Jory Vinikour
Conductor
“Vinikour made one wise decision after another, be it emphasizing crisp, clean attacks – the better to circumvent echo issues – or imploring the choir to make their celebratory tones extra exultant.”
Jory Vinikour play-conducts 20th-century harpsichord concertos
If it’s true, and it probably is, that the best conductors are the ones who learn their business from the inside – playing with an orchestra, accompanying voices, actually making music – then the harpsichordist-turned-conductor Jory Vinikour is an example. Twice nominated for a GRAMMY as a harpsichord soloist and internationally known for concerto appearances with leading orchestras as well as concert partnerships with leading singers, Mr. Vinikour spent more than twenty years playing continuo for opera bands in Paris, Zurich, Salzburg, Aix…and doing so with an unusual distinction. Read more in biography below.
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Jory Vinikour play-conducts 20th-century harpsichord concertos
Biography
Jory Vinikour proves the truism that the best conductors are the ones who learn their business from the inside - playing with an orchestra, accompanying voices, actually making music.
Twice nominated for a GRAMMY(r) as a harpsichord soloist and internationally known for concerto appearances with leading orchestras as well as concert partnerships with leading singers, Mr. Vinikour spent more than twenty years playing continuo for opera bands in Paris, Zurich, Salzburg, Aix...and doing so with an unusual distinction.
After that, directing from the keyboard was a natural progression. Mr Vinikour studied conducting in New York with the great Russian pedagogue Vladimir Kin, and launched his new career in 2016 with Handel's Agrippina for West Edge Opera, Berkeley - swiftly followed by Purcell's Fairy Queen for Chicago Opera Theater ("expertly" conducted said the Chicago Tribune) and a double-bill of Venus and Adonis/Dido and Aeneas for Milwaukee’s Florentine Opera.
He returned to Milwaukee in 2019 for L'Incoronazione di Poppea, staged by Robin Guarino. And the same year he conducted Bastien und Bastienne/Der Schauspieldirektor in the Mozartwoche, Salzburg, at the invitation of Rolando Villazon with whom he has worked as an accompanist for some ten years, followed by a much-acclaimed modern premiere of Domenico Freschi’s Ermelinda for Ars Minerva in San Francisco.
Outside opera Mr Vinikour has directed performances with the St. Louis Symphony, Seattle Symphony, Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra, St. Paul Chamber Orchestra, Alabama Symphony, Hawaii Symphony, Musica Angelica, Hong Kong Philharmonic, Seoul Chamber Morning Orchestra, Bergen Philharmonic, Camerata Bariloche in Buenos Aires, Orchestre de Bretagne, and at the Karlsruhe Handel Festival.
Above all, Jory Vinikour is a remarkable communicator who engages with his audience, through formal music-making and – where it's appropriate – informal dialogue. “He makes a concert an experience”, said the Christian Science Monitor, “in the very best sense of the word'. The ultimate objective.