Once described as "the von Karajan of early music", he is universally acknowledged as one of the most influential exponents of the historically informed early-music movement.
He is equally passionate about music of the 19th and 20th centuries: with a particular focus on the Early Romantics and the neo-classical school (Martinu, Stravinsky, Britten, Copland, Tippett and Honegger), he applies the same rigour and supreme musicianship to all his work, striving to discover and to recreate the composer's intentions both in notation and performance.
In 1973, he founded the Academy of Ancient Music, one of the pioneer ensemble of baroque music, which he directed for more than 30 years and with which he gave concerts in the entire world and recorded more than 200 discs. His record of Haendel's Messiah is considered one of the greatest of all time.
Christopher Hogwood was also the cofounder of the Early Music Consort of London, the artistic director of the King's Lynn Festival, a professor at the Harvard University and the musical director of the Kammerorchester in Bâle (Switzerland).
Christopher Hogwood's reputation as one of the world's most eloquent advocates of period performance was recently acknowledged in Asia where he received the Beijing Music Festival's 2010 Artist of the Year award for his contribution to Baroque music, following a highly successful tour conducting orchestras in Taiwan, Hong Kong, Guangzhou and Beijing.
Christopher Hogwood died on September 24, 2014.
