Biography

 

Christine Kyprianides began her musical studies with the piano, taking up the cello at the age of eleven. She spent seven summers as a student at the then National Music Camp at Interlochen, Michigan, and graduated from the Interlochen Arts Academy.

Ms. Kyprianides received her Bachelor of Music degree from the Peabody Conservatory in Baltimore and her Master of Music from the New England Conservatory. She also attended the Berkshire Music Center at Tanglewood, where she was awarded the Gregor Piatagorsky Cello Prize in 1970. In Boston her participation as continuo cellist in regular performances of Bach cantatas at Emanuel Church inspired an interest in early music, and she began playing the viol.

 

In 1976, Kyprianides left the US for Belgium. After a year as Assistant Principal Cellist of the Royal Flanders Philharmonic Orchestra in Antwerp, she received a grant from the Belgium Government to study viol at the Royal Conservatory of Brussels under Wieland Kuyken. She was subsequently awarded the Special First Prize and the Diplôme Supérieure.

 

After completing her studies in Belgium, Kyprianides moved to Cologne, Germany where she soon established herself as a leading Baroque cellist, performing in Musica Antiqua Köln, Das Kleine Konzert, Collegium Carthusianum, Accademia Filarmonica Köln, Les Arts Florissants, La Stagione, and other chamber orchestras. As cellist and viol player, she was also a member of Ganassi-Consort, Les Adieux, and the La Roche Quartett. Kyprianides has also been a long-time collaborator with fortepianist Richard Burnett in England.

 

Kyprianides was a faculty member of the Lemmens Institute of the University of Louvain, the Wuppertal section of the Conservatory (Musikhochschule) of Cologne, and the Dresden Academy of Early Music. She has given seminars and workshops at the Catholic University of Santiago de Chile, the Conservatory of Music in Buenos Aires, the Conservatory of Church Music (Hochschule für Kirchenmusik) in Halle/Saale, the Seminar of Early Music in Wallonia, etc.

 

In 2003, Kyprianides returned to the US, where she is in the process of completing her doctorate degree, concentrating in early music and musicology. She continues to perform as a member of the Huelgas Ensemble (Belgium) and Diapente Consort (Netherlands), and is also active as a scholar.