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Biography |
by Uncle Dave Lewis
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| Harpsichordist and organist Frances Conover Fitch first studied harpsichord with Igor Kipnis while at Bard College; later she completed organ studies with Yuko Hayashi and harpsichord with John Gibbons at the New England Conservatory of Music before going to Holland to further her harpsichord studies with Gustav Leonhardt and Veronika Hampe. Fitch spent a good deal of the late '70s and early '80s in Europe, where she taught at the Schola Cantorum Basilensis and co-founded the early music ensemble Concerto Castello. A recording by Concerto Castello earned Fitch an honorable mention at the Deutsche Schallplattenpreis competition held in Berlin in 1983, but also that same year Concerto Castello broke up. Returning to the United States, Fitch began an active free-lance career, playing with early music groups such as the the Boston Camerata and the Harvard-Radcliffe Collegium Musicum participating in major music festivals, such as Aston Magna and Tanglewood. Fitch taught at her alma mater, the New England Conservatory of Music, for most of the 1990s. Fitch is currently chair of the early music department at the Longy School of Music in Cambridge, MA, and teaches at Tufts University, although these days Fitch is most often heard in concert as a soloist. Fitch is noted for her sensitivity and intuitive strengths as a continuo player, and outside of her many recordings with Boston Camerata for Erato and Nonesuch, Fitch has recorded for Wildboar, Titanic, Koch, EMI Reflexe, and Centaur, in addition to making many radio recordings while in Europe. |
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