Mark Fewer & Hank Knox
Biographie Mark Fewer & Hank Knox
Mark Fewer
Described as “genre-bending” by the National Post, and “intrepid” by the Globe and Mail, Mark Fewer has performed around the world to critical acclaim in virtually every role asked of a violinist – and then some. His regular musical diet includes performances from the early baroque to the avant-garde, with recent performances as soloist with groups as wide-ranging as the Melbourne Symphony (Australia), the Fodens-Richardson Brass Band (UK), the Zapp Quartet (Amsterdam), and the McGill Percussion Ensemble (Canada). He is also a dedicated chamber musician, jazz violinist, artistic director, and teacher.
Since 2010, Mr. Fewer has been featured on 8 new recordings, the most recent of which won the 2012 Juno Award for Best Contemporary Jazz Album. The work, entitled Changing Seasons, is a jazz violin concerto written especially for him by jazz great Phil Dwyer. Scored for big band, string orchestra and solo violin, the piece takes advantage of Mr. Fewer’s unique abilities as both a classical violinist and improviser. Other new recordings include chamber works of Serge Arcuri (winner of the 2012 Prix Opus for Best Chamber Recording), as well as solo works of Pandolfi, Brahms, Antheil and Tovey.
2012 saw Mr. Fewer perform concertos of Paganini, Vivaldi, Berg and Beethoven with orchestras in Canada and the United States. He also made his conducting debut with I Musici de Montreal in performances of his own arrangements of Miles Davis and Duke Ellington standards. In 2013 he will perform across Canada, the United States, Taiwan and India, including concerto performances of works by Bach, Prokofiev, John Adams and Bramwell Tovey.
As a chamber musician, Mr. Fewer is a regular member of the Duke Piano Trio and the Smithsonian Chamber Players. He has also recently performed in chamber setting with artists such as Leon Fleisher, Edgar Meyer, Gilbert Kalish, James Campbell, Matt Haimovitz and Elizabeth Wallfisch.In 2011 he replaced both violinists of the St. Lawrence String Quartet and was subsequently awarded the “5th Man Paternity Prize”.
As a jazz violinist he has had the honor of sharing the stage with Dave Young, Brad Turner, Jodi Proznick, Terri Clark, Gene di Novi, Phil Dwyer, VanDjango and others.
Mr. Fewer was the artistic director of the Scotia Festival of Music from 2004-2009, and is the founding director of the SweetWater Music Festival, now famous for it’s programmatic creativity and performance excellence. He was concertmaster of the Vancouver Symphony from 2004-2008, and has been on faculty of the Schulich School of Music, McGill University, since 2007. Mr. Fewer can be heard regularly on NPR, CBC Radio Two, BBC 3, RTVE, and ABC, and is the feature interview for an episode of the Biography Channel’s People Uncut.
Hank Knox
Hailed internationally for his “colorful, kinetic performances” (All Music Guide) which “abound in vitality” (Early Music America), Hank Knox performs on harpsichord in concert halls, churches, museums, galleries and homes around the globe. A founding member of Montreal’s Arion Baroque Orchestra, with whom he has toured North and South America, Europe and Japan, Knox also regularly performs, records and tours with Tafelmusik Baroque Orchestra, Les Violons du Roy, le Studio de musique ancienne de Montréal, and l’Orchestre Symphonique de Montréal, among numerous other ensembles. As one of today’s busiest musicians in the field of Early Music, Knox’s musical collaborators have included violinists Elizabeth Wallfisch, Monica Huggett, and Stefano Montanari, lutenist Steven Stubbs, baritone Max van Egmond, and conductors Christopher Hogwood, Trevor Pinnock, Sir Roger Norrington, and Andrew Parrott.
Dedicated to sharing the unique sounds of antique harpsichords, as well as fine copies of historical instruments, Knox has released a number of acclaimed recordings on rare instruments. He has released two collections of Frescobaldi keyboard works, on a 1677 Italian harpsichord, for the ATMA Classique and early-music.com labels, along with works by D’Anglebert performed on a copy of one of the few upright harpsichords in existence, made by Montreal builder Yves Beaupré. A recording of Handel opera arias and overtures in transcriptions by William Babell was recorded on three different exceptional antique instruments from the treasured Benton Fletcher collection at Fenton House in London. Knox’s most recent recording features transcriptions of music by Francesco Geminiani, performed on a 1772 Kirkman harpsichord. A solo recording of works by J.S. Bach, performed on a copy of an 18th-century Flemish instrument, will be released in 2013. Hank Knox can also be heard on numerous recordings with Arion and Tafelmusik Baroque Orchestras for early-music.com, ATMA, Analekta, CBC, Titanic and Collegium labels, as well as on national broadcasts for Radio-Canada and CBC.
Hank Knox teaches harpsichord and continuo in the Early Music program at McGill University in Montreal, where he also conducts various instrumental and chamber music ensembles including the McGill Baroque Orchestra. A William Dawson Scholar in recognition of his achievements in Early Music, Knox held the post of Director of McGill’s Early Music program for over 20 years and was awarded the Thomas Binkley prize for an outstanding university collegium director by Early Music America in 2008. Knox continues to direct a series of Baroque operas for Opera McGill, which have included Purcell’s Dido and Aeneas, Lully’s Thésée, Monteverdi’s L’incoronazione di Poppea and Il ritorno d’Ulisse, and Handel’s Agrippina, Giulio Cesare, Alcina, Semele, Imeneo, Radamisto and, most recently, Rinaldo.
Hank Knox earned a Master of Music in harpsichord performance from McGill University, where he studied with John Grew, which he followed by studies in the Netherlands, in Italy and with Kenneth Gilbert in Paris. When he is not playing or conducting, Knox may be found hurtling down a ski hill not too far from his home in Montreal.
