Karin Schaupp

Karin Schaupp (born 1972) is a German-born Australian classical guitarist and actress.

Early life
She was born an only child in Hofheim am Taunus, Germany, to a musical family. Her mother and principal teacher, Isolde Schaupp, was a teacher of guitar at the Conservatorium of Wiesbaden. Her father, a doctor, was an amateur pianist, and her aunt and grandmother were opera singers. She was given a half-size guitar by her grandmother when she was aged three.  She started her guitar studies with her mother when she was five, and performed in public at age six. Her family, including both sets of grandparents, migrated from Germany to Australia when she was aged eight, and they have been based in Brisbane, Queensland, where Isolde Schaupp continues to teach at the University of Queensland and the University of Southern Queensland.

Career
While in her teens, Karin Schaupp won prizes at competitions at Lagonegro, Italy and Madrid, Spain. At the Madrid competition she won the special competition prize for the Best Interpretation of Spanish Music. She completed bachelor's and master's degrees in music at the University of Queensland.

She performed Joaquín Rodrigo's Concierto de Aranjuez with the Queensland Philharmonic Orchestra when she was aged 18.

She is a member of Saffire, also known as the Australian Guitar Quartet, along with Slava Grigoryan, Gareth Koch, and Anthony Field (replaced by Leonard Grigoryan).

She has also performed and recorded with the recorder player Genevieve Lacey.

Her many recordings include the world premiere recordings of Ross Edwards's Concerto for Guitar and Strings (2004), Nikita Koshkin's Hispanic Suite (1973; published 1997); and Philip Bračanin's Four Diversions (she also premiered Bračanin's Guitar Concerto in 1992 with the Queensland Symphony Orchestra). She has also recorded Cradle Songs, inspired by the birth of her daughter Alexa.

She has toured extensively in many countries.  She was an honorary guest at the celebrations for the 50th anniversary of Chinese Radio.

Schaupp also trained at the National Institute of Dramatic Art (NIDA).  In 2007, David Williamson wrote the one-woman play Lotte's Gift for her; it is based on her own life and that of her mother and grandmother (the Lotte of the title). The performance includes both acting and playing the guitar and is regularly toured by Schaupp. In 2016, she and the actor Tama Matheson co-created the theatre work titled Don Juan, based on Lord Byron's poem.

She is married to Giac Giacomantonio, a psychologist and former guitar student of her mother Isolde.

Discography

Solo albums
1997: Soliloquy, Warner Music
1998: Leyenda, Warner Music
2000: Evocation, Warner Music (Interview about Evocation)
2004: Dreams, with Brett Dean (viola), David Leisner (guitar); ABC Classics (Review)
2007 Lotte's Gift
2010 Cradle Songs
2011 Songs from the British Isles (EP) (with Katie Noonan)
2012 Songs of the Southern Skies (with Katie Noonan)
2014 Mosaic 
2017: Songs of the Latin Skies (with Katie Noonan)

Collaborations
2003: Saffire with Saffire
2004: Nostálgica with Saffire
2004: Concert for guitar and strings by Ross Edwards (world premiere) on White Ghost Dancing with the Tasmanian Symphony Orchestra (TSO)
2005 "Nourlangie", guitar concerto by Peter Sculthorpe on Quamby, with the TSO conducted by Richard Mills
2006: Renaissance with Saffire
2006: Songs Without Words with Genevieve Lacey
2009: Spain with the TSO (Rodrigo: Concierto de Aranjuez; Castelnuovo-Tedesco: Romancero gitano; Bacarisse: Concertino for guitar and orchestra in A minor)

References

Category:Living people
Category:1972 births
Category:APRA Award winners
Category:Australian people of German descent
Category:German emigrants to Australia
Category:Australian classical guitarists
Category:Australian female guitarists
Category:People from Brisbane
Category:National Institute of Dramatic Art alumni
Category:Australian stage actresses
Category:People educated at Clayfield College
Category:People from Main-Taunus-Kreis
Category:Women classical guitarists
Category:21st-century women musicians
Category:Actresses of German descent
Category:21st-century guitarists