Leonart plays François Couperin: Prelude in C Major
This was a spontaneous recording during a video session at the ZHdK. I was helping out during a music video course and we had a short window of 5 minutes where I just sat down and played this short piece.
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Fun fact about this recording: we tried to use as few expensive production settings as possible. The video was done with two smartphones, one iPhone & one Huawei and a Zoom H5 for the audio. We were doing a course for musicians on how to record music videos on a budget, where you would just lend a phone from a friend and produce a good looking video to share online and marketing purposes. I think the results are astonishing - let me know what you think in the comments! It was a very cool experience for me just to see how musicians can produce their own content with practically no financial investment.
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This piece was composed by Francois Couperin alongside other preludes for his pupils in order to teach them the style of French harpsichord improvisation, moving further on the line of the "Preludes non-mesurés", which his uncle Louis Couperin was famous for. Even though François' preludes are measured, he specifically mentions to play them freely and without a measure – they are made of rhetorical phrases, to be performed as one would speak. All of this he published in his book "L'art de toucher le claveçin" together with lots of other educational material with the purpose of teaching beginner harpsichord players on how to learn and play this beautiful instrument. If you haven't checked it out, you definitely should! It's worth a read for dense knowledge and also sometimes very funny...
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My short bio:
«Leonart» (Nenad Ivkovic) is a musician and music video producer based in Switzerland. He was born in Nis, Serbia, where he started to play piano when he was six years old. In 2001 he continued learning the piano with Robert Kolinsky at the Musikschule Konservatorium Zürich. He started early with public performances, as a soloist as well as a chamber musician. Very soon he started playing with bigger ensembles, for example at the "Internationale Martinu Festtage" festival in Basel and as a soloist with orchestra. He claimed several first prizes at the Schweizerischer Jugendmusikwettbewerb and at the Zürcher Musikwettbewerb.
After studying piano for two years with Konstantin Scherbakov at the "Zürcher Hochschule der Künste" he moved his focus to old music and started new music studies on the harpsichord in Zurich with Michael Biehl. He graduated with honor his Bachelor of Arts and his Master Pedagogy studies at the ZHdK and continues his studies in his second Master of Performance on the harpsichord. Leonart also working as a performer of church music, he plays the organ and conducts choirs on a regular basis. Since last year, he has started his own series of concerts in his home studio in Greifensee and he has moved into the music video production business.
Nenad Ivkovic «Leonart» stammt aus Nis, Serbien, wo er seinen ersten Klavierunterricht mit sechs Jahren bekam. Seit 2001 war er an der Musikschule Konservatorium Zürich bei Robert Kolinsky. Sehr früh begann er schon mit Auftritten, sowohl als Solist wie auch als Kammermusiker. Bald darauf spielte er bereits mit diversen grösseren Ensembles, u.a. an den Internationalen Martinu Festtagen in Basel und als Solist mit Orchester. Am Schweizerischen Jugendmusikwettbewerb und am Zürcher Musikwettbewerb wurde er mit mehreren ersten Preisen ausgezeichnet.
Nach seinem zweijährigen Klavierstudium bei Konstantin Scherbakov an der Zürcher Hochschule der Künste hat er seinen Fokus auf die Alte Musik gesetzt und sein Studium mit dem Hauptfach Cembalo bei Michael Biehl im Bachelor und im Master Pedagogy mit Auszeichnung abgeschlossen. Er studiert zurzeit im Zweitmaster in Performance auf Cembalo. Leonart ist ausserdem als Organist und Kantor in verschiedenen Kirchgemeinden tätig, leitet den Gemischten Chor Hegnau und ist Produzent für Musikvideos.
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Also don't forget to check out my website: https://www.leonart.com
And my Studio on Google Business: https://g.page/leonart-studio/ #ClassicalMusic