This concert features harpsichord works by the young Johann Sebastian and his musical inspirations, including Buxtehude, Boehm, Froberger, Pachelbel, Ritter, D'Angelbert, and more!

Carsten Schmidt enjoys a flourishing career as a pianist, harpsichordist and conductor, and has performed widely throughout Europe, North America and Asia. He has been heard in such venues as the Ravinia Festival, The Kennedy Center, Carnegie Hall, the Moscow Conservatory, the Kuhmo Festival in Finland, German Mozart Festival, as well as in broadcasts worldwide. His repertoire ranges from the early Baroque to new works, of which he has premiered more than 100. He studied at the Folkwang Institute in his native Germany, as well as Indiana University and Yale. Among his teachers are pianists Claude Frank and Leonard Hokanson and harpsichordist Richard Rephann. He has been a professor of music at Sarah Lawrence College in New York since 1998 and is artistic director of the Staunton Music Festival in Virginia.