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Fortepiano, Harpsichord, other early keyboard instruments
Sharona Joshua was born in Haifa, Israel and, having shown an early interest in playing the piano, she went to the Haifa Conservatory at a prodigiously young age, winning the piano competition there four years in succession and receiving her final diploma when aged only fourteen years. She progressed to the Rubin Academy in Tel-Aviv in 1990, continuing her studies with the late Professor Alexander Volkov and graduating in 1995 with a B.Mus. degree in performance. Having been awarded a scholarship to spend a year at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama in London, Sharona Joshua was able to pursue study of the fortepiano with the late Christopher Kite. She has also studied with fortepiano specialist Sally Sargent in Vienna. Sharona took part also in Masterclasses at the Jerusalem Music Centre with fortepianists Zvi Meniker and Malcolm Bilson, returning to England in 1996 to study with David Roblou and Richard Egarr.
Based in London since 1996, Sharona has proved to be a versatile performer, at home equally with such diverse instruments as Renaissance piano, clavicembalum, dulcemelos, virginals, chamber organ, harpsichord and both Classical and Romantic period fortepianos. Her work has included a wide range of radio and concert appearances, performing internationally as soloist and chamber musician. Sharona has also appeared regularly with the Musicians of the Globe and the New London Consort. Her performances in Israel have included an appearance on television as a soloist with the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra, playing Bach’s concerto in F major for harpsichord, two recorders and strings.
Sharona has performed in the United Kingdom as a fortepiano soloist at the Aldeburgh Early Music Festival, the Tilford Bach Festival, plus the Spitalfields, Southwark, Llandudno, Lower Machen, Presteigne and other Festivals, as well as in continental Europe. She has also given several solo recitals each year in the Purcell Room at London’s South Bank Centre. A series of concerts was given in the USA recently (Boston & Washington DC) and she has been invited back for the following season already.
Concert appearances as harpsichord soloist have included performances at the Beverley Early Music Festival, the Walsingham Shrine 100 Celebrations, the Stour Festival, the Globe Theatre, the South Bank Centre Early Music Festivals, the Purcell Room Early Music Series, the Wratislava Cantans Festival, the Palau de la Musica in Barcelona plus the Flanders Festival in Antwerp and Bruges.
Sharona Joshua was chosen - together with soprano Joanne Lunn - to perform the first recital of the "Fresh" young musicians’ platform series on the South Bank and, together with flautist Dorothea Seel, performed the Bach flute sonatas as part of the South Bank Centre "Bach 2000" celebrations. Sharona has made several solo appearances as a guest on the BBC Radio 3 "In Tune" programme with Sean Rafferty and has also appeared on "Music Restored".
A Linn Records CD of Italian popular music of the early Renaissance (performed by "The Musicians of the Globe") featured Sharona as soloist; she took part also in a Decca recording of medieval songs (with the New London Consort). She also recorded Italian, English and German Renaissance keyboard solos for a CD with Philip Pickett, playing virginals, clavichord, regal and Renaissance piano. Sharona’s solo discs include a survey of 16th- and early 17th-Century Italian harpsichord music, played on her 1531 Trasuntino harpsichord and a disc of solo keyboard music by C.P.E. Bach, which was released in January 2007 on the Rubato Records label.
Sharona founded Concerto Cristofori in 2001 as a flexible ensemble of well-established singers and instrumentalists dedicated to period performance. Repertoire ranges from the Baroque period up to the Romantic era. The group has been recorded several times by BBC Radio 3 and has conducted an annual concert series at the Purcell Room, as well as appearing at the Wigmore Hall. The ensemble tours regularly, performing at festivals and music clubs. "Her recital was distinguished not just by insightful, intelligent musicianship, but also by the refinement and shading of the tone colours she extracted from her instrument. A revelatory reading of Beethoven’s Grande Sonata pathétique inspired a performance flamboyant, full-toned and thrilling in its realisation".
Harpsichord and Fortepiano.
"The balance between the emotions and the intellect were set with unfailing good taste throughout this recital, aided by Sharona Joshua’s alert fortepiano accompaniments and impassioned contributions to such miniature dramas as Der Jungling und der Tod and Der Zwerg". The Independent.
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