Michael Sponseller

 

 

Michael Sponseller has performed throughout the US and abroad as both soloist and chamber musician, including appearances at the Smithsonian Institution, Berliner Tage für Alte Musik, and at festivals in Boston, Berkeley and Edinburgh (Scotland). He also performs and records frequently with American Bach Soloists, Apollo's Fire, Smithsonian Chamber Players, and Handel and Haydn Society. A native of Ohio, his teachers have included Lisa Goode Crawford and Janina Ceaser. He holds degrees from the Oberlin Conservatory of Music and the Royal Conservatory of Music in The Hague, The Netherlands. Mr. Sponseller has won numerous prizes in both solo and continuo playing, including First Prize at the American Bach Soloists International Harpsichord Competition and Jurow International Harpsichord Competition and Second Prize at the Concours International de Clavecin (Montreal). He was also a two-time Prizewinner at the International Harpsichord Competition in Bruges, Belgium. He has taught at Baldwin Wallace Conservatory of Music and was an apprentice for several years with harpsichord builder Earl Russell. In 2000, he was a research assistant at the Centre de Musique Baroque de Versailles, studying the operas of Pancrace Royer. His increasing interest in 17th and 18th century opera led to his conducting debut in Purcell's Dido and Aeneas. In 2002, he conducted the modern-day première of Pancrace Royer's Le Pouvoir de L'Amour in collaboration with Lisa Goode Crawford, Catherine Turocy (New York Baroque Dance Company), Oberlin College and the Centre de Musique Baroque de Versailles. He has recorded for Eclectra, Vanguard Classics and Centaur.