Sigiswald Kuijken
Sigiswald Kuijken was born in 1944 close to Brussels. He studied violin at the conservatories of Bruges and Brussels, completing his studies at the latter institution with Maurice Raskin in 1964. He came into contact with early music at a very young age, together with his brother Wieland.
From 1964 to 1972, Kuijken was a member of the Brussels-based Alarius Ensemble (with Wieland Kuijken, Robert Kohnen and Janine Rubinlicht), which performed throughout Europe and in the United States. He subsequently undertook individual chamber music projects with a number of Baroque music specialists, chief among which were his brothers Wieland and Barthold, Gustav Leonhardt and Robert Kohnen, as well as Anner Bylsma, Frans Bruggen and René Jacobs. In 1972, with the encouragement of Deutsche Harmonia Mundi and Gustav Leonhardt, he founded the Baroque orchestra La Petite Bande, which since then has given innumerable concerts throughout Europe, Australia, South America, China and Japan, and has made many recordings for a number of labels (including Deutsche Harmonia Mundi, Seon, Accent and Denon).
In 1986, he founded the Kuijken String Quartet (with François Fernandez, Marleen Thiers and Wieland Kuijken), which specializes in the quartets and quintets (with Ryo Terakado as first violist) of the Classical period. Recordings of quartets and quintets of Mozart and Haydn have appeared on Denon.
From 1971 to 1996, Kuijken taught Baroque violin at the Koninklijk Conservatorium in The Hague; since 1993, he has taught at the Koninklijk Muziekconservatorium in Brussels. In addition, he has for many years been in demand as a guest teacher at a number of institutions (including the Royal College of Music in London, Salamanca University and the Accademia Chigiana in Siena).
Since 1998, Kuijken occasionally conducts "modern" symphonic orchestras in romantic programs (Schumann, Brahms, Mendelssohn).
