangsprache im Sinne des Komponisten umzusetzen, unauffällig in der Tempowahl. Die Ansprache war direkt, nie grob, die Artikulation leicht, die Dynamik sorgfältig

  • 70th birthday concert

    National Centre for Ealt Music
    Dec 2016
    • The remarkable aspect was not how small the ensemble sounded, but how large: as Pinnock built up the momentum of the fifth Brandenburg’s famous, extended cadenza you were put in mind that Bach treated the harpsichord the way Jimi Hendrix treated amplifiers, as if willing them to explode.