Harpsichordist Kenneth Weiss to Perform Bach's THE WELL-TEMPERED CLAVIER, 5/25

Kenneth Weiss, the internationally renowned harpsichordist and Juilliard415 faculty member closes the fourth season of Salon/Sanctuary Concerts with a performance of the JS Bach masterpiece, The Well-Tempered Clavier.

The elegant mirrored hall of the Abigail Adams Smith Auditorium offers an ideal salon setting for this intimate concert.

Kenneth Weiss was born in New York City where he attended the High School of Performing Arts. After studying with Lisa Goode Crawford at the Oberlin Conservatory he continued with Gustav Leonhardt at the Sweelinck Consertoriumin Amsterdam.

From 1990-1993 he was Musical Assistant to William Christie at Les Arts Florissants for numerous opera productions and recordings. He later conducted Les Arts Florissants in 'Doux Mensonges' by the chreographer Jiri Kylian at the Paris Opera, and was co-director with William Christie of the first three editions of Les Arts Florissants' 'Jardin de Voix' program.

Mr. Weiss focuses on recitals, chamber music, teaching and conducting. His most recentrecitals include Nuremburg, Montpellier, Barcelona, Dijon, Geneva, Antwerp, the Cite de la musique (Paris), Madrid, La Roque d'Anthéron, Santander, Lisbon, San Sebastian, Innsbruck, Santiago de Compostela, La Chaise Dieu, La Chaud deFonds, Bruges and New York. He performs in recital with the violinists Fabio Biondi, Daniel Hope, Monica Huggett and Lina Tur Bonet.

In collaboration with the choreographer Trisha Brown, Mr. Weiss was musical director of 'M.O.', a ballet on Bach's Musical Offering, first performed at La Monnaie in Brussels. He was also musical director of the Aix-en-Provence European Music Academy's staged productions of Purcell's Dido and Aeneas and a Monteverdi madrigal program. Both productions were revived at the Lille, Monte-Carlo and Bordeaux operas. He has conducted staged performances of Mozart's Mariage of Figaro at the Cité de la musique in Paris and Monteverdi's L'Incoronazione di Poppea in Bilbao and Oviedo. He has also conducted The English Concert, Concerto Copenhagen, Orquesta de Salamanca, Divino Sospiro, Orchestre de Rouen, the Ensemble Orchestral de Basse-Normandie, Orchestre National des Pays de Loire and the Orchestre des Pays de Savoie.

In 2013 Kenneth Weiss performs Bach's Goldberg Variations at the Paris Salle Cortot aspart of the Orchestre de Chambre Paris season, the Well-Tempered Clavier in San Francisco and New York, and in the Festivals of Cordes sur Ciel, Villevieille and Sinfonia en Périgord, a programme of extracts from his two virginal recordings 'A Cleare Day' and 'Heaven & Earth' in the Boston Early Music Festival, Saint-Riquier Festival, Laus Polyphoniae festival in Antwerp and in the Paris Baroque Festival. He also performs as a soloist in Bach's Brandenburg Concertos with the Stavanger Orchestra directed by Fabio Biondi and accompanies the soprano Carolyn Sampson in a Carnegie Hall recital in New York. Among his 2014 project are a Well-Tempered Clavier recital at the Cité de la musique in Paris, recitals in the Centre de Musique Baroque Rameau project, a Scarlatti recital in Madrid, a Netherlands tour following a Brussels virginal recital, and several recitals with Fabio Biondi in the America and at the Théâtre des Champs-Élysées in Paris.

In 2001 Satirino records released the first in a series of highly acclaimed solo harpsichord recordings by Mr. Weiss: Bach's Partitas, Scarlatti Sonatas, Rameau Opera and Ballet transcriptions (on two of the historical instruments inthe Musée de la musique in Paris), an album including Bach's Italian Concerto, French Overture and the Chromatic Fantasy and Fugue, Scarlatti's 'Essercizi pergravicembalo' in coproduction with the Madrid Caja Bank's Spanish music label, Los SIGLOS de ORO, a live recording of Bach's Goldberg Variations and most recently 'A Cleare Day', a live recording of selections from the Fitzwilliam Virginal Book. New releases in 2011 include Bach's sonatas for violin and harpsichord with Fabio Biondi and the violin sonatas of Elisabeth Jacquet de la Guerre with the violinist Lina Tur Bonet. In June 2013 a new album of extracts from the Fitzwilliam Virginal Book, 'Heaven & Earth', will be released, recorded in concert during the Contrepoints 62 festival in the Pas de Calais department of France. 2013 also sees Kenneth Weiss's recording of Bach's Well-Tempered Clavier at the Cité de la musique in Paris on the historic Ruckers-Taskin belonging to the Musée de la musique.

Kenneth Weiss is a member of the faculty of the Paris Conservatory and the Juilliard School.

Salon/Sanctuary Concerts has been praised by Time Out NY for "impeccably curated early-music performances in intimate historical venues," and by Seen and Heard International: "It is a rare occurrence at any concert or opera when every possible aspect of the performance experience succeeds completely. I am not simply referring to the musicians, concert hall or instruments but to the gestalt: the unified whole that makes the sum greater than all of its parts." Founded by Artistic Director Jessica Gould in 2009, Salon/Sanctuary Concerts offers the special chance to hear pre-Romantic music in intimate venues that complement the historical context of the repertoire. Pleased to present special projects that cast alight on historical issues through the prism of music, Salon/Sanctuary takes pride in many special interdisciplinary performances featuring luminaries from the worlds of opera, theater, film, and dance. The series has garnered critical praise for its innovative programming, and continues to attract a diverse audience for its path breaking offerings.

The concert is set for Saturday, May 25th, 2013 at 8:00PM in THE ABIGAIL ADAMS SMITH AUDITORIUM, 417 East 61st Street b/w First and York. Admission: $50 Prime Seating (tax-deductible), $35 General Admission, $25 Students/ Seniors/EMA/ Columbia & NYU. For reservations: www.salonsanctuary.org, or call 1888 718 4253.