Richard Rephann

Richard Rephann (9 February 1932, Frostburg, Maryland — 29 December 2014, Hamden, Connecticut) was an American harpsichordist, renowned organologist and expert on early keyboard instruments, museum curator, Adjunct Professor of Organology and Harpsichord Playing at Yale University School Of Music, and Director of the Yale University School Of Music for over 35 years, from 1968 to 2005.

Rephann began his education at the [url=/label/434590]Peabody Conservatory of Music[/url] at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, where he studied piano under [a=Mieczyslaw Münz] (1900—1976) and Alexander Sklarevski (1882—1963). In 1961, Richard enrolled at Yale University School Of Music to study harpsichord with Ralph Kirkpatrick (1911—1984). He graduated in 1964 with a Master's degree and remained at the Yale faculty, serving as an Instructor in Harpsichord Playing and Assistant Curator of the Collection of Historical Musical Instruments. Throughout the late 1960s and 1970s, Richard Rephann established professional connections and extensively corresponded with some of the leading early music revival musicians and instrument-makers around the globe, including Fernando Valenti, Gustav Leonhardt, Luigi Ferdinando Tagliavini, [a=Albert Fuller], [a=Douglas Allanbrook], Igor Kipnis, Edward Smith, Blandine Verlet, [a=Idar Karevold], [a=Lola Odiaga], [a=Preethi De Silva], William Christie, [a=Mark Kroll], [a1438649], Christopher Hogwood, Trevor Pinnock, William Porter, Davitt Moroney, Scott Ross, Frank Hubbard, William Dowd, [a=Friedrich Von Huene], [a14217058], [a=Eric Herz], [a=Sheridan Germann], [a=Martin Skowroneck], [a=John Brombaugh], [a=Noel Mander], [a=Robert Robinette], [a=William Hyman], [a=Walter Burr], [a4522970], [url=/artist/14385545]Wolfgang "Wally" Zuckermann[/url], [a5771197], and [a=Rodney Regier].

As a harpsichordist, Rephann only made very few professional recordings, primarily focused on his academic career and museum director duties. He specialized in repertoire suited specifically to harpsichords from different regional schools: Italian, Flemish, French, German, and English. Some of Rephann's favorite composers were Johann Jakob Froberger, Louis Couperin, Jean-Henry d'Anglebert, François Couperin, and Jean-Philippe Rameau.