Christina Pluhar

Christina Pluhar built a thriving career as a versatile performer on period instruments within early music and Baroque circles, yet her identity in recent decades has centered on her role as founder and artistic leader of the vocal and instrumental group L'Arpeggiata. With this ensemble she continues to explore comparable repertoire while emphasizing Italian material enriched by infusions of jazz and folk traditions. Both as soloist and director she has appeared on a wide array of recordings.

Born in Graz, Austria, in 1965, Pluhar began her musical training on the guitar in her hometown before pursuing lute studies at the Royal Conservatory of Music in The Hague under Toyohiko Satoh. She continued her education with Hopkinson Smith at the Schola Cantorum Basiliensis in Basel and with Mara Galassi at the Scuola Civica di Milano. Over time she achieved mastery of several closely related instruments, including the Baroque guitar, Renaissance lute, archlute, theorbo, and Baroque harp. These skills took her across Europe, the United Kingdom, and Australia, where she performed both as soloist and continuo player alongside leading early-music ensembles such as Concerto Köln and La Fenice. After relocating to Paris in 1992, she became a frequent participant in groups including Les Musiciens du Louvre and La Grande Écurie et la Chambre du Roy. Beginning in 1993 she has offered master classes at Graz University, and since 1999 she has held the post of professor of Baroque harp at the Royal Conservatory in The Hague.

During the 1990s Pluhar steadily expanded her performing activities, culminating in the founding of L'Arpeggiata in 2000. Based in Paris and comprising roughly a dozen players, the ensemble uses original instruments while incorporating its distinctive jazz and folk elements. Among the distinguished musicians she selected were Italian folk singer Lucilla Galeazzi, Baroque guitarist Marcello Vitale, and cornetist Doron David Sherwin. The group achieved rapid recognition through its debut album, La Villanella, devoted to vocal works by Giovanni Kapsberger. From 2007 onward Pluhar has directed joint appearances with ensembles such as the Australian Brandenburg Orchestra, including well-received concerts in Sydney that year and again in 2010.

Her discography includes releases on Alpha Productions, EMI, and Naïve, with the majority of recordings since 2009 appearing on the Erato label under Warner Classics. Particularly notable among these is the 2011 Virgin Classics account of Monteverdi’s Vespro della Beata Vergine performed with L'Arpeggiata. The 2018 Erato release Himmelsmusik earned a Grammy nomination, and in 2023 Pluhar and her ensemble accompanied countertenor Philippe Jaroussky on the Erato album Passacalle de la Follie.