Peter Watchorn

Part-Time Faculty

Biography

Peter Watchorn is an Australian-born harpsichordist who has combined a virtuosic keyboard technique, musical scholarship and practical experience in the construction of harpsichords copied from original instruments of the 17th and 18th centuries. As well as presenting many solo public performances and broadcasts of baroque keyboard music and participating in choral and orchestral performances, he has made numerous commercial CD recordings of solo harpsichord music from the 17th and 18th centuries. He specializes in the music of J. S. Bach, 17th-century French and German music, and the works of the English virginalist composers. He is widely recognized as an expert on the history of the early music revival during the 20th century. His biography of the Viennese harpsichordist Isolde Ahlgrimm (1914–95) was published by Ashgate in December 2007, with the German edition (Boelau-Verlag, Wien) appearing in 2017. He is executive producer, president & co-founder of the non-profit CD label, Musica Omnia. He has taught at Boston College since 2008.