Catherine Manson

Catherine Manson enjoys a versatile performing career specializing in period performance as a soloist, chamber musician and orchestral leader. She was appointed as leader of the Amsterdam Baroque Orchestra in 2006 As first violinist of the classical London Haydn Quartet she has performed in venues such as Carnegie Hall, the Concertgebouw in Amsterdam and London’s Wigmore Hall. The quartet’s series of recordings of the Haydn quartets on the Hyperion label has met with high critical acclaim internationally.
Together with Ton Koopman she has recorded all the Buxtehude chamber music. She has appeared frequently as a chamber musician together with such artists as Trevor Pinnock, Anner Bylsma, Malcolm Bilson, Steven Isserlis and Michael Chance, and has also recorded for Hyperion, Dorian, Glossa, ASV and Teldec, in addition to many radio recordings and broadcasts worldwide.
She is regularly invited to appear as a guest leader by ensembles including Smithsonian Chamber Players and Santa Fe Pro Musica in the USA, Collegium Vocale, Il Gardellino and Ensemble Explorations in Belgium and the new London-based ensemble Arcangelo.
Teaching has always been an important part of her musical life; in 2001 she co-founded and now directs MusicWorks, a chamber music course for young musicians. In addition to giving classes and seminars at King’s College and the Royal Academy of Music, she has taught at the Baroque Performance Institute in Oberlin College, USA and the Domaine Forget chamber music courses in Canada. On the London Haydn Quartet's recent tour to the USA she gave masterclasses at the Juilliard School and at Yale University. She is on the faculty of the Granada International Festival’s 'Musical Interpretation' course for students interested in further study of period instrument playing.