Rolf Lislevand

Rolf Lislevand was born in Oslo in 1961. He began studying classical guitar at the State University for Music in Oslo in 1980, continuing his studies at the Schola Cantorum Basiliensis, graduating in 1987. His principal areas of study were historical performance practice, the lute, the five-string Baroque guitar and the theorbo, which he studied with Eugen Dombois and Hopkinson Smith.
Lislevand settled in Verona where he founded the Ensemble Kapsberger. Their first CD was dedicated to the work of the Italian early Baroque musician Johann Heironymus Kapsberger and it won the French Diapason d’Or in 1994 as well as the Choc du Monde de la musique. Further recordings include Encuentro with works by Gaspar Sanz and Antonio de Santa Cruz, Santiago de Murcia Codex and Alfabeto.
He works regularly with a number of early music ensembles including Jordi Savall, Hespèrion XXI and Le Concert des Nations. With his own groups he is a frequent guest at international festivals such as Edinburgh, the Festival Musica Antiqua in Bruges and the Early Music Festival in Utrecht.
He is also one of the best-known performers of Spanish Renaissance music and music of the late Middle Ages which he also plays on the vihuela. In 1993 Rolf Lislevand began teaching the lute and historical performance practice at the University of Music in Trossingen. His pupils have included Maria Ferré and Mirko Arnone who went on to join the chamber music ensemble L’Art du Bois. As well as numerous recordings with Jordi Savall, Rolf Lislevand has released CDs of Bach’s works for lute (Naïve, 2000) as well as other lute compositions by Ennemond and Denis Gaultier, Mézangeau, Dufault, Gallot, Mouton and Boquet (Naïve, 2003). Further recordings include Nuove Musiche, featuring music from early 17th-century Italy, with harpist Arianna Savall, percussionist Pedro Estevan and nyckelharpa specialist Marco Ambrosini (ECM, 2005).