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Eric J. Milnes (Conductor, Harpsichord, Organ)
Born: 1960 - Huntington, New York, USA
The American harpsichordist, organist, and conductor, Eric J. Milnes, was brought up on Long Island, and obtained undergraduate and graduate degrees in music at Columbia University and the Juilliard School of Music in New York.
Eric J. Milnes has been hailed as one of this country's brightest talents in the early music field, particularly in the period instruments movement. As conductor, harpsichordist & organist he has performed in every major American city and festival, and toured throughout much of Europe, appearing in Germany, Austria, Great Britain, Belgium, The Netherlands, Switzerland, Scandinavia and Poland.
Since 1982, Eric J. Milnes has been the Director of Music at St. John's of Lattingtown, an Episcopal church. Under his direction, the St. John's Choir has become one of the most highly regarded performing organizations in the New York area, known for upholding a tradition of Anglican church music of all eras.
Eric J. Milnes’ frequent appearances with the Portland Baroque Orchestra led to the creation of a new ensemble. It was his controversial decision to present Händel's Messiah with 50 voices (Portland had gotten used to the sound of 24 Baroque specialist singers in PBO performances of the masterpiece); that was the first step to the founding of the Trinity Consort. The performance was resoundingly received, not as a return to the Romantic thickness and heaviness that was long associated with Messiah, but as a large-scale choral-orchestral performance with a seemingly genuine Baroque sound. John Strege, director of music for Portland's Trinity Cathedral, heard Milnes' rehearsals. Milnes created a similar experience the next year, with Bach's St. Matthew Passion (BWV 244). Strege asked Milnes to write down the personnel of his "Baroque dream orchestra." Strege then surprised Milnes, by committing to raising the money to assemble this musical dream team, bringing in top players from the early music movement's centres in Europe, the San Francisco area, the Pacific Northwest, and the East Coast. Milnes planned to concentrate on large-scale, usually religious, choral-orchestral works of the Baroque and Classical periods, and thus complement, rather than compete with, the long-established Portland Baroque Orchestra (which is more oriented towards secular instrumental music).
Eric J. Milnes has also conducted New York Baroque, The Northwest Chamber Orchestra, and Musica Divina in Ottawa. He has conducted in Germany, Austria, Britain, Belgium, the Netherlands, Switzerland, Norway, and Poland. He is the director of New York Baroque and the artistic consultant to the New York Collegium and has been the director of Toronto's Musica Divina.
In addition to his conducting, Eric J. Milnes plays harpsichord and organ as a soloist and is a member of the period instrumental quartet Les Boreades of Montreal. He has played at the Boston Baroque Music Festival, the Connecticut Early Music Festival, the New England Bach Festival, the Passau Festival in Austria, the Santa Fe Festival, the Utrecht Festival, the Bergen (Norway) Festival, the Berkeley Festival, Tanglewood, and the Portland Baroque Festival.
Eric J. Milnes records regularly for PGM Recordings, Atma Recordings, Koch International, and Newport Classic labels. His performances and recordings with Ensemble Rebel, Les Boreades de Montreal, The Portland Baroque Orchestra and New York Baroque are regularly heard on NPR and European national broadcasts.
Eric J. Milnes has taught at the Juilliard School, Hofstra University, the State University of New York at Stony Brook, the Musikkonservatorium (State Conservatory) of Oslo, Norway, and the Bergen Conservatory, Norway.
Source: Trinity Consort Website; AMG Website
Contributed by
Eric J. Milnes
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Last update: ýJune 6, 2004 ý18:28:21