Paul Simmonds
I am passionately convinced by the musical aesthetics of the pre-Romantic period, and try to pass this on to my students.
What will students gain if they come on one of your courses?Music is not learned in one weekend, but if they go away inspired to improve theit techniques and develop their appreciation skills, I will feel I have succeeded.
Are there any particular techniques/processes you use in your teaching?Yes, but students will find these out on my courses.
What inspires your own work?The surviving musical texts from the past, the sound of the early music instruments and the expressive techniques, lost in much of “classical” music, but still surviving in folk and other oral traditions.
Where did you gain your training? Experience?
1969 – 72 Bachelor of Music (honours), University of the Witwatersrand, South Africa 1973 Post graduate study, harpsichord, Musikhochschule, Freiburg-im-Breisgau, Germany 1974 – 1977 Private study, courses and further stimulation from Colin Tilney, Gustav Leonhardt and Kenneth Gilbert
Teaching experience:40 years of private one-to-one teaching Stand-in teaching at the conservatoires of Karlsruhe and Mannheim, Germany and Biel, Switzerland External examiner for harpsichord diplomas, BielConservatoire, Switzerland Harpsichord teacher, Musicschools of Rheinfelden and Burgdorf, Switzerland 14 years of monthly weekend courses in solo and chamber music playing, Switzerland 2006 – 08 Annual weekend courses (clavichord) Berlin
Books and articles:Numerous articles on performance practice and organology and reviews in Galpin Society Journal, Clavichord International
Professional groups and societies:Clavichord Societies of Britain, Switzerland and Germany 2008 Awarded honourary life membership of the British Clavichord Society Galpin Society