Katherine Roberts Perl began her harpsichord studies at the age of 14 and went on to study music at Los Angeles City College, Immaculate Heart College, and the San Francisco Conservatory of Music where she studied intensively with Laurette Goldberg and received her Master's Degree harpsichord performance. Since that time Perl has developed both a unique teaching and playing style for which she has become well known—one that celebrates the dynamic and expressive aspects of the harpsichord and is influenced by the American idioms of blues and jazz.

While conventional ideas of the harpsichord hold that it does not allow for variation in volume, Perl's powerful playing overturns this perception, and mines the expressive capacity of the instrument. Her innovative approach has been termed "sound sculpture."

Ms. Perl's first recording, Pieces de Clavecin, Music of Louis Couperin was nominated for Best Baroque Recording of French music in 1993, in Paris. The second recording, Music of Jacques Duphly, was released in 1998 on the Dorian label and most recently Perl's independent recording of four of Bach's French Suites has been made available on Magnatune. Bach's classic composition for harpsichord, The Well-Tempered Clavier, has now become the center of Perl's artistic attention and future recordings and releases are in the works.

In addition to her performing, teaching, and recording activities, Katherine Roberts Perl is an esteemed harpsichord technician, serving the Bay Area. She and her husband Mark produce a concert series/salon in their home in San Francisco called Chattanooga Chamber Music, which consists of four live music performances every fall and spring.

"I consider myself extremely fortunate that my life thus far has been contemporary with many great masters," says Perl, "who have shown the way for practitioners of early music performance in my own generation and the next: musicians such as Gustav Leonhardt, the Kuijken brothers and Hopkinson Smith, to name a few." She adds, "My mission in life is to play the music of Bach, Couperin and others on the harpsichord with clarity and grace, and to teach others what it takes to do so. Meaningful expression is an elusive thing, and so wondrous when it is achieved."

Additional Praise for Katherine Roberts Perl:

"The key to Roberts' success is her fluent but precise rhythmic sense. She has a way of springing the rhythm, drawing out the line, waiting until the last possible moment before attacking a note without damaging the onward flow in the slightest. Strength and delicacy, nuance and bite seemed available in abundance...a fluent but precise rhythmic sense." —Charles Shere, Oakland Tribune

"She genuinely captured the essence of accurate, sensitive and stylistic French keyboard playing...the audience was enraptured...passion and fire." —Ruta Bloomfield, Iowa city

Vol 1 - Well Tempered Clavier Book 2 'Sharp Keys'

Vol 2 - Well Tempered Clavier Book 2 'Sharp Keys'

Vol 1 - Well Tempered Clavier Book 2 'Flat Keys'

JS Bach French Suites