Lark Chamber Artists
Special Guests:

Kenneth Cooper, Fortepiano/Harpsichord
Harpsichordist, pianist, musicologist and conductor KENNETH COOPER is one of the world's leading specialists in the music of the 18th century and one of America's most exciting and versatile performers. Renowned for his improvisations and his expertise in ornamentation, long-lost 18th century arts, he has revived countless works, lending them extraordinary authenticity as well as great vitality. The possessor of a PhD in musicology from Columbia University, Kenneth Cooper is on the faculty there as well as at the Manhattan School of Music, where he is Chair of the Harpsichord Department and Director of the Baroque Aria Ensemble.  As Music Director of the Berkshire Bach Ensemble since its inception, Kenneth Cooper has made a tradition of the New Years performances of the Bach Six Brandenburg Concerti and has instituted a series of Concertofests in the style of Bach's Collegium Concerts. He is heard regularly at the Bridgehampton Chamber Music Festival, Music @ Menlo and with the Sherman Chamber Ensemble, The Yale-Norfolk Summer Chamber Music Festival and the Little Orchestra Society's Vivaldi Festivals at Alice Tully Hall. Most recently he has appeared at the Yellow Barn Chamber Music Festival, at Chamber Music Northwest in Portland, OR, and in the "Baroque Collection" concerts with the Lincoln Center Chamber Music Society. Over the past four decades, Kenneth Cooper has made dozens of recordings and soundtracks, among them Bach’s Gamba-Harpsichord Sonatas (CBS, with Yo Yo Ma), the complete Bach Sonatas for Flute and Fortepiano (Bridge Records, with Susan Rotholz) and the Bach Brandenburg Concerti and Goldberg Variations (Berkshire Bach Society); his spectacular versions of ragtime and other American delights may be heard on Silks and Rags (EMI) [in which he will be heard "live" on April 28, 2007 at Simon's Rock College] and Should Auld Acquaintance be Forgot (Musical Heritage Society). He is heard also on Mother Goose and More (UNIFEM/Classic Raps), on the video game Louis Cat Orze, and on the documentary Van Gogh Revisited. His most recent release is Bach's Six Sonatas for Violin and Fortepiano with Ani Kavafian (Helicon Records). In 2004 and 2005 The International Music Company issued Kenneth Cooper's award-winning editions of Bach's Two and Three Part Inventions.