EarlyMusicNews.Org

"From Medieval chant to the slightly scandalous ditties of the English court to the haunting strains of Sephardic Music, the Early Music Players' concerts are authentic, moving, and always thoroughly entertaining.
Elegant period garb, an astonishing array of early instruments and songs in their original languages as well as modern translations provide a thrill for the ears and a feast for the eyes.
The ensemble has been performing Medieval, Renaissance, and Baroque music since 1972, delighting listeners and garnering critical acclaim throughout the New York metropolitan area, from The 92nd Street Y, St. Bartholomew's Great Music Series, and Music at St. Peter's in Morristown to housewarmings and weddings. The Early Music Players have also been featured on WNET/Channel 13 and on New Jersey Network's "State of the Arts." ...

Added on: Aug 22, 2007 | Hits: 401

"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: 401

"Collegium 419 is a vocal ensemble specializing in music of the 16th to 18th century. It performs in different casts, depending on type of project, from vocal ensemble (5 singers) to a chamber choir (16 - 24 singers). The ensemble features lesser known works of the Renaissance and Baroque polyphony with particular consideration for coherent dramaturgy. Collegium 419 cooperates with leading instrumentalists, who follow historical performance praxis of early music. " Visit website for more information. (ed.)

Added on: Mar 12, 2008 | Hits: 402

“LA  MAURACHE is a vocal and instrumental ensemble composed of  musicians specialized in the interpretation of the music during Middle-Ages and the Renaissance. Since 1978, when the group was created by Julien Skowron, La Maurache has never stopped performing in France and all around the world (3 tours in States for Ray Weiss), and has enabled people to discover and share the riches of this large repertoire by make it popular. Research, restoration, and historical respect, but also Lively Performance and creativity are the guidelines of  La Maurache in concerts and recording. The musicians of La Maurache perform in medieval style costumes. Their instruments (there are about thirty of them), are accurate reproductions made by specialized instrument-makers after modes and historical documents of traditional instruments. La Maurache can be seen as a court music ensemble (voices, lutes, fiddles, viols, spinet...) enriched with popular elements ("natural voices", high wind instruments, drums...).“

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Added on: Mar 13, 2008 | Hits: 402

"The name of Accademia Bizantina has been firmly established in the narrow circle of ensembles performing on authentic instruments who are rightly recognised as bringing fresh energy and creativity to the interpretation of Baroque music. The path which has led Accademia to its current international success resembles an apologue of over twenty years of instructive formation within the Italian musical world of the highest professional skill and competence. " See website for more information. (ed.)

Added on: Feb 24, 2008 | Hits: 403

"We met in the spring of 2004 in the state academy of music in Trossingen, a small town which lies in the Black Forest in the south of Germany. Four musicians from four different nationalities: Germany, France, Transylvania and Israel. We soon found that we share a common language and a common fascination with the polyphonic music of the late Middle Ages. Music that manages to express the deepest human feelings in a delicate, poetic manner, in a way that, in our belief, has not been surpassed. Through playing together we have learnt to know each other, to develop our own language and our own approach to this wonderful music which, in all of its complexity, leaves much freedom to the performer.

The use of instruments reconstructed based on medieval iconography allows us to approach the original soundscape. We attach great importance to the understanding of the musical language of the period, now having become foreign of today's classical musicians. Thus, a bit in the manner of a performer facing a contemporary work with a new language, it is a matter of decoding little by little the written page, to try to understand the essence of a piece, and to discover its meaning with our personal modern frames of mind

Santenay
The ensemble draws its name from the castle of Santenay, in Burgundy, seigniorial residence from the XIth to the XVIth century, belonging in the XIVth century to Philippe le Hardi, son of the king of France Jean le Bon and first duke of Greater Burgundy. Thus this castle constitutes for us in a way a symbol of the apogee of the culture at the Burgundian court. Today the lands of the castle of Santenay are also known for their excellent wine production."

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Added on: Mar 13, 2008 | Hits: 403

"MORE HISPANO was founded in 1998. Their debut recording was entirely devoted to Bartolomé de Selma y Salaverde (Canzoni, Fantasie et Correnti, Lindoro MPC 0703). Its members have studied at the conservatoria of Seville, The Hague, Amsterdam, Esmuc (Barcelona) and the Schola Cantorum Basiliensis. They have appeared at several festivals such as Seville's Noches en los Jardines del Real Alcázar and Early Music Festival, Aranjuez's Early Music Festival, Festival de Música Antiga de Tiana (Barcelona), II Festival de Música Antigua de Málaga, Festival de Música Antigua de El Puerto de Santa María, Las Piedras Cantan (Castilla y León), XIII Muestra de Música Antigua 'Castillo de Aracena', Festival de Música Antigua de Olivares or the XXII Radovljica Early Music Festival (Slovenia). MORE HISPANO is founding member of AEGIVE, the Spanish Association of Specialised Instrumental and Vocal Groups. ... " Visit website for more information. (ed.)

Added on: Jul 14, 2008 | Hits: 403

“Full-on Medieval Music for Street Festivals, Carnivals, History Fairs and other events

We’re serious about medieval music, and we want the power of that music to reach as wide an audience as possible.  To bring you that power at full blast, we have formed Mandrake! featuring twinned bagpipes, hurdy gurdy and twinned percussion.  

It’s an infectious and boisterous mix that is well suited to popular public events.

In fully authentic medieval costume or carnival dress, led by its bagpipe divas, Mandrake! also makes a distinctive eye-catching spectacle.“

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Added on: May 11, 2009 | Hits: 403

"Audiences love ARTEK concerts for their exciting, dramatic performances of baroque music, with compelling musical settings of beautiful poetry and infectious dance rhythms that infuse the performances with vitality and spirit. ARTEK features some of America's finest singers: Laura Heimes, soprano; Barbara Hollinshead, mezzo-soprano; Ryland Angel, countertenor; Philip Anderson, tenor; Michael Brown, tenor; and Peter Becker, bass-baritone. ARTEK instrumentalists include Robert Mealy, violin; Vita Wallace, violin; Motomi Igarashi, viola da gamba & lirone; Daniel Swenberg, theorbo; Charles Weaver, lute and guitar; Grant Herreid, lute; Christa Patton, harp; and Gwendolyn Toth, harpsichord and organ. …

ARTEK toured from 1997 to 2002 with the Mark Morris Dance Group, visiting major venues in the United Kingdom, Italy, and Canada, as well as more than 50 of America's premier theaters: BAM, Cal Performances in Berkeley, The Schubert Theater in Boston, McCarter Theater in Princeton, and many more from California to the Northeast.  ARTEK has appeared in Europe previously at the Regensburg Tage Alter Musik festival; at the Utrecht Fringe Festival; and in Feldkirchen, Austria; Dolni Lukavice, Czech Republic; Beaulieu, France; Konstanz, Germany; and Kreuzlingen, Switzerland.

In New York City area ARTEK has appeared on the Music Before 1800 series and on the Princeton Friends of Music series; on First Night New York at St. Bartholomew's Church; as featured performers with the Bach-Schutz Society Conference; and on the Kaye Playhouse Chamber Music Series. ARTEK presents its own series of evening concerts each season at halls and churches in New York City and Princeton, NJ.  ARTEK also performs regularly throughout the concert season on the free midday concert series, Midtown Concerts, at St. Bartholomew's Church in midtown Manhattan.  In spring 2001, director Gwendolyn Toth was awarded the Newell Jenkins Prize for excellence in early music performance in recognition of her work with ARTEK."

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Added on: Aug 20, 2007 | Hits: 404

"Cappella Nova, founded in 1982 by Alan and Rebecca Tavener, has an unrivalled reputation as champions of Scotland’s unique treasury of early vocal music. The group is also “famous for its performances of contemporary music” (The Guardian), having commissioned and premiered more than 60 new works since 1986. These include John Tavener’s monumental three-hour oratorio, Resurrection (1990), broadcast on BBC Radio 3, and James MacMillan’s cantata for Holy Week Seven Last Words from the Cross (1994), which was the subject of seven short films for BBC2 TV. In 1996 they recorded the award-winning soundtrack by William Sweeney for the Tartan Short film an iobairst. In 2003 they provided ensemble vocals for the critically-acclaimed album Hate by The Delgados. In 2009 they premiered Red, the first a cappella work by Craig Armstrong. Also in 2009, the group appeared in the BBC Scotland television documentary Grace Notes, singing medieval and renaissance Scottish sacred music.

Cappella Nova and its medieval offshoot ensemble, Canty, has made 15 CDs, including ten of medieval and renaissance music for the Sanctuary Classics (Universal) Gaudeamus label, all of which are ‘world premieres in modern times’, and the group is particularly well-known for championing the music of the 16th century Scottish polyphonist, Robert Carver. Besides appearances in many British festivals, the group has toured many times abroad, including several visits to Germany and France, and tours in Ireland, Belgium, Hungary, Russia and the USA. Among Cappella Nova’s awards are several Enterprise Awards from the Performing Right Society and a Glenfiddich Living Scotland Award for their ground-breaking performances of Scottish early music. Cappella Nova is Vocal Ensemble in Residence at the University of Strathclyde and the Company has an office sponsored by the university which also hosts this website."

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Added on: Feb 23, 2008 | Hits: 404

"It was this spirit of open-mindedness and conviviality uniting the audience, repertory and musicians which drove Pablo Valetti and Céline Frisch to found in 1998 the Café Zimmermann Ensemble.

They assembled six musicians - five bow instruments and a harpsichord (Pablo Valetti, Nick Robinson, violin: Patricia Gagnon, alto; Petr Skalka, cello; Ludek Brany, double bass and Céline Frisch, harpsichord). Other strings or wind instruments would be added depending on the programme. " See website for more information. (ed.)

Added on: Feb 24, 2008 | Hits: 404

"Faye Newton and Hazel Brooks met at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama in London where they discovered a shared passion for medieval music and poetry. They subsequently worked together in the award-winning ensemble Concanentes and in the year 2000 they formed ‘duo Trobairitz’ to explore the courtly song repertoire of the troubadours and trouvères, which is especially appropriate to their combination of voice and vielle. " Visit website for more information. (ed.)

Added on: Mar 12, 2008 | Hits: 404

"Fortune’s Wheel made its debut at the 1996 International Festival of Early Music in Mexico City, where critics acclaimed the group’s “style, diction, tuning, perfect balance, and total engagement with the music.” Since then, the ensemble has been presented by early music concert series in San Francisco, Seattle, San Diego, Tijuana, Cleveland, Pittsburgh, Milwaukee, Houston, Jackson, Tucson, Columbus, Cambridge, and Duke University. They have also appeared at the Boston Early Music Festival, the Berkeley Early Music Festival, the Amherst Early Music Festival, The Cloisters and the Frick Collection in New York City, Yale University’s Collection of Musical Instruments, and many other series." See website for more information. (ed.)

Added on: Feb 10, 2008 | Hits: 405

"Cappella Artemisia, founded in 1991, is an all-women’s vocal ensemble based in Bologna, Italy, and consists of a core of 6-10 singers with continuo. Since its inception the ensemble has received critical and popular praise, both for the rarity and originality of its repertoire, and for the high quality of its performances. It has appeared in concert at such prestigious venues as the Festival of Flanders (Bruges and Alden-Biesen), The Holland Festival of Early Music (Utrecht), Il Festival Monteverdiano di Cremona, the Osterfestival Innsbruck, the WDR Festival der Alten Musik in Herne, the Tage Alter Musik in Regensburg, Women and Music (Chard, UK), Donne in Musica and I Concerti al Quirinale (Rome), Les Fêtes Musicales de Savoie (France), and numerous other important festivals of early music throughout Europe and North America. Its concerts have been broadcast by the radios of Italy, France, Belgium, Austria, Germany, Switzerland, Croatia and the United States. In addition to their traditional repertoire of music from Italian convents, the singers of the ensemble have also been involved in a modern staging of Purcell’s Dido and Aeneas in an all-women’s performance recalling that of 1689 at a fashionable boarding school in Chelsea for “Young Gentlewomen”. " See website for more information. (ed.)

Added on: Feb 23, 2008 | Hits: 405

Early Music consort. Visit website for more information. (ed.)

Added on: Apr 16, 2008 | Hits: 405

"LA MORRA performs European music of the period roughly defined by the dates 1300 and 1500 (traditionally referred to as 'late Medieval' and/or 'early Renaissance') with occasional escapades outside this time frame. The ensemble pays particular attention to the secular art song, sacred para-liturgical genres and instrumental music.

Formed in 2000, LA MORRA (named after Heinrich Isaac's famous instrumental fantasia) has rapidly made its way on to the stages of Europe's most prestigious early music festivals and concert series (including 'Festival van Vlaanderen', 'Netwerk' and 'Holland Festival Oude Muziek', 'Rencontres de Musique Médiévale du Thoronet', 'Freunde Alter Musik in Basel' and 'Il Canto delle Pietre'). Numerous live performances, broadcasts and the four CD releases that have appeared to date (see Discography) have contributed to establishing LA MORRA as one of the leading formations in the field, with a reputation for both varied, evocative and thoroughly researched programs and "virtuoso", "seductive" and "plausible" (Diapason) interpretations.

The ensemble is based in Basel (North-West Switzerland), home of the prestigious Schola Cantorum Basiliensis where the performance and theory of 'early music' have been taught for over 70 years. LA MORRA consists mainly of former students of the Schola Cantorum Basiliensis (usually four to eight vocalists and instrumentalists) and adapts to the requirements of each new concert or recording project. " See website for more details. (ed.)

Added on: Feb 18, 2008 | Hits: 408

"Formed in 1988 by the Early Music Centre of Great Britain, the Orlando Consort has rapidly achieved a reputation as one of the most expert and consistently challenging groups performing repertoire from the years 1050 to 1500. While all four singers in the group are established soloists, they also contribute enormous experience and expertise in the field of early music gained through working with groups such as the Tallis Scholars and the Gabrieli and Taverner Consorts. Working with leading academics on music that has often never been performed in modern times, they have set new standards of performance, particularly with regard to the pronunciation and tuning of this fascinating repertoire. For their work on the extraordinary techniques of 12th Century Aquitanian polyphony they were awarded the 1996 Noah Greenberg Award by the American Musicological Society. In recent times the Consort has also attracted considerable attention for their imaginative programming of contemporary music and jazz. " See website for more information. (ed.)

Added on: Feb 23, 2008 | Hits: 408

"Beguiling and intelligent, provocative and classic, ravishingly beautiful and deliciously edgy – The Newberry Consort has been delighting audiences for nearly three decades. Directed by David Douglass, Newberry Musician-in-Residence, and early music diva Ellen Hargis, the ensemble plumbs the Newberry Library's vast music collection and assembles a star-studded roster of local and international artists to bring you world-class performances of music from the 13th to the 18th centuries…and occasionally beyond!

Affiliated with the Newberry Library Center for Renaissance Studies, the Consort also serves as an ensemble-in-residence at both the University of Chicago and Northwestern University. In addition to an annual concert series in Chicago, the Consort has an active touring schedule. This season, traveling to several cities across the US, the Consort will offer two popular programs: Beautiful Dreamer: Music of Lincoln's America and Fair Oriana: an Early Film with Early Music, featuring an Elizabethan score to accompany Sarah Bernhardt's 1912 silent film Elizabeth I."

Visit website form more information. (ed.)

Added on: Mar 13, 2008 | Hits: 408

“The Musica Florea ensemble was founded in 1992 by the cellist and conductor Marek Štryncl as one of the first serious initiatives in the field of stylistically-informed performance in the Czech Republic. The indispensible foundation of the ensemble`s work and the guarantee of its reputation lie in playing on original instruments or copies thereof, undertaking historical research based on studies of period sources and aesthetics, and creative revival of forgotten performing styles and methods.

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Added on: Jul 27, 2009 | Hits: 408

"THE GOLIARDS present authentic medieval music in a lively and entertaining style. We perform on reproductions of actual medieval instruments and sing in the various dialects and languages of the period. We wear costumes based on the clothing of period musicians, completing the feeling of long ago.

The music is a wide variety of medieval tunes, chiefly from the 13th and 14th centuries. Selections can range from bouncy dances and drinking songs to hauntingly beautiful devotional and art melodies. In the style of medieval musicians, large sections of music are improvised, adding an unforgettable excitement to the songs. The Goliards can play, lead and teach dances to allow the audience to completely experience the music as it was originally presented. We have in the past worked with other performers in poetic and dramatic recitations. " See website for more information. (ed.)

Added on: Feb 23, 2008 | Hits: 409

"I FAGIOLINI was founded in 1986 while the singers were students at Oxford University. In 1988 the group won the UK Early Music Network’s Young Artists’ Competition and has since released 14 CDs and 2 DVD. It gives about 50 concerts a year from the BBC Proms and major European festivals to further afield such as the Far East and both ends of Africa. Its unusual name has been misspelt, mispronounced and misunderstood throughout the world.

‘Like their concerts the disc is lively, imaginative, even anarchic... and a lot of fun.’ BBC Music Magazine

I Fagiolini’s core repertoire is Renaissance and contemporary solo-voice ensemble repertoire. In recent years it has pioneered innovative staged presentations with a project called The Theatre of Music, which brings classics of Renaissance secular music to life. This project has been a huge success with promoters and audiences. It recently released two DVDs on Chandos (Vecchi L'Amfiparnaso with Simon Callow) and Naxos ('The Full Monteverdi' - also broadcast around the world). " See website for more information. (ed.)

Added on: Feb 23, 2008 | Hits: 409

"The Amphion Consort are named after the mythological player (Ovid, metamorphoses) who built the walls of Thebes moving the stones to fall in their places by the power and beauty of his playing. The ensemble was initially formed to explore the repertoire for baroque violin and continuo (theorbo), but is expanding to include some of the best players and singers on the scene to perform chamber music and large scale works.

our repertoire ranges from the 14th century Ars Subtilior; Elizabethan lute songs by Dowland and Danyel; French music for viol and theorbo by de Visee and Marais to English masques and operas such as Blow's Venus and Adonis, Purcell's Dido and Aneas and the Fairy Queen. " Visit website for more information. (ed.)

Added on: Apr 08, 2008 | Hits: 409

"The seeds for ARS & AMICI — a 10- to 12-day travel, study and performance program in Italy for young professionals and highly talented amateur musicians — were planted in 1996 in Boston. Under the guidance of Sheila Beardslee, a well-known Boston-area teacher and performer in early music, the ARS & AMICI program has visited Rome, Florence, Orvieto, Siena, Cortona, Assisi, Bolzano, Padua and Venice. In addition to performances in churches, community centers and schools ARS & AMICI seeks to create connections between amateur musicians and rising young professionals in the U.S. and in Italy. ARS & AMICI participants frequently work with distinguished early music teachers and directors in cities which the program visits. Each year ARS & AMICI’s repertoire changes to reflect the musical creativity of the Renaissance masters from Italy and the continent over the period 1520-1620, including choral and consort music in both sacred and secular genres, as well as historical dance. " ...

Added on: Aug 17, 2007 | Hits: 410

"The activities of the ensemble, which are conducted by the artistic direction of Carlo Ipata, till their beginning in 1997 are characterized by the research on the Tuscan index of the Renaissance and the Baroque Age. Thanks to numerous first modern performances, the productions that have been realized until now have allowed the reconstruction of some important pages of Tuscan musical history, showing the relationships that have been hold between the local and the European composers. ...

The members of AuserMusici, which have a great training and experience in early music, and which come from different Italian towns, meet regularly. They arrange precisely the musical programmes with some musicologists. ...

The productions of AuserMusici are the result of a complex research that addresses a large public by involving musicologists and musicians in the analysis and comparison of original texts. The productions consist of recordings, seminars, lectures/concerts and editions (on paper and online). ... " Visit website for more information. (ed.)

Added on: Jul 12, 2008 | Hits: 410

"Carolina Baroque was organized by Dale Higbee in 1988 for the purpose of performing music of the Baroque period (c. 1600-1750) on instruments familiar to Monteverdi, Purcell, Buxtehude, Vivaldi, Telemann, J. S. Bach, and Handel during this Golden Age of Music. Since then we have performed in many cities in North Carolina, as well as in South Carolina, Georgia, and Virginia. We appeared on Public TV (WTVI-42), have received rave reviews in the press, and digital CD recordings of our Salisbury concerts have been broadcast many times over both Davidson College's WDAV (FM 89.9) and Wake Forest University's WFDD (88.5 FM). Carolina Baroque is a funded member of the Arts Council of Rowan and an organizational member of Early Music America. The Music Director is a resident of Salisbury, NC, but the other artists are professional musicians from various North Carolina cities who have performed throughout the US, as well as in Europe and South America. " See website for more information. (ed.)

Added on: Feb 10, 2008 | Hits: 412