Hasse Borup, violin, was in 2005
appointed Assistant Professor in violin and chamber music 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 will perform this repertoire with long-time duo
partner, Mary Kathleen Ernst culminating in a CD release on the Innova
Label.
In 2006, Mr. Borup was appointed leader of the Chamber Music Institute
at the Music@Menlo Festival in Palo Alto, California by
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.