Hasse Borup, violin, is Associate
Professor in violin and Head of String and Chamber Music
Studies at the
University of Utah School of Music in Salt Lake City. Previous
appointments include positions at The George Washington
University and
University of Virginia. Most recent performances include The
Arnold
Schoenberg Center in Vienna, The Central Conservatory in
Beijing,
Nanjing Normal University as well as concerts in Washington
DC,
Columbus and Salt Lake City. A CD, entitled American Fantasies
was
released on Centaur Records in May 2008. This CD features
works for
violin an piano by Arnold Schoenberg and his American students
and
followers, John Cage, Leon Kirchner, Gunther Schuller and
Donald
Harris. The German chamber music magazine Ensemble featured
the project
in an extensive article in June 2007, and The Strad praised
the
recording in August 2008. Mr. Borup recorded the
complete sonatas
by Danish romantic composer Niels W. Gade during February of
2008 for
NAXOS. This recording was release in January 2010.
During
the 2009 winter season, Mr. Borup engaged in a
ground-breaking project with prominent Danish Jazz saxophonist
Benjamin
Koppel. The week-long festival included two world
premieres of
works for string quartet and mezzo saxophone - a new
instrument
developed by Mr. Koppel. The "Mythic Dramas" project
involves the
complete music for violin and piano by American composer
Judith
Shatin. Mr. Borup performed this repertoire with
long-time duo
partner, Mary Kathleen Ernst and a CD was released on the
Innova
Label in May 2010. Upcoming projects include the recording of
the
complete works for violin and piano by Vincent Persichetti in
May 2012. Mr. Borup will record the complete works for violin
and violin and piano by American composer Vincent Persichetti
for Naxos. He will do a very rare premiere of a lost
work by Mr. Persichetti, his Sonata for Violin and Piano,
written in 1941, fall 2012.
From 2006-09, Mr. Borup was the leader of the Chamber Music
Institute
at the Music@Menlo Festival in Palo Alto, California with
Artistic Directors David Finckel and Wu Han. As an active
educator, Mr.
Borup wrote an article for The Strad (August 2006) describing
a series
of instrument-acoustics workshops: the result of
groundbreaking
collaboration between University of Utah and the Violin Making
School
of America. Apart from these activities, he keeps an active
schedule as
a chamber music performer with various groups such as
Washington Musica
Viva and the Grand Teton Music Festival. During the 03/04
Season he
joined the Guarneri String Quartet for performances of the
Brahms Op.
18 String Sextet to critical acclaim. In April of 2004 he
performed the
Sibelius Concerto with the Charlottesville Symphony and joined
the
National Philharmonic Summer Seminar faculty and Chamber Music
Series.
Mr. Borup received his Diploma from the Royal Danish
Conservatory of
Music, a Graduate Professional Diploma from The Hartt School
and a
Doctor of Musical Arts Degree (Phi Kappa Phi honors) from
University of
Maryland. The dissertation emphasis was on string quartet
literature
(“Anton Webern’s String Quartet Op.28: A Study of the Work and
Its
Historic Context”).
Dr. Borup's main teachers were David Takeno, London; Roland
and Almita
Vamos, Oberlin, Ohio; Philip Setzer, Hartt School and Arnold
Steinhardt, University of Maryland. Summer courses and Master
classes
include “Umeaa Summer Festival,” Sweden with A. Arenkov; “Nice
Summer
Academy,” France with V. Klimov and a Master class with Felix
Galimir
at Oberlin Conservatory. As a founding member of the Coolidge
String
Quartet, he has studied with the Emerson Quartet (Philip
Setzer, Eugene
Drucker, Lawrence Dutton, David Finckel), Guarneri Quartet
(fellow/assistant to Arnold Steinhardt, John Dalley, Michael
Tree,
David Soyer), Isaac Stern, Hatto Beyerle, William Preucil and
others.
The Coolidge Quartet participated in summer programs at the
Aspen Music
Festival (two-year fellowship, 1997-98), Quartet Institute at
Deer
Valley with the Muir Quartet (1997-98), Jerusalem Music
Encounters
(1998), Internationale Konzert Arbeits Wochen in Goslar,
Germany
(2000-01), Summerfest La Jolla Workshops (1999) and Pablo
Casals
Festival (2001). In 1992 Mr. Borup received—as the only
Dane—the
International Yamaha Music Prize and was a Prizewinner in the
National
Danish Radio Music Competition. He was invited to play for the
Danish
Queen and at other honorary concerts, representing the Royal
Danish
Conservatory (the 1992 opening of the Music Academy in Prague,
“Lichtenstein Palace’s” Martinu Hall). He has received
numerous private
scholarships, the most prominent being from Knud Højgårds
Fond,
Augustinus Fonden and Statens Musikråd. Furthermore, he was
for two
years given the use of a 1685 Andrea Guarnerius owned by the
Danish
state. As concertmaster of the Copenhagen String Orchestra he
has
concertized throughout Europe, including solo appearances in
Venice,
Cremona, Paris and Copenhagen. Mr. Borup has also collaborated
with
prominent Danish jazz-saxophonist, Benjamin Koppel resulting
in a
series of crossover concerts, supported by the National Danish
Arts
Council receiving overwhelming reviews. With British pianist
Sophia
Rahman, he has performed in England and Denmark. They
commissioned a
sonata for violin/viola (one player) and piano from Norwegian
composer
Frederik Glans and the piece was premiered at the year-long
festival
“Copenhagen European Cultural Capital, 1996.” Mr. Borup has
worked with
two major Danish orchestras: Copenhagen Symphony Orchestra and
the
National Danish Radio Orchestra, both as first violin player.
In October of 2001 he performed Bright Sheng’s “Four Movements
for
Piano Trio” with the composer at the piano at the Clarice
Smith
Performing Arts Center as part of the “Silk Road Project.” He
was
appointed lecturer in violin at Montgomery College, Maryland
in the
fall of 2001. With the Coolidge Quartet Mr. Borup has
performed in
radio, television (NPR’s Performance Today, Hong Kong Radio,
National
Danish Radio, Australian Radio and Television, and Radio
Television
Slovenia) and appeared at concerts in Europe (Germany:
“Mecklenburg-Vorpommern Festspiele”; Denmark: “Music Harvest
Festival
for New Music” and “Culture Night Copenhagen,” France,
Austria,
Slovenia), Central America (Guatemala), USA (New York: Weill
Recital
Hall, Washington: Corcoran Gallery, Arts Club of Washington,
Smithsonian Institution; Boston, Jordan Hall; Hartford; La
Jolla;
Columbus, among others), Asia (Hong Kong: “Musicarama
Festival”) and
Australia. The Quartet received prizes in the National
Fischoff Chamber
Music Competition and Chamber Music Yellow Springs. Mr. Borup
was
Assistant Clinical Professor at the George Washington
University, where
the Quartet was appointed quartet-in-residence in the fall of
2001. The
residency included evening and lunchtime concert series’,
lectures,
coachings and outreach activities in collaboration with the
Kennedy
Center Educational Division. The Coolidge Quartet has
premiered works
by Greg Steinke, Anders Koppel, Peter Sculthorpe, Wing-fai
Law, Jason
Haney and was invited by Gunther Schuller to perform his Third
Quartet
in Boston’s Jordan Hall at the composer’s 75th birthday
celebration. In
collaboration with Ohio State University and George Washington
University the Quartet won a grant from National Endowment for
the Arts
to have a quartet written by acclaimed composer Donald Harris.
In 2000
the quartet served on the faculty of the “International
Workshops”
(organized by American and European String Teacher
Association,
ASTA/ESTA) in Graz, and was asked by the city of Baden to
perform
Beethoven quartets at Beethoven’s summer residence (Baden,
Austria).
The Quartet has collaborated with the Smithsonian Institution
in the
creation of the lecture-concert series “Quartet Conversations”
(performed on the quartet of Stradivarius instruments, the
Axelrod
Quartet) designed to educate and spark interest in music among
the
general audience at the museum. The Coolidge Quartet recorded
for the
Classico Label and in 1999 film maker Uri Gal-Ed spent three
months
with the Coolidge Quartet creating a documentary movie called
“4/4.”
Four Oaks Company and Walter Scheuer, who also did “Mao to
Mozart” with
Isaac Stern and “High Fidelity” with the Guarneri Quartet,
produced the
film.
Mr. Borup plays
a 1992
copy of
the ‘Plowden’ Guarneri del Gesu by Samuel Zygmuntowicz, New
York and a
2008 copy of the 'Soil' Stradivarius by Ryan Soltis.