Simon Standage

Simon Standage, renowned for his expertise in violin practices from the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, has appeared with numerous premier ensembles specializing in period instruments worldwide. Following his 1963 graduation with a music degree from Cambridge University, he received a Harkness Fellowship for study under Ivan Galamian in New York City and made his Wigmore Hall debut in 1972 before joining Trevor Pinnock’s English Concert as a founding member. From 1973 until 1991 he held the position of principal solo violinist with that group, and their account of Vivaldi’s The Four Seasons earned a Grammy nomination. Between 1974 and 1978 he performed frequently with the English Chamber Orchestra; he subsequently directed the City of London Sinfonia from 1980 to 1989 and served as associate director of the Academy of Ancient Music from 1991 to 1995. In 1983 he was named professor of Baroque violin at London’s Royal Academy of Music, and since 1993 he has also instructed at the Dresden Akademie für Alte Musik. Standage established two ensembles dedicated to historically informed string playing: the Salomon Quartet, founded in 1981 and focused on eighteenth-century quartet and quintet repertoire performed on period instruments, and, in 1990, Collegium Musicum 90, created jointly with Richard Hickox. The latter ensemble, under exclusive contract to Chandos Records, issued more than forty discs during its first ten years, encompassing large-scale dramatic pieces as well as highly regarded trio sonata collections.