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Ralph Leonard Kirkpatrick, born on June 10, 1911 in Leominster, Massachusetts, was an American harpsichordist and musicologist. He began studying piano at a young age and gave his first harpsichord recital at Harvard University in 1930. After graduating, Kirkpatrick traveled to Europe, studying with Nadia Boulanger and Wanda Landowska. He made his European debut in Berlin in January 1933 performing Johann Sebastian Bach's Goldberg Variations. In the late 1930s, he began research on Domenico Scarlatti, publishing a biography and critical edition of 60 sonatas in 1953. Kirkpatrick was appointed to Yale University's music faculty in 1940 and performed widely until his retirement in 1976. He died on April 13, 1984, in Guilford, Connecticut.
