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Christina Pluhar

About this Artist

CHRISTINA PLUHAR, founder and artistic director of L’Arpeggiata, discovered – after classical guitar studies at the university of her hometown, Graz – her deep affinity for Renaissance and Baroque music.

She devoted herself to the studies of the lute, theorbo, Baroque guitar, and Baroque harp at the Royal Conservatory in The Hague (Netherlands) with Toyohiko Satoh and at the Schola Cantorum Basiliensis (Switzerland) with Hopkinson Smith and at the Schuola Civica di Milano (Italy) with Mara Galassi, followed by master classes with Paul O’Dette, Andrew Lawrence-King, and Jesper Christensen. In 1992, she obtained her diploma for Early Music as well as a first prize at the International Music Competition of Malmö with the ensemble La Fenice.

Her repertoire includes music of the Renaissance and Baroque for lute, Baroque guitar, archlute, theorbo, and Baroque harp, where she excelled as soloist.

In 1992 she moved to Paris, where she performed as a soloist and continuo player with ensembles including La Fenice (Jean Tubéry), Hespérion XXI (Jordi Savall), Il Giardino Armonico, Concerto Soave (Maria-Cristina Kiehr), Accordone (Marco Beasley), Elyma (Gabriel Garrido), Les Musiciens du Louvre (Marc Minkowski), Ricercar Consort (Philippe Pierlot), La Grande Écurie and the King’s Chamber (Jean-Claude Malgoire), and Cantus Cölln (Konrad Junghänel), among others. As a continuo player, she is sought by orchestras under the direction of René Jacobs, Ivor Bolton, Alessandro di Marchi, Marc Minkowski, and Gabriel Garrido. From 2001 to 2005 she was assistant to conductor Ivor Bolton at the Munich Opera. As a guest conductor, she was invited to conduct the Australian Brandenburg Orchestra (Sydney), the European Baroque Orchestra (EUBO), and the Orchestra Divino Sospiro (Portugal).

Beginning in 1993, she conducted master classes at Graz University, and from 1999 has served as professor of Baroque harp at the Royal Conservatory in The Hague.

In 2000 she founded L’Arpeggiata and led her ensemble virtually overnight to success with its first recordings, issued to great acclaim the year it was founded. Among Pluhar’s most acclaimed recordings are the albums of music by Stefano Landi, La Tarantella, All’Improvviso (with Gianluigi Trovesi), and Los Impossibles (with the King’s Singers), as well as the Virgin Classics CDs Teatro d’amore (with Philippe Jaroussky and Nuria Rial), Via Crucis (with Barbara Furtuna), Los Pájaros Perdidos (The South American Project), Mediterraneo (with the fado singer Misia), and Music for a while (Improvisations on Henry Purcell).

In 2012, L’Arpeggiata was the first Baroque ensemble to be granted an artistic residence at Carnegie Hall.