Hank Knox

Hank Knox has performed on harpsichord in concert halls, churches, museums, galleries and private homes around the globe. He is a founding member of the Ensemble Arion , with whom he has toured Canada, the United States, Europe, Japan, South America and Mexico. He has performed, recorded and toured with the Tafelmusik Baroque Orchestra and le Studio de musique ancienne de Montréal. Hank plays regularly with the Orchestre symphonique de Montréal and with Arion Baroque Orchestra.

Historical instruments have an important place in Hank Knox’s musical life. He loves to share the unique sounds of existing antique instruments as well as fine copies of historical instruments. In 2001, Hank released a recording of Frescobaldi’s keyboard works performed on an Italian harpsichord of 1677 on the Atma label, and soon after, he released a recording of works by D’Anglebert performed on an upright harpsichord for early-music.com. A second recording of works of Frescobaldi on the 1677 Italian harpsichord, Affetti cantabile, was released on the early-music.com label in the fall of 2008. In the spring of 2009 he made a recording of Handel opera arias and overtures in transcriptions for harpsichord by Babell and Handel on instruments from the Benton Fletcher collection at Fenton House in London. Hank has just released a recording of harpsichord transcriptions of works by Francesco Geminiani performed on a 1772 Kirkman harpsichord. A solo recording of works by J.S. Bach , performed on a copy of an 18th century Flemish harpsichord will be released in 2013. He appears on recordings with Arion on the early-music.com, Atma, Analekta, CBC, Titanic and Collegium labels. Mr Knox has recorded for Radio Canada and the CBC.

As a conductor and leader Hank Knox has wide experience, both with instrumental ensembles and with vocalists. In collaboration with Opera McGill, he has directed productions of numerous Baroque operas including Purcell’s Dido and Aeneas, Lully’s Thésée, Handel’s Agrippina, Giulio Cesare, Alcina, Semele, Imeneo and Radamisto, Monteverdi’s Il ritorno d’Ulisse in patria, Telemann’s Don Quichotte, Les sauvages from Rameau’s Les indes galantes, and Peri’s Euridice.

Hank Knox directs the Early Music program at McGill University, where he teaches harpsichord and figured bass accompaniment, coaches chamber music ensembles, and conducts the McGill Baroque Orchestra. He has been a William Dawson Scholar in recognition of his work in Early Music since 2003, and was awarded the Thomas Binkley prize for an outstanding university collegium director by Early Music America in 2008.

Hank Knox studied harpsichord with John Grew at McGill University in Montreal and with Kenneth Gilbert in Paris.

Hank is a member of early-music.com, a site committed to the promotion of some of the world’s finest early music artists motion of some of the world’s finest early music musicians.