EarlyMusicNews.Org

“Folger Consort is recognized nationwide as a model chamber music ensemble, performing music from the twelfth through eighteenth centuries. Artistic Directors and Founding Members Robert Eisenstein and Christopher Kendall form the core of the ensemble and are joined by internationally noted guest artists, both singers and instrumentalists. Folger Consort was voted Best Classical Chamber Ensemble at the 2009 and 2010 Washington Area Music Awards. …”

Visit website for more information. (ed.)

Added on: Sep 29, 2011 | Hits: 157

“Founded in London in 2007, Ensemble Tempus Fugit’s earliest projects took place at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama, where they mounted a concert version of Johann Adolf Hasse’s Marc’Antonio e Cleopatra, and chamber performances of London street songs at Bloomsbury’s Goodenough College.

In 2008, the group was selected for the Brighton Early Music Festival’s BREMF Live! project, where they performed their first interdisciplinary project, SHALL WE DANCE?, incorporating players, singers and dancers in a mix of English folk and formal music that could have been heard in the courts and homes of seventeenth-century England.  In that same year, the group expanded to form the orchestra for concert and staged versions of Handel’s Acis and Galatea for New European Opera in London, Paris, and Fontevraud, France.

In 2009, Ensemble Tempus Fugit returned to the Brighton Early Music Festival with a revival of SHALL WE DANCE? , and its most ambitious project to date, CALCUTTA: a blend of theatre, puppetry and Baroque and traditional Indian classical music from the eighteenth-century port city. The Calcutta project played to a sold-out audience in Brighton, thanks to the support of the Festival, Arts Council England, and a performance and interview on BBC Radio 3's The Early Music Show.

Ensemble Tempus Fugit was a Finalist in the 2010 Early Keyboard Ensemble Competition at Fenton House, Hampstead, London in June, and played in Baroque-Indian crossover concerts led by Sanjay Guha, sitarist, at the Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan Centre for Indian Culture this past October. The Ensemble is currently developing CALCUTTA for future performances in the UK and in India.”

Visit website for more information. (ed.)

Added on: Feb 03, 2012 | Hits: 158

“The Vivaldi Project is a premier period instrument ensemble dedicated to presenting 17th- and 18th-century string repertoire. The name, The Vivaldi Project, refers not only to the group's core repertoire―the extraordinary works of the virtuoso violinist and composer, Antonio Vivaldi―but also the project of probing into the roots of Vivaldi's distinctive musical style. Vivaldi's innovative contributions to string writing, the concerto genre, and programmatic orchestral music place him as as a pivotal figure between earlier baroque composers and later classical composers. The Vivaldi Project explores this link through both chamber and orchestral works (those well-known and beloved as well as those rarely heard) from Stradella, Legrenzi, and Corelli, to J.S. Bach and his sons, and ultimately to Haydn, Mozart, and Beethoven. …

The Vivaldi Project, under the leadership of violinist Elizabeth Field and cellist Stephanie Vial, has been gaining critical acclaim for its brilliant and expressive string playing, as well as its innovative programming which combines scholarship and performance to both educate and delight audiences. The members and guest artists of The Vivaldi Project include leading soloists, concertmasters, teachers, and musical scholars in the Washington, DC area and around the country. Since it was founded by Field in 2006, the Vivaldi Project has performed throughout the DC area, and for the Washington and Boston Early Music Festivals. In 2010, the ensemble toured the Piedmont region of North Carolina with an unprecedented performance of all six of C.P.E. Bach's String Sinfonias, W. 182, under guest conductor John Hsu. The final live performance of these works at the National Presbyterian Church in Washington, DC will be released on CD by Centaur Records on April 2, 2012.”

Visit website for more information. (ed.)

Added on: Mar 02, 2012 | Hits: 158

“Tinktur is a newly formed ensemble with a love of early music. We create theatrical performances for church or chamber room. The voice, lute and poetry woven together and a living history is told.

Tinktur is made ​​up of Ann-Christine Wesser Ingels (vocals), Sofia Thelin Edgren (vocals) and Fredrik Bock (lute, theorbo, etc.), all familiar faces from the Swedish music scene. All three have a classical background, but downloading is fond of inspiration from song and folk tradition ... In the theatrical process, we collaborate with registered consultants. For specific programs and performances extended ensemble with more known musicians from Sweden and Denmark.”

Visit website for more information. (ed.)

Added on: Mar 24, 2012 | Hits: 160

“Ensemble Rossignol (nightingale) owes its name to iths first series of performances in 1998 built around 'De virtuoze zang van het Engels Nachtegaeltje' (The virtuoso song of the Englisch Nightingale) by Jr. Jacob van Eyck (Amsterdam, 1648).

The virtuosity and the refined, musical, playful and inspiring performance of the ensemble immediately call to mind the nightingale's song.

Combining the chitarrone (theorbe) / liuto (lute) and the flauto dolce (recorder) results in a special mix of sounds. The sound of the flute together with the strings, combined with the varying pitch, is what makes the harmonization so special.”

Visit website for more information. (ed.)

Added on: Nov 24, 2011 | Hits: 161

“VIA ARTIS KONSORT is an international ensemble with musical focus aimed at the undiscovered treasures from the late Medieval to early Classic period.

Via Artis Konsort explores the form and substance of the early music with a special emphasis on timeless concepts such as sonority, improvisation and pulse.

The ensemble is formed by skilled musicians from Scandinavia, Spain and Poland. The ensemble leans primarily on its own investigation. which centers on the ancient skills of improvisation and embellishment.

The ensemble was founded in 2004 and has offered more than 200 concerts since then. “

Visit website for more information. (ed.)

Added on: Sep 24, 2011 | Hits: 162

“The early music ensemble was founded in 1999 as a group of five musicians with Zehm-Elisabeth Thoma as director. The ensemble’s main focus is the interpretation of music from the Middle Ages and Renaissance music. Singing and historical instruments such as lyre, viol, Renaissance flute, trumpets, harp and percussion are performed in concerts. …” 

Visit website for more information. (ed.)

Added on: Mar 13, 2012 | Hits: 162

“Carreg Lafar means 'speaking stone', an echo stone. At the forefront of the Welsh traditional music scene, the group has changed many peoples' view of traditional Welsh music with their passionate and lively performances. Through a mix of traditional and original music, Carreg Lafar presents a vibrant spirit whilst remaining rooted in the language and living tradition of Welsh song and dance music. The music is arranged for traditional and contemporary instruments including fiddle, flute, pibgorn (hornpipe), pibau (bagpipes) and guitar, together with dynamic vocals. The group has made three albums with Sain records, 'Ysbryd y Werin', 'Hyn' and 'Profiad'.”

Visit website for more information. (ed.)

Added on: Mar 14, 2012 | Hits: 162

“The Hungarian early music group Affetti Musicali, founded by the Hungarian musicologist János Malina in 1984, specialises in the historic performance of 17th- and 18th-century (and, in a few cases, later) vocal chamber music, both sacred and secular. Cantatas, duets, solo motets etc. alternate in their programs with contemporary sonatas and trio sonatas. The repertoire of the ensemble is extremely rich and exciting: they often unearth and perform virtually unknown masterpieces of great composers from Carissimi to Hasse. Their creed is that the music of past centuries, once revived and given proper performance, will become organic part of our modern culture. Affetti Musicali propagates this belief, live and through their records, across Europe.”

Visit website for more information. (ed.)

Added on: Nov 28, 2011 | Hits: 164

“In the summer of 2005, a few singers in the Madison Early Music Festival decided that it was a fine idea to get together and delight themselves with singing madrigals. The group's first piece—William Byrd’s “This sweet and merry month of May”, whose ending celebrated Queen Elizabeth I with the words

And greet Eliza with a rhyme:
O beauteous Queen of Second Troy,
Take well in worth a simple toy.

provided a great name for the group. Eliza’s Toyes was born, and existed every summer in Madison, Wisconsin.

In 2008, a fair number of singers who were in Eliza's Toyes are living in Madison once again. Thus we gather, outside of the Festival, for the joy of music making. It is our pleasure to continue sharing this wonderful body of music with you for the second year!”

Visit website for more information. (ed.)

Added on: Mar 23, 2012 | Hits: 164

“For the past decade, Duo al Dente has been communicating to audiences the atmosphere, elegance and vitality of early music. The duo has made its mark through innumerable concerts throughout Denmark as well as in Germany, Britain and Sweden. With its historical instruments and present-day enthusiasm, Duo al Dente succeeds in creating a mood of intimacy in concert venues of all sorts and sizes, and the duo's performances have on a number of occasions been broadcast on radio and television.

In addition to their activities in Duo al Dente, Kirsten Lund Jensen and Per Weile Bak are members of the Renaissance trio Stella Nova and the Baroque ensemble Løvendahls Galej.
          
Duo al Dente has won several prizes, including the audience's award at the chamber music competition 8. Alte Musik-Treff in Berlin, 2003. The duo also won the audience's award in 2000 at the international Biagio Marini Competition for early music at Neuburg an der Donau, Germany.

Duo al Dente's first CD, A Taste for Baroque (DACOCD 484) came out in 1997, followed in 2000 by The Food of Love (DACOCD 547). Both CD's have been released by the recording company Danacord.”

Visit website for more information. (ed.)

Added on: Feb 23, 2012 | Hits: 166

“Gro Siri Johansen, soprano, has a degree in classical voice from the Rogaland Conservatory and a diploma in Gregorian chant from the National Conservatory of Music in Paris. She is a founding member of the Paris-based vocal ensemble Dialogos, whose recording Terra Adriatica won the diapason d’Or and Le Choc in Le Monde de Musique. She has also performed and recorded her own settings of texts by Knut Hamsun, and participated in theater productions and musicals. In 1999 she founded Modus Center for Medieval Music in Oslo, where, as artistic director, she organizes and teaches courses in Gregorian chant and medieval vocal music.

Elizabeth Gaver, vielle and rebec, earned degrees from Stanford University and Juilliard before deciding to specialize in early music. She soon joined the medieval ensemble Sequentia, with whom she performed concerts throughout Europe, the US, Israel, Japan and Morocco. She participated in over a dozen recordings with the ensemble, along with several theatre productions. Since moving to Oslo, she has performed and recorded with Pro Musica Antiqua, Oslo, Modus ensemble and The Norwegian Baroque Orchestra.

Hans Olav Gorset, flutes, teaches recorder, Baroque flute, and performance practice at the Norwegian Academy of Music in Oslo. He has toured as a soloist and ensemble member in the US and Canada, and in many European countries, and made solo recordings that have been well received in the international press. With his group Pro Musica Antiqua, Oslo, he has discovered and recorded Scandinavian music from the Middle Ages and the Renaissance. His activities also include instrument making and freelance work for the Norwegian Radio.

Guest appearance
Morten Røhrt, is a well-known actor in Norway, where he has worked for theatres in Stavanger, Tromsø, Bergen and Oslo. His repertoire ranges from Dostoevsky to Wilde, from modern drama to musicals, cabarets and one-man shows. He voice is often heard in public radio, and he has also played an important part in a very popular television series, Hotel Cæsar.”

Visit website for more information. (ed.)

Added on: Feb 24, 2012 | Hits: 166

“The Early Interval's celebration of its 35th anniversary season continues as its spring program explores medieval music from France and England in a program revolving around the renowned medieval tales of Marie de France.

The program will include medieval dance music, lais, motets and troubadour songs. The ensemble and two guest actors will present prose and poetry from 12th and 13th century France and England, including Marie de France's rhymed stories about a werewolf and relating a portion of the Tristan and Isolde story.

The Early Interval will perform vocally and on recorders, shawms, medieval harp, medieval lute, psaltery, chang, vielle, rebec, and early percussion instruments.

The members of The Early Interval are Ron Cook, director, Jim Bates, Janice Cook, Tamara Seckel, Sean Ferguson and Lyz Liddell. The ensemble will be joined for this festive concert by well-known Columbus actors Mark Mann and Emily Bach.”

Visit website for more information. (ed.)

Added on: Mar 29, 2012 | Hits: 166

“Ganassi is a group dedicated to the dissemination of Renaissance and Baroque music, which brings together musicians who have played and loved period music for over a decade. Its name comes from Silvestro Ganassi (1492 -?), One of the most important theorists of the Renaissance, who also has the merit of being the first to write a treatise devoted exclusively to the recorder: The Fontegara, printed in Venice in 1535.

Since its founding in 2004, Ganassi has distinguished itself by reviving the sounds of Renaissance and Baroque music through the use of reproductions of original instruments from different eras, as well as respect for the canons of interpretation of the same .”

Visit website for more information. (ed.)

Added on: Feb 27, 2012 | Hits: 168

“Zimmermann Ensemble was formed in 2001 and has since had a decisive influence on the Danish early-music environment. Based in Aarhus, the ensemble has spread its activities across the country and has also played in Sweden. Radio Denmark has regularly recorded the ensemble's concerts.

Ensemble Zimmermann has worked with guest conductors such as Jaap ter Linden, Lucy Russell and Peter Seymour. Moreover, the ensemble often invited by choir leaders who want to work seriously with the early music. …”

Visit website for more information. (ed.)

Added on: Feb 23, 2012 | Hits: 169

“Harmonious Blacksmith combines the best of creative conceptual programming with the fire of virtuoso performing and improvising. Uniquely focused on the connection between composition and improvisation in Renaissance and Baroque music, Harmonious Blacksmith looks back to the age-old practices of improvising dance music and ornamenting songs. …

Harmonious Blacksmith was founded in 2006 by harpsichordist Joseph Gascho and recorder player Justin Godoy. They met while studying at the Peabody Conservatory in Baltimore, performing together in the Peabody Renaissance Ensemble under the direction of Mark Cudek. They also performed together at the Amherst Early Music Festival, the International Baroque Institute at Longy, and in numerous recitals in the Baltimore/DC area.  …”

Visit website for more information. (ed.)

Added on: Mar 02, 2012 | Hits: 170

“In the lute songs of the Elizabethan masters, music is at the service of poetry. This age of Shakespeare, Jonson, Spenser, and Donne saw English verse rise to heights of expressivity still unsurpassed. To sing to the lute is an art barely separate from the art of declaiming verse. It requires clarity and beauty of tone, a natural flow of language, and a delicate sense of dialogue with the lute the instrument of courtly love. Morrongiello and Young bring to life the flower of Elizabethan music in their programs of lute songs, fantasias and instrumental dances for lute, voice, and renaissance harp.”

Visit website for more information. (ed.)

Added on: Mar 15, 2012 | Hits: 174

“The William Byrd Vocal Ensemble was founded in 1981. The choirperforms a cappella music, though occasionally with accompaniment (piano, baroque ensemble) are used. The repertoire includes the entire choral literature of the last five hundred years.“

Visit website for more information. (ed.)

Added on: Nov 24, 2011 | Hits: 175

“Fortuna presents a fresh approach to late medieval polyphony – brilliant voices, high-pitched instruments and vivacious tempi – thus Fortuna creates the distinctive sound the ensemble achieved critical acclaim for, both in The Netherlands and abroad.

 Fortuna performs Ars Nova from unknown manuscripts like Utrecht 6E37II as well as the works of famous composers like Guillaume de Machaut, Guillaume Dufay and Johannes Ciconia. Thereby always transforming meticulous research into the spontaneous music making that established the ensemble’s reputation in the field of Early Music – a performance today’s audiences can relate to: Early Music in Context.

Fortuna has participated in Early Music Festivals and chamber music festivals in The Netherlands and abroad, such as the Festival of Flanders Antwerp (Laus Polyphoniae), the Early Music Festival SEVIQC (Slovenia), the Festival de Musique Ancienne (Paris), and the Holland Early Music Festival (Utrecht). Concerts by Fortuna are broadcast by Dutch radio and television.”

Visit website for more information. (ed.)

Added on: Nov 24, 2011 | Hits: 176

“… Ensemble Les Musiciens de Saint-Julien explores with the same curiosity of little-known music, such as airs de cour (Et la fleur vole), the former Scottish music (For ever Fortune), brunettes (À l’ombre d’un ormeau) and pages of "grand repertoire "(Lully, Charpentier, Bach, Telemann) in search of natural musical phrasing, instrumental color and spirit of the dance. …”

Visit website for more information. (ed.)

Added on: Nov 13, 2011 | Hits: 180

“Founded in 2005, the association Usclame is a collection of young researchers and a group of musicians (instrumentalists and singers), who work closely together, and that focus on French music of the second half of the seventeenth century …”

Visit website for more information (ed.)

Added on: Feb 05, 2012 | Hits: 181

“ArcoVoce is a chamber group made up of some of the East Coast’s most acclaimed performers on both modern and period instruments. ArcoVoce, whose name translates loosely from the Italian for strings and voice, may be unique in specializing in performances on both sets of instruments, as well as in including vocal chamber music as an integral part of its performances. ArcoVoce has performed in prestigious venues including Washington D.C.’s Phillips Collection and Corcoran Galleries, the German and Dutch Embassies, the Boston Early Music Festival, and Alexandria Virginia’s Lyceum. ArcoVoce’s repeated performances at the Phillips Collection have earned it status as a resident chamber ensemble of the gallery. Among the notable guest artists who have appeared with ArcoVoce are the celebrated baroque violinist Elisabeth Wallfisch, principal cellist of Musica Antique Koln Phoebe Carrai, and longtime principal clarinettist of the Cleveland Orchestra Franklin Cohen.“

Visit website for more information. (ed.)

Added on: Mar 02, 2012 | Hits: 183

Early Music Ensemble.

Visit website for more information. (ed.)

Added on: Feb 23, 2012 | Hits: 184

“La Barca Leyden derives its name from the two songs 'La Barca' ('the boat') and 'Fortuna guida' of 1611 of the Leiden composer, musician and organist of the city and Peter Hooglandse church Schuyt Cornelis (1557-1616). Together, the songs are a blessing and also an allusion to his own name: 'May the boat send Fortuna!'

This Baroque ensemble was founded in 2007 by flutist Raymond Honing and consists of prominent musicians who have specialised in authentic performance practice of early music and has a home in Leiden. La Barca Leyden joins the rich musical history of the city and revitalises Leiden as a residence by choice. La Barca Leyden starts where Cornelis Schuyt ended: in the early Baroque and occurs in both small and large occupation. “

Visit website for more information. (ed.)

Added on: Nov 24, 2011 | Hits: 186

NOTE -- THIS SITE HAS POPUP WINDOWS THAT YOU MAY WANT TO AVOID -- ADMIN

The Early Music Group Kalenda Maya, whose name goes back to the spring celebrations of twelfth-century France or "Kalends of May" is a vocal and instrumental group that has been dedicated since its inception in 1997 to study, research, interpretation and dissemination of music produced between the Middle Ages and the Baroque. The repertoire includes medieval European dances of the twelfth century, through romances, carols and other Renaissance vocal forms, dealing with the European court music from the fifteenth to seventeenth centuries, and culminating with the musical production held in America during the colonial ages. An important part of the group’s work is dedicated to exploring traditional music such as airs of Spanish or Sephardic Jewish and Celtic music. …” (Translation aided by Google Translation)

Added on: Feb 27, 2012 | Hits: 186