Michala Petri
Encyclopedia
Michala Petri is a Danish
recorder
player. Petri is sought after as a soloist with many noted orchestras, including the Academy of St. Martin in the Fields
. She has released 34 recordings, toured extensively over four continents, and has had dozens of pieces written for her. Her debut as a soloist was in 1969.
repertoire of the height of the instrument's popularity to contemporary works written particularly for her. She has premiered dozens of works, by composers Malcolm Arnold
, Gordon Jacob
and Richard Harvey
, as well as Daniel Börtz
, Erik Haumann, Hans Kunstovny, Erling Bjerno
, Thomas Koppel
, Ove Benzen, Vagn Holmboe
, Piers Hellawell, Gary Kulesha
, Asger Lund Christiansen
, Egil Harder
, Michael Berkeley
, Butch Lacy, Miklos Maros
, Ezra Laderman
, Jens Bjerre, Henning Christiansen
, Niels Viggo Bentzon
, Axel Borup Jørgensen, and Gunnar Berg
.
She frequently collaborates with her husband, guitar
ist and lute
nist Lars Hannibal
, with whom she has made several recordings. Petri has taken a particular interest in the combination of recorder and guitar, collaborating with guitarists including Göran Söllscher
, Kazuhito Yamashita
and Manuel Barrueco
. One notable collaboration of hers was two albums of sonatas by J. S. Bach and G. F. Handel, with Keith Jarrett
on harpsichord; she has also recorded with the London Philharmonic Orchestra
, the English Chamber Orchestra
, and Pinchas Zuckerman, among many others.
Petri studied with Ferdinand Conrad at the Staatliche Hochschule für Musik und Theater in Hannover. Her mother is Hanna Petri, who studied at the Royal Danish Academy of Music and her brother, David Petri, won the Danish "Young Musician of the Year Award" in 1978. He is a cellist. Both have recorded with Michala as The Petri Trio.
In 1979 she began an exclusive recording contract with Philips Records
that lasted until 1987; she is currently recording on the RCA Red Seal label.
In 1990 interview with Petri, the award
winning radio music broadcaster from Chicago
Bruce Duffie presented her as a Recorder
Virtuoso
Denmark
Denmark is a Scandinavian country in Northern Europe. The countries of Denmark and Greenland, as well as the Faroe Islands, constitute the Kingdom of Denmark . It is the southernmost of the Nordic countries, southwest of Sweden and south of Norway, and bordered to the south by Germany. Denmark...
recorder
Recorder
The recorder is a woodwind musical instrument of the family known as fipple flutes or internal duct flutes—whistle-like instruments which include the tin whistle. The recorder is end-blown and the mouth of the instrument is constricted by a wooden plug, known as a block or fipple...
player. Petri is sought after as a soloist with many noted orchestras, including the Academy of St. Martin in the Fields
Academy of St. Martin in the Fields
The Academy of St Martin in the Fields is an English chamber orchestra, based in London.Sir Neville Marriner founded the ensemble as The Academy of St.-Martin-in-the-Fields in London as a small, conductorless string group. The ensemble's name comes from Trafalgar Square's St Martin-in-the-Fields...
. She has released 34 recordings, toured extensively over four continents, and has had dozens of pieces written for her. Her debut as a soloist was in 1969.
Biography
Petri, who began playing the recorder at the age of three, is noted for her virtuosity and versatility across a wide range of styles, from the baroqueBaroque music
Baroque music describes a style of Western Classical music approximately extending from 1600 to 1760. This era follows the Renaissance and was followed in turn by the Classical era...
repertoire of the height of the instrument's popularity to contemporary works written particularly for her. She has premiered dozens of works, by composers Malcolm Arnold
Malcolm Arnold
Sir Malcolm Henry Arnold, CBE was an English composer and symphonist.Malcolm Arnold began his career playing trumpet professionally, but by age thirty his life was devoted to composition. He was ranked with Benjamin Britten as one of the most sought-after composers in Britain...
, Gordon Jacob
Gordon Jacob
Gordon Percival Septimus Jacob was an English composer. He is known for his wind instrument composition and his instructional writings.-Life:...
and Richard Harvey
Richard Harvey
Richard Harvey is a BAFTA Award–winning British musician and composer. He is best known for his film and television soundtracks...
, as well as Daniel Börtz
Daniel Börtz
Daniel Börtz is a Swedish composer.He studied composition under Hilding Rosenberg, Karl-Birger Blomdahl and Ingvar Lidholm. Among his works are the operas Bacchanterna , Marie Antoinette and Goya .-References:*...
, Erik Haumann, Hans Kunstovny, Erling Bjerno
Erling Bjerno
Erling D. Bjerno is a Danish composer and organist. He trained as an organist and was for years 1967 - 1996 employed by Ansgar Church in Aalborg. During the same period he was employed as a teacher at Nordjysk Music....
, Thomas Koppel
Thomas Koppel
Thomas Koppel was a versatile Danish classical music and avant-garde popular composer and musician.His father, Herman David Koppel , a composer and pianist of Jewish origin, fled the Nazis with his family in 1943. Thomas was born in a refugee camp in Sweden...
, Ove Benzen, Vagn Holmboe
Vagn Holmboe
Vagn Gylding Holmboe was a Danish composer and teacher who wrote largely in a neo-classical style.-Life:At the age of 16, Holmboe began formal music training at the Royal Danish Academy of Music in Copenhagen on the recommendation of Carl Nielsen. He studied under Knud Jeppesen and Finn Høffding...
, Piers Hellawell, Gary Kulesha
Gary Kulesha
Gary Kulesha is a Canadian composer, pianist, conductor, and educator. Since 1995, he has been Composer Advisor to the Toronto Symphony Orchestra. He has been Composer-in-Residence with the Kitchener-Waterloo Symphony and the Canadian Opera Company . He was awarded the National Arts Centre...
, Asger Lund Christiansen
Asger Lund Christiansen
Asger Lund Christiansen was a Danish cellist and composer.He trained at the Royal Danish Academy of Music, graduating in 1946. Alongside Bløndal Erling Bengtsson, he was his generation's most recognized Danish cellist...
, Egil Harder
Egil Harder
Egil Georg Harder was a Danish composer.- Notable works:*Rokoko-vals *Juletræet med sin pynt *Lille suite for strygeorkester *Den blå anemone 1945)*Spansk dans for orkester...
, Michael Berkeley
Michael Berkeley
Michael Berkeley is a British composer and broadcaster on music.-Early life:His father was the composer Sir Lennox Berkeley...
, Butch Lacy, Miklos Maros
Miklós Maros
Miklós Maros is a Hungarian composer. He was born in Pécs, the son of composer Rudolf Maros and violinist Klára Molnár. He studied at the Béla Bartók Conservatory of Budapest with Rezsö Sugár and at the Ferenc Liszt Music Academy with Ferenc Szabó, and continued his studies in Stockholm with...
, Ezra Laderman
Ezra Laderman
Ezra Laderman is an American composer of classical music.-Biography:His parents, Isidor and Leah, both emigrated to the United States from Poland. Though poor, the family had a piano. Ezra writes, "At four, I was improvising at the piano; at seven, I began to compose music, writing it down...
, Jens Bjerre, Henning Christiansen
Henning Christiansen
Henning Christiansen was a Danish composer and an active member of the Fluxus-movement. He worked with artists such as Joseph Beuys and Nam June Paik, as well as with his wife Ursula Reuter Christiansen...
, Niels Viggo Bentzon
Niels Viggo Bentzon
Niels Viggo Bentzon was a Danish composer and pianist.Bentzon was descended from Johan Ernst Hartmann and the great-grandson of J.P.E. Hartmann. From 1938 to 1942, he studied at the Royal Danish Academy of Music in Copenhagen under Knud Jeppesen and Christian Christiansen...
, Axel Borup Jørgensen, and Gunnar Berg
Gunnar Berg
Gunnar Berg was a Swiss-born Danish composer, and perhaps the leading exponent of serialism in Denmark.Berg was born to Danish and Swedish parents in Switzerland. He studied with Herman David Koppel from 1938 to 1942, and moved to Paris in 1948, where he became associated with Honegger and Messiaen...
.
She frequently collaborates with her husband, guitar
Guitar
The guitar is a plucked string instrument, usually played with fingers or a pick. The guitar consists of a body with a rigid neck to which the strings, generally six in number, are attached. Guitars are traditionally constructed of various woods and strung with animal gut or, more recently, with...
ist and lute
Lute
Lute can refer generally to any plucked string instrument with a neck and a deep round back, or more specifically to an instrument from the family of European lutes....
nist Lars Hannibal
Lars Hannibal
Lars Hannibal is a Danish classical guitarist and lutenist who frequently performs with his wife Michala Petri playing the recorder.-Biography:...
, with whom she has made several recordings. Petri has taken a particular interest in the combination of recorder and guitar, collaborating with guitarists including Göran Söllscher
Göran Söllscher
Göran Söllscher is a Swedish award-winning virtuoso classical guitarist known for his broad range of musical interpretations, ranging from Bach to the Beatles...
, Kazuhito Yamashita
Kazuhito Yamashita
is a Japanese classical guitarist. His technique and expression are considered somewhat controversial.-Musical career:Yamashita began to study the guitar at the age of eight with his father, Toru Yamashita. In 1972, aged eleven, he won the Kyushu Guitar Competition. Four years later, he was awarded...
and Manuel Barrueco
Manuel Barrueco
Manuel Barrueco is a Cuban virtuoso classical guitarist. He was born in 1952 in Santiago de Cuba, on Cuba's southeastern shore. He has toured in the U.S., Europe and Japan, and serves on the faculty of Peabody Conservatory in Baltimore, Maryland.-Biography:...
. One notable collaboration of hers was two albums of sonatas by J. S. Bach and G. F. Handel, with Keith Jarrett
Keith Jarrett
Keith Jarrett is an American pianist and composer who performs both jazz and classical music.Jarrett started his career with Art Blakey, moving on to play with Charles Lloyd and Miles Davis. Since the early 1970s he has enjoyed a great deal of success in jazz, jazz fusion, and classical music; as...
on harpsichord; she has also recorded with the London Philharmonic Orchestra
London Philharmonic Orchestra
The London Philharmonic Orchestra , based in London, is one of the major orchestras of the United Kingdom, and is based in the Royal Festival Hall. In addition, the LPO is the main resident orchestra of the Glyndebourne Festival Opera...
, the English Chamber Orchestra
English Chamber Orchestra
The English Chamber Orchestra is a British chamber orchestra based in London. The full orchestra regularly plays concerts at Cadogan Hall, and the ECO Ensemble performs at Wigmore Hall...
, and Pinchas Zuckerman, among many others.
Petri studied with Ferdinand Conrad at the Staatliche Hochschule für Musik und Theater in Hannover. Her mother is Hanna Petri, who studied at the Royal Danish Academy of Music and her brother, David Petri, won the Danish "Young Musician of the Year Award" in 1978. He is a cellist. Both have recorded with Michala as The Petri Trio.
In 1979 she began an exclusive recording contract with Philips Records
Philips Records
Philips Records is a record label that was founded by Dutch electronics company Philips. It was started by "Philips Phonographische Industrie" in 1950. Recordings were made with popular artists of various nationalities and also with classical artists from Germany, France and Holland. Philips also...
that lasted until 1987; she is currently recording on the RCA Red Seal label.
In 1990 interview with Petri, the award
Award
An award is something given to a person or a group of people to recognize excellence in a certain field; a certificate of excellence. Awards are often signifiedby trophies, titles, certificates, commemorative plaques, medals, badges, pins, or ribbons...
winning radio music broadcaster from Chicago
Chicago
Chicago is the largest city in the US state of Illinois. With nearly 2.7 million residents, it is the most populous city in the Midwestern United States and the third most populous in the US, after New York City and Los Angeles...
Bruce Duffie presented her as a Recorder
Recorder
The recorder is a woodwind musical instrument of the family known as fipple flutes or internal duct flutes—whistle-like instruments which include the tin whistle. The recorder is end-blown and the mouth of the instrument is constricted by a wooden plug, known as a block or fipple...
Virtuoso
Virtuoso
A virtuoso is an individual who possesses outstanding technical ability in the fine arts, at singing or playing a musical instrument. The plural form is either virtuosi or the Anglicisation, virtuosos, and the feminine form sometimes used is virtuosa...
Partial discography
- Los Angeles Street Concerto - Petri plays Koppel
- Souvenir with Lars Hannibal
- Moon Child Dream with the English Chamber Orchestra
- Scandinavian Moods with the London Philharmonic Orchestra
- The Ultimate Recorder Collection with Those above, The Westminster Abbey Choir, Keith Garrett, and Moscow Virtuoso (on separate tracks)
- Grieg Holberg SuiteHolberg SuiteHolberg Suite, Op. 40 more properly "From Holberg's Time", , subtitled "Suite in olden style" , is a suite of five movements based on eighteenth century dance forms, written by Edvard Grieg in 1884 to celebrate the 200th anniversary of the birth of Danish-Norwegian humanist playwright Ludvig...
, Melody & Dances with the English Chamber Orchestra - GreensleevesGreensleeves"Greensleeves" is a traditional English folk song and tune, a ground of the form called a romanesca.A broadside ballad by this name was registered at the London Stationer's Company in September 1580 as "A New Northern Dittye of the Lady Greene Sleeves". It then appears in the surviving A Handful of...
with Hanna and David Petri
Awards
- Tagea Brandt RejselegatTagea Brandt RejselegatThe Tagea Brandt Rejselegat is awarded annually, on the 17 March.The scholarship was created and endowed by Danish industrialist Vilhelm Brandt in honor of his wife, Tagea...
(1981) - Knight - Order of DannebrogOrder of the DannebrogThe Order of the Dannebrog is an Order of Denmark, instituted in 1671 by Christian V. It resulted from a move in 1660 to break the absolutism of the nobility. The Order was only to comprise 50 noble Knights in one class plus the Master of the Order, i.e. the Danish monarch, and his sons...
1995 - Deutscher SchallplattenpreisDeutscher SchallplattenpreisThe Deutscher Schallplattenpreis was a prize that the Deutsche Phono-Akademie awarded from 1963 through 1992. Its successor is the ECHO prize....
1997 - H C Lumbye Prize 1998
- Wilhelm Hansen Music Prize 1998
- Léonie Sonning Music PrizeLéonie Sonning Music PrizeThe Léonie Sonning Music Prize, or Sonning Award, which is recognized as Denmark's highest musical honor, is given annually to an international composer or musician. It was first awarded in 1959 to composer Igor Stravinsky...
2000, she was the third Dane to win this prize, after Mogens WöldikeMogens WöldikeMogens Wöldike was a Danish conductor, choirmaster, organist, and scholar known for his interpretation of music from the Baroque and Classical periods. His son-in-law was the Haydn scholar Jens Peter Larsen.He studied under Carl Nielsen and Thomas Laub and graduated from Copenhagen University in...
(1976) and Per NørgårdPer NørgårdPer Nørgård is a Danish composer.-Biography:Nørgård studied with Vagn Holmboe at the Royal Danish Academy of Music in Copenhagen, and subsequently with Nadia Boulanger in Paris. To begin with, he was strongly influenced by the Nordic styles of Jean Sibelius, Carl Nielsen and Vagn Holmboe...
(1996)