Leipzig Bach Medal for Andreas Staier
The harpsichordist and pianist Andreas Staier, who was professor of harpsichord and fortepiano at the Schola Cantorum Basiliensis from 1987 to 1995, has been awarded the Bach Medal of the City of Leipzig.
Andreas Staier was born in Göttingen in 1955. He studied piano and harpsichord in Hanover and Amsterdam and became harpsichordist with the ensemble Musica Antiqua Köln. He has worked as a freelance soloist and as a harpsichord and fortepiano soloist since 1986. He has been an Associate Artist of the Dijon Opera since September 2011.
In recognition of special services to the work of Johann Sebastian Bach, the Lord Mayor of the City of Leipzig awards the Bach Medal annually as part of the Bach Festival. The jury for the award of the Bach Medal of the City of Leipzig is made up of the Gewandhauskapellmeister, the Rector of the Leipzig University of Music and Theater "Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy", the Thomaskantor, the President and the Director of the Bach Archive. The first recipients from 2003 onwards were Gustav Leonhardt, Helmuth Rilling, Sir John Eliot Gardiner, Ton Koopman and Nikolaus Harnoncourt.
