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Gustav Maria Leonhardt was one of the best-known leaders of the Early Music movement. A harpsichordist and later a conductor, he was credited with being one of the most important figures in establishing the Netherlands as one of the main centers of period music performances. He had a classical education, then entered the Schola Cantorum in Basle. There he studied organ and harpsichord with Eduard Müller. In 1950 he made his debut in Vienna with a harpsichord performance of J.S. Bach's cerebral masterwork, The Art of the Fugue. He studied musicology in Vienna for a year, then took a position as professor of harpsichord at the Vienna Academy of Music (1952-1955). In 1954 he became professor of harpsichord at the Amsterdam Conservatory and at the same time organist of the historic Waalse Kerk (Church) there, which has a magnificent Baroque organ built by Christian Müller in 1733. In 1955 he organized the Gustav Leonhardt Consort, one of the first "period instruments" groups, and one t...