Glen Wilson

Harpsichordist Glen Wilson has appeared as both soloist and concerto performer across numerous European venues, releasing a substantial body of recordings in the process. Over time his focus has narrowed toward rarely encountered keyboard literature, yielding an extended sequence of discs issued by Naxos.

Born March 29, 1952, in Greenville, Illinois, Wilson trained at the Juilliard School under Albert Fuller, who had studied with Gustav Leonhardt and ranked among the first American harpsichordists to secure a major university post. In 1971 Wilson relocated to the Netherlands to work directly with Leonhardt. From that point forward he has maintained residences in both the Netherlands and Germany, holding a professorship at the Hochschule für Musik in Würzburg since 1988. Upon completing his lessons with Leonhardt in 1975, he joined the Netherlands Chamber Orchestra as a staff harpsichordist, resigning in 1982 to concentrate on solo engagements that placed him alongside leading European period-instrument ensembles of the decade, among them Concentus Musicus Wien, La Petite Bande, and the Leonhardt Consort. He has also performed with Amsterdam’s modern-instrument Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra. Additional chamber collaborations have linked him with Leonhardt, Wieland Kuijken, and Emma Kirkby. Together with violinist Lucy van Dael and cellist Wouter Möller he established the Amsterdam Fortepiano Trio. His instruments include the harpsichord, clavichord, fortepiano, and organ. Beyond performance he has worked as a musicologist, conductor, and broadcaster, leading more than sixty presentations of his own edition of Monteverdi’s Il ritorno d’Ulisse in patria on three continents. He has prepared an edition of selected little-known suites by Gottlieb Muffat and recorded the works with his wife, Naoko Akutagawa. For Radio Netherlands he produced a cycle of sixty-five programs devoted to early music.

His discography exceeds twenty albums and encompasses several Teldec releases, including contributions to the label’s Bach 2000 series. Since 2003 the majority of his recordings have appeared on Naxos. During the 2010s he has devoted increasing attention to obscure Baroque keyboard pieces he has recovered, among them the 2019 release Pierre Attaignant: Harpsichord Works, consisting not of compositions by the printer but of pieces he arranged for publication.

Wilson has also gained recognition for his writings, which include the volumes The Art of Fugue: A Revisionist View and ... l'autre Couperin deffunt...