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The Irish harpsichordist and organist, Malcolm Proud, graduated from Trinity College, Dublin with a B.Mus. A Danish Government scholarship enabled him to study at the Conservatory in Copenhagen. After a further year of study with Gustav Leonhardt in Amsterdam the Sweelinck Conservatoire awarded him his Performer's Diploma. In 1982 he won 1st prize at the Edinburgh International Harpsichord Competition having been a finalist in the 1980 Bruges International Harpsichord Competition.
Malcolm Proud has performed throughout Europe, the USA and Japan. In Ireland he has played at the Kilkenny Arts Festival, the West Cork Chamber Music Festival, the Sligo and Galway Early Music Festivals, the Festival in Great Irish Houses and the Dublin International Organ and Choral Festival. He has participated regularly in the annual Back series at St. Ann's Church in Dublin, most notably in 2000 when he performed all the English and French suites. As an organist he has played in Dublin at the National Concert Hall, St. Michael's Dun Laoghaire and Christ Church Cathedral, at Pembroke College in Cambridge, Antwerp Cathedral, Limburg-an-Lahn, Basel, Maria Enzersdorf and Perchtoldsdorf in Vienna, Aveiro in Portugal, and on the historic organs of Valère-Sion in Switzerland, Ottobeuren in Germany and Udine in Italy.
In 1994 Malcolm Proud toured California with the American viola da gamba player John Dornenburg and performed Bach's 5th Brandenburg Concerto and harpsichord concertos with the Chandos Baroque Players in Pasadena and throughout Canada. In 1997 he again toured and recorded with Dornenburg and took part in the Cambridge Society for Early Music series of concerts in the Boston area with the Swiss baroque violinist Maya Homburger. In 2001 he toured Japan (Tokyo, Osaka and Mito) as a continuo player with the Purcell Quartet's production of Monteverdi's Orfeo with Mark Padmore in the leading role. In 2002 he performed with violinist Elizabeth Wallfisch and cellist Richard Tunnicliffe at the Frick Collection in New York and in Carmel. He has performed C.P.E. Bach concertos and recorded J.S. Bach's 5th Brandenburg Concerto (Virgin Label) with the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment. He has performed with this orchestra under Gustav Leonhardt in London and Birmingham. In 2000 he again played continuo in John Eliot Gardiner's and the English Baroque Soloists' Bach Cantata Pilgrimage and was a soloist with that ensemble in J.S. Bach's concerto for harpsichord, flute and violin in Zürich that same year. Other concerto appearances have been with the EU Baroque Orchestra in Bremen and the Gabrieli Consort at La Chaise Dieu, France.
Malcolm Proud is a member of the period instrument ensembles Convivium, Camerata Kilkenny, and the Irish Baroque Orchestra. He has performed with soloists Gustav Leonhardt, Marcel Ponseele, Wilbert Hazelzet, Maya Homburger, Elizabeth Wallfisch, Isabelle Poulenard, John Elwes, Michael George, Monica Huggett, Steven Isserlis, Sarah Cunningham, Lisa Beznosiuk, Pavlo Beznosiuk, Rachel Brown, Julia Dickson, John Dornenburg, and Richard Tunnicliffe. He has given organ recitals in Dublin, Cambridge, Antwerp, Limburg-an-Lahn, Basel, Vienna, Copenhagen, Gent, Aveiro (Portugal) and on the historic organs of Valere-Sion (Switzerland), Ottobeuren near Munich and Udine (Italy).
Malcolm Proud's numerous CD recordings include J.S. Bach's 5th Brandenburg Concerto with the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment, J.S. Bach's sonatas for viola da gamba and harpsichord, (Meridian) Marin Marais' Pieces de Violes (Centaur) and George Frideric Handel's Italian solo cantatas and instrumental works with John Dornenburg and Julianne Baird (Meridian), Alessandro Scarlatti's cantatas with Nancy Argenta and the Chandos Baroque Players (EMI), Zelenka Lamentations with Michael Chance, Michael George, John Mark Ainsley and the Chandos Baroque Players (Hyperion), Antonio Vivaldi's La Pastorella with the Chandos Baroque Players, J.S. Bach's violin and harpsichord sonatas with Maya Homburger (Maya), J.S. Bach's Goldberg Variations (BWV 988) (Maya), Purcell's harpsichord music (Meridian), Hasse's cantatas, ballads and sonatas with Julianne Baird, Nancy Hadden and Erin Headley (CRD), and solo harpsichord works by J.S. Bach, Byrd, François Couperin and Froberger (Claddagh).
Malcolm Proud is a full time lecturer on the BA Degree Course in Music at the Waterford Institute of Technology, and organist and choirmaster at St. Canice's Cathedral in Kilkenny where he lives with his wife, Susan and their three children. |
