BIOGRAPHY

Anne Smith studied recorder and transverse flute with Hans-Martin Linde at the Schola Cantorum Basilensis, receiving her concert diploma in 1977. From 1979 until her retirement in 2016 she taught recorder and renaissance flute there herself, whilst otherwise actively participating in various chamber ensembles. One of her primary interests is bridging the gap between the knowledge of the writing of 16th-century musical theorists and its application in performance, as reflected in her book The Performance of 16th-Century Music: Learning from the Theorists (OUP New York, 2011). Investigating the sources of 20th-century performance of this music was a logical consequence of this work, resulting in a biography on one of the founders of the Schola Cantorum Basiliensis and assistant to Paul Sacher for over 50 years, Ina Lohr (1903–1983): Transcending the Boundaries of Early Music (Schwabe Verlag: Basel, 2020). Currently, she is on the team of the Vicentino21 project at the Schola Cantorum Basiliensis devoted to the practical understanding of Nicola Vicentino’s L'Antica musica ridotta alla moderna prattica (Rome: Antonio Barre, 1555), as well as actively participating in Dutch Historical Acting Collective, in connection with which she wrote the article ‘Standing with Ease and Grace: Or the Difficulty of Reading Historical Acting Treatises Objectively’ (see a link to Anne's articles on acting below).