EarlyMusicNews.Org

"Since its inception in 1982, Sonnerie, formerly Trio Sonnerie, has evolved into one of the most imaginative, flexible and dynamic period instrument ensembles in the country. It is directed from the violin by Monica Huggett, world-renowned for her expressive and impassioned performances.

The group's unusual versatility means it can expand from a trio of violin, viola da gamba and keyboard, into a full chamber orchestra. Recent recordings include the 2002 Gramophone award winning CD of Biber violin sonatas and the Bach Violin Concerti for Sanctury Classics, discs of Handel's Op.2 trio sonatas and organ concertos (Avie) and the Mystery sonatas by Biber (ASV). More details can be found on the discography page.

Sonnerie has performed internationally at all the major festivals and concert halls - recent highlights have included the Cheltenham, Innsbruck, Nordic Baroque, Radlovica (Slovenia), Koethen Bach and Aldeburgh festivals, as well as performances in Canada, Mexico, Germany, Italy, York, Glasgow and at the Wigmore Hall in London. Visit the concerts database for details of future engagements. " Visit website for more information. (ed.)

Added on: Apr 20, 2008 | Hits: 474

"CAPELLA CÆSAREA was founded in 2002 by six musicians who completed their studies in historically informed performance practice in Basel, Trossingen and Würzburg.

Well-versed and stylistically aware, they have established themselves in the concert world as interpreters of music preceding the 19th century, performing on copies and original instruments of the period. They can be heard regularly in performances and recordings with internationally well known ensembles such as the Freiburg Baroque Orchestra, Concerto Köln, Musica Fiata and Concerto Palatino. In addition to this, some of the ensemble members work as accompanists at the Early Music Festival in Innsbruck, Austria, as well as accompanying and teaching at the Early Music Week and Early Music Department in the Music College in Trossingen.

The name CAPELLA CÆSAREA points to the music chapel at the imperial court of Habsburg: their members played an important part in shaping European musical life in the C17th by keeping up an animated musical exchange at the highest level. " Visit website for more information. (ed.)

Added on: Apr 20, 2008 | Hits: 405

"Il Desiderio was founded in 1998 by Hans-Jakob Zinkenisten Bollinger."

Visit website for more information. (ed.)

Added on: Apr 20, 2008 | Hits: 350

Le Concert Brisé or Broken Consort : this name defines an ensemble of instruments from different families. This chamber music ensemble was created by William Dongois at the beginning of the 1990’s. The various proposed programs are centered around the cornetto and touch on virtually all the repertoire for this instrument. Using musicology to gain an understanding of the spirit of this music, the ensemble aims to create a framework as favorable as possible to a natural and lively execution.

With a variable number of instrumentists and a singer from two to ten members depending on the program, Le Concert Brisé gathers musicians who have a common musical approach and a similar rapport to historical sources. This common ground constitutes one of the two reference pillars of their interpretation, the other one being the use of improvisation techniques based on jazz and traditional music.

The musicians of Le Concert Brisé have the desire to communicate to the public the pleasure they have in playing this music while taking risks by introducing improvisation whenever possible. In this way they privilege eloquence in performance above a too strict adherence to the musical scores. " Visit website for more information. (ed.)

Added on: Apr 20, 2008 | Hits: 350

"The Freiburger BarockConsort is an "extra edition" of the Freiburger Barockorchester and specialises in chamber music of the 17th and 18th centuries, with which it has gained its own parallel success.

The preference of the BarockConsort is for the viola da gamba, a strong continuo line and a delight in experimentation that repeatedly gives rise to unusual combinations, be that with musicians on stage or with New Music colleagues.

Their basic repertoire includes Bohemian-Habsburg music, virtuoso works by Heinrich Ignaz Franz Biber, Johann Heinrich Schmelzer or Antonio Bertali. " Visit website for more information. (ed.)

Added on: Apr 20, 2008 | Hits: 260

"Schubert played on a quartet of rubber trout, pieces introduced in Japanese, Wagner grand opera seen through the wrong end of the telescope. Blissfully unaware of the limitations of an instrument with a range of just over an octave, the Chuckerbutty Ocarina Quartet take their small clay instruments through a dazzling array of improbable pieces, played with wit, musicality and occasional bursts of breathtaking speed. To add variety to the mix, the quartet also play guitar, charango and a few other surprises.

Since its debut at the Wigmore Hall, the Chuckerbutty Ocarina Quartet's talent has been appreciated in such prestigious venues as the Concertgebouw in Amsterdam, the Royal Festival Hall and Barbican Centre in London, and the Festival of Flanders. In 2005 the quartet appeared as the headline act at the 3rd international ocarina festival in Budrio, Italy, and in 2006/07 made six visits to Spain. " Visit website for more information. (ed.)

Added on: Apr 20, 2008 | Hits: 254

"From deeply authentic baroque to wilfully unauthentic Mascagni, Sambuca present four hundred years of music plundered from all over Europe and beyond. Peter Martin performs on guitar, baroque guitar and lute with Michael Copley on recorder, ocarina, flute and other woodwind instruments. Whether classic Handel sonatas, virtuoso Vivaldi concertos, sultry tangos by Piazzolla, exhilarating Albeniz, or lively world music from Bolivia and Macedonia, Sambuca's eclectic range of music has an immediate appeal to audiences from school children to the most serious early music specialists. " Visit website for more information. (ed.)

Added on: Apr 20, 2008 | Hits: 330

"What did women sing in the sixteenth and seventeeth centuries?

Musica Secreta was founded in 1990 to explore this question, and we have been particularly fortunate in having the help of the foremost scholars in this exciting new field. The answer seems to be that a lot of it has been sitting for decades on library shelves disguised as madrigals or sacred music for mixed a cappella voices. All that was needed was to rediscover a performance practice that always had taken huge liberties with the printed score. ...

Having performed and recorded music specifically composed by nuns or dedicated to convents, the group now plans to look at "mainstream" polyphony from 16th-century composers (Josquin, Rore, Palestrina, Victoria, Lassus, etc.) and arrange it as the nuns would have done - both accompanied and a cappella - thus giving a fascinating new historical slant to familiar repertoire. " Visit website for more information. (ed.)

Added on: Apr 20, 2008 | Hits: 352

"Piva is inspired by the professional Waits and Court Bands of the 16th and 17th centuries and specialises in giving lively performances of popular dance music and ballads of the period.

Piva performs in period costume using a range of historically accurate instruments including shawms, bagpipes, hurdy gurdies, curtals, sackbuts, violins and guitar. Their aim is to be faithful to the music and influences of the period whilst adding their own innovative arrangements and interpretations. " Visit website for more information. (ed.)

Added on: Apr 20, 2008 | Hits: 423

"Dulce Melos” was founded in 2003 by lutenist Marc Lewon (Germany), hammered-dulcimer specialist Margit Übellacker (Austria) and multi-instrumentalist Yukiko Yaita (Japan), who met while pursuing graduate studies in medieval music at the renowned Schola Cantorum Basiliensis in Switzerland. Since then their virtuosity has earned them high-profile performances in European festivals including “Freunde Alter Musik Basel”, Kunsthalle Karlsruhe and “innovantiqua Winterthur”. They were involved in a recording of music of the Lochamer Liederbuch (published with Naxos in Jan 2008), a source contemporary with the earliest treatises mentioning the hammered dulcimer or “dulcemelos”. They regularly work with other Early Music-specialists for concert projects and CD productions, who complement the ensemble's characteristic sound with that of bowed strings: the fiddle and gamba-players Uri Smilansky (Israel/England), Elizabeth Rumsey (Australia/Switzerland), and Silvia Tecardi (Germany). “Dulce Melos” sees instrumental music of the late Middle Ages and early Renaissance as a repertoire which calls for dynamic skills in both performance and composition. This they do featuring instruments such as the eschequier or chekker, dulcemelos, guiterne sounds which are little-heard in modern concerts but were precious to fifteenth-century cognoscenti in the highly refined courts of Europe. "

Visit website for more information. (ed.)

Added on: Apr 20, 2008 | Hits: 369

" Le Basile is a group of talented young musicians specialising in music of the 13th, 14th and 15th centuries who met during their studies in the Medieval Department of the prestigious Schola Cantorum in Basel, Switzerland. The group takes its name from a piece by Solage in the Chantilly Codex (a 14th century music manuscript); le basile is French for basilisk and is also the basis for the name Basel – the group’s town of origin. The group performs throughout Europe and is a regular visitor to the Brighton Early Music Festival. Concerts are presented on copies of medieval and early Renaissance instruments and the members strive to introduce this ‘little heard’ music to audiences through innovative, informative and entertaining performances. Recent recitals and workshops in Germany, Switzerland and the UK have received excellent reviews. " Visit website for more information. (ed.)

Added on: Apr 20, 2008 | Hits: 472

"Doulce Mémoire is synonymous, above all, with energy and team spirit, and with the delight of coming together with the common aim of taking a new look at the sacred and secular music of the Renaissance.

Doulce Mémoire is a close-knit group of instrumentalists and singers who appear regularly together at major international festivals – Innsbruck, Saintes, Bath, Ambronay and Boston, to name but a few – but also in more unusual settings, such as on the esplanade in front of the UGC cinema in the center of Paris, in a restaurant in Portugal, 4000 metres above sea level in the city of Quito in Ecuador, or on a barge (not ideal for stability!) on the lagoon at Tahiti.

Positively averse to boredom, Doulce Mémoire constantly creates new and original performances and takes up all sorts of interesting challenges, such as giving a show on a horse-drawn caravan on tour in 2000, sharing a concert with the great Uzbek singer Munnajat Yulchieva and training amateur choirs or young Indians in Bolivia.

Open to every form of art, Doulce Mémoire has worked with the musicians and dancers of the internationally recognized Han Tang Yuefu company of Taiwan, the Italian dancers of Il Ballarino, the British singers of the Cardinall’s Musick, and with Spanish dancers in an exciting show combining Renaissance music and flamenco.

The humdrum and the monotonous are shunned by Doulce Mémoire, which moves with ease from Renaissance cabaret (La Dive Bouteille) to mystical music fir Holy Week and from the Requiem for the Kings of France to commedia dell’arte in its latest show, Viva Venezia !.

Doulce Mémoire records for Naïve, K 617 and Zig Zag territories. Its recordings have received many awards and distinctions, including Diapason Record of the Year and maximum ratings from Le Monde de la Musique and Télérama." Visit website for more information. (ed.)

Added on: Apr 20, 2008 | Hits: 470

"Le Petit Ensemble explores the music of the 17th and 18th centuries with its luxurious aesthetics by choosing and intimate contact with the public thanks to its chambre music." Visit website for more information. (ed.)

Added on: Apr 20, 2008 | Hits: 471

"TREFOIL is a trio of singer-instrumentalists long active in early music, with experience in such ensembles as Concert Royal, Les Arts Florissants, New York's Ensemble for Early Music, Pomerium, Clarion Music society, Piffaro, My Lord Chamberlain's Consort, and other groups. The trio debuted in New York and Philadelphia early in 2000 with a program of 14th-century French ars subtilior song. The Philadelphia Inquirer tagged the performers as "a hearty trio of medieval music specialists" and their work as "an intricate, enigmatic vocal art." TREFOIL has appeared in concerts and master classes at The Cloisters, Temple University, Vassar College, Middlebury College, Franklin and Marshall College, the Vermont Millennium Arts Festival, the Museum Series of Providence, Boston College, the Currier Museum of Art in Manchester, NH, the Neighborhood Music School in New Haven, the 2002 Amherst Early Music Festival, the New York Early Music Celebration, the Washington D.C. Early Music Festival, and the 37th International Congress on Medieval Studies at the University of Western Michigan at Kalamazoo. The trio has also made joint appearances with Piffaro, the Renaissance Band in Philadelphia, the Folger Concert in Washington, D.C. and The Newberry Consort in Chicago, Illinois. " Visit website for more information. (ed.)

Added on: Apr 18, 2008 | Hits: 328

"L'Ensemble Gilles Binchois, who will celebrate its 30th year of performance, since its creation in 1979, has explored the large repertoire of the Middle Ages to the vocal repertoire of the Renaissance. ... "

Visit website for more information. (ed.)

Added on: Apr 18, 2008 | Hits: 399

"The baroque ensemble was founded in 1999 in basel, where all the members of the group studied early music at the schola cantorum basiliensis. The repertoire of la cecchina goes from the end of XVI century until the end of XVII century, during this period the poliphony leaves the protagonism to the accompanied modody, and that offers the possibility to create bridges between two different styles that always appeared clearly separated: the renaissance and the baroque. The ensemble tries to express the way the music of this period developed.
since the founding of la cecchina the ensemble has appeared at various festivals in france, spain, italy, belgium and switzerland. in 2005 the swiss radio drs recorded the group's interpretation of francesca caccini's compositions. " Visit website for more information. (ed.)

Added on: Apr 18, 2008 | Hits: 278

"The members of vox suavis came together, fascinated by the beauty of traditional spanish art and the excellence of its interpretation. They are eager to revive certain aspects of a type of music on the verge of disappearing. the group has taken on the work and the message of personalities such as felipe pedrell, kurt schindler, alan lomax, joaquín díaz and garcía matos, ethnomusicologists and composers. They are known for speaking out for a musical culture based on oral tradition which has an immense richness and artistic force. vox suavis aims to build bridges between medieval and renaissance music and popular music of an oral tradition. One of its assumptions is that studying the interpretation of traditional music facilitates the interpretation of early music. " Visit website for more information. (ed.)

Added on: Apr 18, 2008 | Hits: 434

"Born in France, where he began his musical studies in violin and composition at the Conservatoire National de Region of Rueil Malmaison. From there he went on to specialize in Medieval and Renaissance music, studying medieval fiddle, ancient bagpipes, and voice. After studies with Marco Horvat, Jasmin Martorell and Lucie Jolivet at the Centre de Musique Medievale in Paris, he moved to Switzerland where he currently studies at the Schola Cantorum Basiliensis. He collaborates regularly with many musicians in various ensembles including Millenarium (Thierry Gomar and Christophe Deslignes), Leones (Marc Lewon), La Morra (Corina Marti, Michal Gondko), Les Jardins de Courtoisie (Anne Quentin) and Vox Suavis (Dominque Vellard and Ana. "

Visit website for more information. (ed.)

Added on: Apr 18, 2008 | Hits: 484

"Réjouissance was founded in 1995 by Halifax musicians Karen Langille and Ivor Rothwell, both long time members of Symphony Nova Scotia. The ensemble specializes in the performance of 17th and 18th century music on period instruments, in historically informed style.

The name “Réjouissance,” used by 18th century composers as a title for certain especially delightful pieces, means rejoicing or merrymaking, sensibilities the ensemble strives to instill in their performances. Often, the musicians perform in 18th century costume and by candle light.

Réjouissance draws most of its repertoire from the vast collections of European instrumental music; from early 17th century Italian composers such as Uccellini and Fontana , to great 18th century German masters like Bach, Handel and Telemann. " Visit website for more information. (ed.)

Added on: Apr 17, 2008 | Hits: 354

"Founded by Francis Colpron in 1991, Les Boréades de Montréal focuses on early music. The ensemble has chosen an interpretative approach in keeping with the spirit of the Baroque era, by adhering to the rules of performance practice of the past and playing on period instruments. Critics and audiences alike in Canada and abroad have been unanimous in hailing the group’s energy and spontaneity as well as its theatrical, expressive and elegant playing, indicative of a unique flair for Baroque aesthetics. " Visit website for more information. (ed.)

Added on: Apr 17, 2008 | Hits: 433

"Since its formation in 1998, The Parnassian Ensemble has gained a reputation for its virtuosic performances and innovative programming. It regularly appears at prestigious venues throughout the British Isles such as The Purcell Room and St John’s, Smith Square, London; St David’s Hall, Cardiff and The Fairfield Hall, Croydon. The ensemble also performs for festivals, music societies and museums as well as schools and universities.

The group’s 2005/6 concert schedule has included appearances at the Cobbe Collection of historical keyboard instruments, Hatchlands, Surrey; the Newbury Spring Festival; the Djanogly Recital Hall, Nottingham; the Firth Hall, University of Sheffield and the Totnes Early Music Society, Devon. They have recently accepted their first invitation to perform at St John’s, Smith Square, London. " Visit website for more information. (ed.)

Added on: Apr 17, 2008 | Hits: 366

"The Haydn Lute Trio was formed in 2000 and has been delighting audiences since with its widely varied programmes featuring the 18th century lute and theorbo in ensemble. Following the critically acclaimed ‘Lute music for a Princess’ CD (for ASV Gaudeamus) the trio have regularly featured in arts festival, music society and educational programmes contrasting rarely heard early classical Lute trios by Haydn and his contemporaries with the great violin sonatas of Bach, Handel and Corelli, using the theorbo as continuo. The Trio also include French 18th century repertoire in their concerts, with the pièces de théorbe en partition taken from the 1716 publication of Louis 14th’s court theorbist, Robert de Visée. " Visit website for more information. (ed.)

Added on: Apr 17, 2008 | Hits: 271

"From lusty dances and drinking songs to the haunted airs of the troubadors, Swyndelstock evokes the turbulent reality of mediaeval life. The band is available both for incidental music and for formal concerts in music and spoken word. " Visit website for more information. (ed.)

Added on: Apr 17, 2008 | Hits: 381

"Hautbois are a lively and talented duo that use music as a vehicle for historical entertainment.

They have worked for many years alongside English Heritage, Historic Royal Palaces and National Trust and also appear at many other historical venues.

They have made many appearances performing for television, radio, and films, weddings, concerts and schools. " Visit website for more information. (ed.)

Added on: Apr 17, 2008 | Hits: 638

"Wyldes Noyse is a group of two or three musicians drawn from King's Lynn Waites. Consisting of Chief Waite Chris Gutteridge, wind and string player Elizabeth Gutteridge, and other members of the Waites if required, the group is named after William Wylde, King's Lynn minstrel, and one of the first recorded Waites in the country. The group wears Renaissance dress and performs on a variety of early instruments as well as singing.

Wyldes Noyse is the ideal group for fêtes, garden parties, dinners, weddings, etc. where a smaller group is desired, or in a more intimate setting. The group has an extensive memorised repertoire and can play from a balcony or gallery, or in the corner of a room, or will roam about freely, playing as they go. " Visit website for more information. (ed.)

Added on: Apr 17, 2008 | Hits: 305