EarlyMusicNews.Org

“Arianna Ensemble is a professional ensemble of baroque music. Founded in 2000 around the harpsichordist Marie-Paule Nounou, it presents the works of European heritage to discover the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, and some masterpieces of the repertoire.”

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Added on: Nov 17, 2011 | Hits: 211

"Obsidienne, a vocal and instrumental ensemble conducted by Emmanuel Bonnardot, wishes to keep the medieval and renaissance repertoire alive in a simple, natural way, thus reconciling the art of performing and that of improvising music.

In a happy relation to poetry, theater and dance, often approaching contemporary, traditional or song repertoires, the ensemble keeps researching into forgotten or neglected works, and endeavouring to reconstruct the medieval instrumentarium, inspired in its work by the paintings of the Middle Ages’ greatest masters.

Obsidienne sometimes splits into smaller groups, allowing more specialized, more intimate and more personal work. At its full strength, with up to 16 musicians, the ensemble offers a powerful sound, in which soloists and choir alternate, a must in interpreting the great medieval repertoire. Obsidienne owe their longevity to their versatility and to the variety of their performances, which enabled them to reach exceptional musical quality. " Visit website for more information. (ed.)

Added on: Mar 13, 2008 | Hits: 437

“QUALIA lets the listener immerse into an almost alien musical world, into the deep roots and sources of being of European music history, which in today’s perception is almost lost completely. …” (Carpe Diem Records (label), http://www.carpediem-records.de/en/mundus-et-musica)

Also see: http://ensemblequalia.over-blog.com/pages/contact-2872937.html

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Added on: Nov 12, 2012 | Hits: 125

“Michel Laplénie founded Sagittarius in 1986, with a view to exploring new repertoire and sharing his musical enthusiasms. High artistic standards have brought the ensemble international renown and made it one of the foremost vocal groups in Baroque performance.

With their unquenchable curiosity, Sagittarius have taken part in several high profile opera productions (Handel's Alcina, Théâtre des Champs Elysées, Paris, 1990 - Lully's Phaëton, for the reopening of the Lyons opera house, 1993 - Campra's L'Europe Galante, Aix-en-Provence Festival, 1993 - Rameau's Hippolyte et Aricie, directed by Marc Minkowski, 1995, etc.). The ensemble has performed in Europe's most famous concerts halls as well as prestigious international festivals, often resurrecting forgotten musical treasures.

Sagittarius is an ensemble of soloists, and features 5 to 20 professional singers and instrumentalists, all of them established performers of the early repertoire. The focus is on European vocal music of the Baroque era, more specifically from 17th and 18th-century France and Germany, with a particular fondness for Heinrich Schütz, whose Latinized name Sagittarius it adopted. This wide repetoire has led to a large number of recordings, which have won acclaim for the sincerity and depth of their performances.

Sagittarius has been appointed Resident Ensemble at Blaye, near Bordeaux, and is supported by the Regional Department for Cultural Affairs, the Aquitaine Region, the Département of Gironde, the cities of Blaye and Bordeaux, as well as the Caisse des Dépôts for its school programmes.”

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Added on: Sep 30, 2011 | Hits: 304

“The ensemble Syntagma is an early music ensemble, created in 1996 by Alexander Metz Danilevski, a lutenist and composer of Russian origin.

This group is dedicated to forgotten repertoire from the Medieval, Renaissance and Baroque eras. The ensemble consists of singers, wind instruments and strings.”

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Added on: Feb 23, 2008 | Hits: 305

“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 …”

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Added on: Feb 05, 2012 | Hits: 182

“Fuoco e Cenere is exceptional not only in its choice of repertoire, which spirals from medieval times to our own century, but foremost in its desire to kindle passions and memories that outlast the concert experience. The interpretations of Fuoco e Cenere magnify image and expression of superb musical and poetic texts enabling them to shock the public by their beauty. …”

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Added on: Sep 30, 2011 | Hits: 150

“Ensemble Il Ballo was founded in 2002. It is dedicated to interpreting the music of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, with a particular interest in Renaissance music and Italian music of the early seventeenth century.”

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Added on: Sep 30, 2011 | Hits: 213

“The ensemble Il Seminario Musicale is founded in 1985 by Gerard Lesne, countertenor and musical director. ISM is today renowned to be one of the leading French ensembles in baroque musique. Its residency, since 1990, is the prestigious Foundation at the Abbaye de Royaumont, thirty kilometres in the north of Paris.

Since its creation, ISM is composed by first rank European musicians : Marc Minkowski, Fabio Bondi, Blandine Rannou, Bruno Cocset, Patrick Cohen-Akénine, Florence Malgoire, Benjamin Perrot, Florence Bolton, Anne-Marie Lasla, Angélique Mauillon or Violaine Cochard have all participated or still participate in the ensemble musical and artistic excellence. ..“

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Added on: Jul 27, 2009 | Hits: 387

Kotchnak, founded in 1976, performs traditional Armenian folk songs as well as songs by ashoughs, or troubadours, especially those of Sayat Nova who lived in the 18th century.

Kotchnak has performed in numerous cities of Europe and North America.

Kotchnak specializes in the modal and monophonic interpretation of Armenian music.

Ensemble based in Paris.

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Added on: Jan 08, 2011 | Hits: 289

Association for the performance of baroque dance and music.

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Added on: Apr 22, 2009 | Hits: 312

“Founded in 2009 by François Joubert-Caillet, L’Achéron is constituted of a variable number of musicians, coming from all around the world, a young generation already performing with renowned ensembles and feeling the need to affirm their artistic personality in a more intimate context.
 
Focused on Renaissance, baroque and contemporary music, l’Achéron’s interpretation of ancient repertoire is an attempt to bring forth its fundamental characteristics, reinterpreting original works with the greatest respect, being as authentic but also as readable as possible for today’s audience. The marriage between musical research and the live interpretation feed the intellectual and sensorial curiosity of the audience.
 
L’Achéron is a laboratory for new ideas, concepts and artistic practices : improvisations as well as contemporary music are an integral part of what we hope will be the continually evolving approach of the ensemble.
 
In Greek mythology, the Acheron is the river of the Underworld on which Charon ferries the souls of the Dead to Hell, the very river Orpheus crosses to look for Eurydice. Nourished by this symbol, l’Acheron is willing to open up a way in between two apparently opposed worlds: the living and the dead, the past and present, ideal and reality.”

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Added on: Sep 30, 2011 | Hits: 220

“Founded in 2001 by tenor Benoit Haller, Chapelle Rhénane is a group of singers and instrumental soloists. The team is dedicated to the great works of European vocal repertoire. Its ambition is, through concerts and discs, to reveal the emotion, humanity and modernity of its music that could attract a broad contemporary audience.”

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Added on: Apr 24, 2011 | Hits: 257

“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: 419

“Created in 1995 with the help of harpsichordist Isabelle Ramona and her twin sister Catherine Ramona (gambist and cellist), La Ménestrandis is an association of professional musicians who perform already with many great French baroque ensembles.

The focus of the ensemble is to relive the great vocal or instrumental works of  of the XVII and XVIII centuries in their purest traditional form. ..“

Added on: Jul 27, 2009 | Hits: 389

"La Saltarelle was formed in 1986 in Castres, dans le Tarn (FR). The group offers a repertoire of dance, music and songs of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries in Renaissance Europe. " (transl. ed.) See website for more information. (ed.)

Added on: Mar 12, 2008 | Hits: 376

“In 1987, Hugo Reyne decided to form an ensemble devoted entirely to reviving France’s musical heritage of the 17th and 18th centuries. The name he chose combines the word "simphonie", which at the time was used to denote an instrumental ensemble, and the Marais, one of the most beautiful areas of Paris, typical of the Baroque period.

Hugo Reyne and La Simphonie du Marais perform a repertoire that ranges from the early baroque period to the classical period, with special emphasis on French music from Lully to Rameau. This ensemble brings together the most eminent musicians of the young baroque generation, giving Hugo Reyne the opportunity to bring his musicology research to life and to illustrate the innovative aspect of his interpretation.

The ensemble explore avenues of chamber music with flute or oboe, orchestral symphonies with between 15 and 30 musicians, open-air music with oboe band, side drums, trumpets and timpani and the birth of French opera. ..“

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Added on: Jul 27, 2009 | Hits: 358

“Founded by Martin Gester in Strasbourg in 1990, Le Parlement de Musique is an ensemble of solo singers and instrumentalists which may be expanded to the dimensions of orchestra with choir. It champions the Baroque and Classical repertoire in all its forms, alternating modern premieres and new interpretations of standard repertoire.

Le Parlement de Musique has produced a large number of significant modern recreations, most of which have been recorded and have met with an enthusiastic response from the press. Among these are works by Charpentier – the early Leçons de Ténèbres; several Histoires sacrées; and the Te Deum and Grands Motets (which despite the large number of recorded interpretations available was hailed by Diapason and a number of critics’ panels as the ‘benchmark version’); premiere recordings of works by Sébastien de Brossard and Samuel Capricornus; the Lamentazioni of Alessandro Scarlatti and the Vespers of Giovanni Battista Bassani (which won the Prize of the Fondazione Cini, Venice); organ concertos by J. S. Bach;  .. .“

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Added on: Jul 27, 2009 | Hits: 337

"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: 487

"Le Poème Harmonique, a group of soloists who came together in 1998 under the direction of Vincent Dumestre, centres its artistic activity on music of the seventeenth and the early eighteenth century.

The group's vocal and instrumental interpretations are enriched by other disciplines, with actors and dancers joining its singers and musicians in programmes of chamber works – Le Ballet des Fées, Il Fasolo – and, since 2004, in large-scale stage productions, such as Le Bourgeois Gentilhomme, a comédie-ballet by Molière and Lully (stage director Benjamin Lazar) and Baroque Carnival (directed by Cécile Roussat), an original show combining Italian music with the circus arts (artists trained at the Centre National des Arts du Cirque). For operatic performances as Cadmus et Hermione by Lully (stage director Benjamin Lazar), Le Poème Harmonique studies in depth the correspondences between ‘period’ aesthetics – use of candles for lighting, authentic gestures and, for Cadmus, painted canvases and machinery – and the aesthetics of modern stage productions. Interaction between artistic disciplines and real teamwork – working together as a company – are Le Poème Harmonique’s hallmark in Baroque performance today. ..."

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Added on: Jul 12, 2008 | Hits: 416

"The vocal and instrumental ensemble Les Arts Florissants is one of the most renowned and respected early music groups in Europe and throughout the world. Dedicated to the performance of Baroque music on period instruments, the ensemble was founded in 1979 by the Franco-American harpsichordist and conductor William Christie and takes its name from a short opera by Marc-Antoine Charpentier. Les Arts Florissants have been largely responsible for the resurgence of interest in France of 17th-and 18th-centuries more generally.

It is in the field of opera where Les Arts Florissants have enjoyed most success, regularly collaborating with eminent directors and choreographers, such as Jean-Marie Villégier, Robert Carsen, Alfredo Arias, Francine Lancelot, Béatrice Massin, Ana Yepes, José Montalvo... They have an equally high profile in the concert hall and on disc. For twenty years Les Arts Florissants have been artists in residence at the Théâtre de Caen.

The ensemble tours widely in France and is frequently invited to perform at prestigious festivals and venues internationally (the Brooklyn Academy of Music, the Lincoln Center, the Barbican Centre in London and the Vienna Festival among others).

Les Arts Florissants receive financial support from the French Ministry of Culture and Communication, the City of Caen and the Basse-Normandie Region. They are artists in residence in the théâtre de Caen. Imerys is their Principal Sponsor.”

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Added on: Aug 14, 2007 | Hits: 443

“With their baroque and mythological image, that of a terrifying monster and a pyrotechnical figure, «Les Cyclopes» explore baroque vocal Art with a totally new approach. They cover this aboundind universe with strength and enthusiasm, precision and contrast, ranging from the intimacy of the harpsichord to theatrical exuberance.

In january 2010 Bibiane Lapointe and Thierry Maeder have been made «Chevaliers dans l’Ordre des Arts et des Lettres»”

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Added on: Mar 01, 2012 | Hits: 156

“I founded this ensemble in order to achieve, with the help of some of my closest musical friends, certain projects which are dear to my heart. These are of various kinds, and include not only the performance of ‘classics’ of the early music repertoire, but also the promotion of neglected works (such as, for example, the works of Joseph Touchemoulin). We also wish to make more widely known some of the neo-baroque works of the C20th and C21st which have been written with period instruments in mind.’..“ Visit website for more information. (ed.)

Added on: Apr 27, 2009 | Hits: 362

“Ensemble bringing together singers and instrumentalists specialising in early music, Les Jardins de Courtoisie devotes itself to songs in old french from the XIIth to the XVIIth century.

The ensemble is equally open to other artistic disciplines and different repertoires collaborating with other artists and groups : music from the XXth century and contemporary creation, songs in other languages, improvisations, working with actors, dansers, calligraphers...

Created in 2004 and based in Lyon, Les Jardins de Courtoisie diffuses its works throughout France and more recently internationaly. It is distinguished by its presence at festivals like Ambronay, Saintes and Le Thoronet and have produced two CD’s that have obtained important prizes and excellent reviews.

The ensemble regularly organises meetings (workshops, conferences, courses and master-classes) and participates in educational projects.”

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Added on: Mar 29, 2012 | Hits: 122

“A Baroque ensemble of the new generation, Les Ombres was founded by Sylvain Sartre and Margaux Blanchard in 2006 with the aim of closely linking musicological research and 'historically informed' interpretation. In their quest to rediscover forgotten masterpieces of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, its members seek to unite the emblematic arts of the Baroque theatre, so that musicians, singers, dancers and actors become interpreters of one and the same score. These specificities make the ensemble a space for creativity and expression, a human and musical adventure. Inspired by music as an art in constant evolution, Les Ombres also give priority to the exploration of new horizons, ranging from the traditional patrimony to contemporary creations.

The nucleus of Les Ombres is formed by three musicians trained at the Schola Cantorum of Basel: Margaux Blanchard (viola da gamba), nadja Lesaulnier (harpsichord), and Sylvain Sartre (transverse flute). According to the needs of specific programmes, this trio is supplemented by violins, flutes, bas- soon, theorbo, and so on. Alongside the instrumental repertoire, the ensemble devotes an important place to vocal music and dramaturgy. It has therefore invited for this CD Mélodie Ruvio, a mezzo-soprano who came to the members' attention in the title role of Le Carnaval et la Folie conducted by Hervé niquet at the European Baroque Academy of Ambronay in 2007, and the actor and director Manuel Weber, a specialist in Baroque theatre, whom they met at the creation of a production devoted to the fables of La Fontaine. …“

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Added on: Jul 21, 2011 | Hits: 236