EarlyMusicNews.Org

"Aquila Altera is a vocal and instrumental group that specialises in performing pan-European medieval music. Building on the extensive experience and backgrounds of the performers, Aquila Altera aims to spread and promote the knowledge and education of ancient middle age music and to conduct musical research leading to historically correct performances. To achieve this, the group uses reproduction instruments of the era exclusively, and can consist of 5 to 12 different performers (musicians & vocalists), depending upon the specific needs of its programmes. Their repertoire is principally based on the performance of medieval and renaissance European music; covering monody, polyphony, sacred, secular and instrumental pieces.

Aquila Altera has taken part in numerous concerts, historical revocations and sound tracks for television. Recent performances include: Settimana Internazionale della Musica Medievale e Rinascimentale di Erice; Il Festival"Alia Musica" – Parma Estri d'Estate" Parma; Concerti per il Giubileo - Rome ; Stagione Concertistica Fondazione G.P. da Palestrina - Palestrina RM; il Canto delle Pietre - Lombardia Europa Musica; VII Festival del Teatro Medievale e Rinascimentale di Anagni; "Musica a Corte" - Reggio Emilia; "Echi e Suoni dalla Pieve" - Forlì; "Dalle Palme a San Luca 2002" - Bologna; ”Los Conciertos del Cervantes” - Istituto Cervantes – Roma.

The group is passionate about medieval music and feel that it is very relevant and appropriate in historic events and revocations, because the music is relocated in the proper space and sound of that era. The group has also taken part in numerous medieval festivals throughout Italy.

Aquila Altera, in collaboration with the Le Cantrici di Euterpe (a vocal musical association), performed in several festivals and shows, both in Italy and abroad. In 2000, they recorded a compilation CD of sacred and secular music, "Tempus Transit". Two years later they undertook the recording of "Menando gli Anni". This collection contains medieval and renaissance music from Abruzzo. " Visit website for more information. (ed.)

Added on: May 18, 2008 | Hits: 383

"The Athestis Chorus & Academia de li Musici is the only permanent, large-scale vocal and instrumental ensemble in Italy that specialises in the performance practice of baroque and classical masses, oratories and cantatas. Established in 1993 by its conductor, Filippo Maria Bressan, the ensemble has an extensive repertoire that encompasses composers from the early 17th century to the early 19th century. Committed to researching its repertoire, developing its performance practice and revitalising the early music of Europe, the ensemble has given numerous modern-day performances of long-forgotten masterpieces such as Francesco Cavalli’s Vespro della Beata Vergine and Grande Messa Concertata, Benedetto Marcello’s Miserere, Requiem and Arianna, and Baldassarre Galuppi’s Messa per San Marco. Recordings of these performances have been enthusiastically received in the UK, France, Germany, Canada and Japan. " See website for more information. (ed.)

Added on: Feb 24, 2008 | Hits: 280

"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: 417

"The ensemble Babel, formed in 2002, was born with a desire to enhance culture and music of the period commonly called Middle Ages. The musicians in the group, all from other ensemble of ancient music and popular (Sagegreen, Pandemonio, Harmonia Mundi Ensemble, Les Nouveaux Trouvères), un'inedita proposed merger between the medieval and Renaissance music and popular European musical tradition. The ensemble has participated in numerous historical commemorations in northern Italy (Novara, Rhone, Cusago, Castelnuovo), several dinners medieval and Renaissance and has played at various concert music old (Varese, Lecco, Milan, Arona). ... " (Google transl.) Visit website for more information. (ed.)

Added on: May 18, 2008 | Hits: 381

"Bel Fiore Dança is dedicated to ancient music repertoire and popular music, both instrumental and voice ... " Visit website for more information. (ed.)

Added on: May 18, 2008 | Hits: 281

"The Association Musical of the Cantrici Euterpe together with Aquilano Vocal was established in 1994 dedicating themselves from the outset to the study and performance of early music, to this end cooperates with the group instrumental Aquila Altera using only instruments copies of the originals of the era. " (Google translation) Visit website for more information. (ed.)

Added on: May 24, 2008 | Hits: 342

"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: 412

"Founded in 1998 by the organist, harpsicordist and music historian Saverio Villa, Cappella Teatina has the aim of rediscovering, revaluating and reproposing the ancient Italian music repertoire of the "Maestri di Cappella" of XVIII century.

The knowledge of the existence of an enormous musical heritage of undoubtable value, which has not yet been explored, is the stimulus of an intense research of the original manuscripts held in numerous libraries both in Italy and abroad. " See website for more information. (ed.)

Added on: Feb 10, 2008 | Hits: 254

"The group "Gaudium et Clamor" was founded in 1996 with the intent to promote the ancient music, dedicating it to the study and again the public to a repertoire that ranges from medieval songs to Renaissance dances. The artist girovago, minstrel, is the figure of medieval times that inspired the character of our group, which seeks to recreate such moments of celebration in both square and on the street among people both medieval dinners and concerts. In respect of philology, we try to interpret the music choices avoiding cold academic operations, not only distant in time, but also by the public. " (Google translation) Visit website for more information. (ed.)

Added on: May 20, 2008 | Hits: 357

“Concerto Italiano began its activity in 1984 at Teatro Ghione in Rome with a concert performance of Francesco Cavalli's Calisto. In twenty five years of concert activity all over the world the ensemble was able to renew the approach of the performance of Italian Music, especially in the case of Monteverdi and Vivaldi, at times suggesting models of execution which have become paradigmatic. In the case Bach, the ensemble has garnered approval even from the most demanding traditionalist public. Today Concerto Italiano continues to pursue in its investigation of Italian musical culture an unceasing examination of a musical language which is evermore evidently and indissolubly linked to the cultural and linquistic values of 16th and 17th Italy.“

Visit website for more information. (ed.)

Added on: Apr 24, 2011 | Hits: 326

"For over a decade and a half, Concerto Palatino, under the direction of Bruce Dickey and Charles Toet, has been leading the way in the revival of the cornetto and baroque trombone. Their highly acclaimed concerts and recordings have brought an appreciation of their important but little known music to modern audiences, and stimulated many young players to take up these instruments, practically unknown a generation ago. " Visit website for more information. (ed.)

Added on: Mar 12, 2008 | Hits: 326

“The young CONCERTO ROMANO ensemble was formed as part of a project to revive the vast body of the hitherto forgotten music by the Roman composer, Francesco Foggia (1604-1688). The project was received with enthusiasm by critics and audiences alike and the ensemble decided to continue on their path and specialise in the music of their city. …

… The ensemble is made up of a fix nucleus - Paolo Perrone (baroque violin), Luca Pietropaoli (cornet), Serena Bellini (flutes) Luca Marconato and Francesco Tommasi (guitar and thorbos), Andrea Buccarella (cembalo and organ), Luca Cervoni (tenor) and Giacomo Farioli (bass) - and a variable number of singers and intrumentalists, all whom specialise in early music. It has performed regularly since 2006 and under Alessandro Quarta’s baton, has given many first contemporary performances in Italy (Rome, Florence, Palestrina) and Berne, also in numerous events sponsored by Rome’s Archeological Heritage Department and by the Rome City Council. In 2009, CONCERTO ROMANO debuted at the prestigious early music festival, Tage Alte Musik, in Herne, Germany, in 2010 in the Konzerthaus in Vienna meeting with enormous success. In 2011 Concerto Romano performed in the Vatican, at Rheingau Musik Festival and again with the German broadcasting station WDR in Kempen.“

Visit website for more information. (ed.)

Added on: Feb 28, 2012 | Hits: 184

"The CONSORT VENETO is an italian group, playing on renaissance instruments. We are interested to shine new light on both instrumnetal and vocal music, composed in the centuries from the Middle Age to the early Baroque.

The Consort Veneto is particulary devoted to study and perform the music of Venetian area, i.e., north-eastern Italy.

The Consort Veneto performed more than 400 concerts in Italy and abroad, namely in Poland, India, Rumania, Greece, Belgium, Egypt, Israel, Sweden, Germany, Austria, Croatia, Mexico, Portugal, recording for italian, greek, israeli, and egyptian TV and radio broadcasting corporation. " See website for more information. (ed.)

Added on: Feb 10, 2008 | Hits: 383

"…was founded in the year 2001, with the aim of exploring the early musical and poetical repertoire of Italian Duecento, adventuring in a mainly unexplored field of interaction between poetry and its musical attire. The historical field of research soon expanded to include a wider spectrum of repertoire, including the whole of the late Middle Ages. The musicians come from different fields, but have in common a specialization on the field of medieval music – careful academic research about the repertoire as well as the instruments and the performance practice give a stable theoretical background to the lively concerts." Visit website for more information. (ed.)

Added on: May 04, 2008 | Hits: 329

"The Dittamondo Ensemble was born of the meeting of some Venetian Musicians interested in ancient music for brass.

The group’s purpose is to spread the music literature of the late Renaissance and of the Baroque when the trumpets, the kettledrums, the organs were the protagonists of a seldom performed nonetheless very interesting and sonorously attractive repertory. Aiming to recreate the ancient trumpets and kettledrums guilds’ atmosphere the group performs with a number of 4-8 trumpets, kettledrums and organ or with the strings or with voices. The performances respects the traditional music practice of the period; they are introduced by an interesting historical and technical background when necessary.

The instruments played by the musicians are copies which faithfully reproduce the originals.

All the group’s members are professional musicians and they won national and international competitions and they deal with different music branches: their artistic work ranges along lasting or unsettled collaborations with famous orchestras (Arena di Verona, La Fenice di Venezia, Orchestra Haydn di Trento e Bolzano, I Virtuosi Italiani, Orchestra del Teatro Olimpico di Vicenza, Orchestra Filarmonia di Udine), solo performances, chamber concerts and teaching experiences in Academies of music and music institutes.

The Ensemble was requested by famous ancient music festivals, in Italy (Musica Antica a Magnano, Festival Lodoviciano, TrentoMusicAntica, Soli Deo Gloria, Festival SeicentoNovecento, Echi Lontani, Karalis Antiqua Musica, Festival della Basilica dei Frari di Venezia), Switzerland and Germany. The ensemble recorded the Compact Disc Alio Modo edited by Velut Luna; the CD collects the most expressive - in ensemble’s opinion - natural trumpet passages written between the XVII and the XVIII centuries and the national and international specialised printing appreciated it a lot. Moreover, the ensemble is going to record a DVD for a japanese label. ... " Visit website for more information. (ed.)

Added on: Jun 29, 2008 | Hits: 337

"The performers of the Ensemble "Dolci Accenti" come from a various artistic and cultural experiences. They met duringt their studies at the Conservatory of Vicenza where they specialised in the axecution of the musical repertoire of XVII and the first years of the XVIII centuries. Deepening their studies and their researches about that age's music in original sources ... " Visit website for more information. (ed.)

Added on: Jun 29, 2008 | Hits: 312

"Luca Pianca is Italian-Swiss musician-lutenist born in Lugano, Switzerland (his specialty is archlute). He studied with Nikolaus Harnoncourt at Mozarteum Salzburg and collaborated with Concentus Musicus Wien since 1982. In 1985 he co - founded Il Giardino Armonico, a pioneering Italian early music ensemble based in Milan. He also served as a lutenist at Zurich Opera House.

Luca Pianca has recorded more than 20 CDs in and out of his work with Il Giardino Armonico, including complete recordings of lute repertoire by J.S.Bach and Antonio Vivaldi. He has partnered with soloists such as Cecilia Bartoli, Eva Mei, Sylvia McNair. Since 1999 Pianca has teamed with viola da gamba player Vittorio Ghielmi to record numerous CDs. Since 2001 he has also collaborated with a contemporary lutenist-composer Roman Turovsky-Savchuk, whose works he premiered at several international festivals (Urbino, Salamanca, Paris, Vilnius inter alia).“ (Wikipedia)

“Vittorio Ghielmi is a viola da gamba player, born in 1968, in Milano, Italy. Vittorio has performed in the most important concert halls of Europe and the USA as a soloist with orchestras such as Il Giardino Armonico, Wiener Philharmoniker, Philharmonia Orchestra London. He teaches viola da gamba at Conservatorio Luca Marenzio di Brescia.

Vittorio Ghielmi is the founder of Il Suonar Parlante ensemble (consort), playing with famous composers and jazzists (Uri Caine, Don Byron, Kenny Wheeler). He published a viol tutorial (in collaboration with Paolo Biordi, Ut-Orpheus Editions, Bologna) and also unedited viol music (Ed. Minkoff, Fuzeau).“ (Wikipedia)

Added on: Feb 10, 2008 | Hits: 353

El Delphìn, Early Music Ensemble was established in 2004. Visit website for more information. (ed.)

Added on: May 24, 2008 | Hits: 523

"Ensemble Adelchis was founded at the opportunity of Alessandro Manzoni's bicentenarial anniversary. At Sforza Castle, Milano, the Municipality set up the exhibition "Adelchis, dai Longobardi ai Carolingi", under the supervision of Arch. C. Calderini. The Head of the Culture Department of Milano Municipality charged Giovanna Motta with transcribing the lament for the death of the late Longobard Duke of Friuli, composed by Bishop Paolino d'Aquileia in 799, on the basis of the original notation. The resulting lament was recorded and used as background for the exhibitions held in Milano and Pavia. From the very few elements of these performances, say ine voice, one rebeck, one harp, as time went by the Ensemble Adelchis grew to its present formation. Althought relatively recently formed, the Ensemble Adelchis has already successfully performed before competent audiciens, such as Pavia's University, on the occasion of the 9th Anniversary of Lanfranco da Pavia' death; Foundation "G.Cini" in Venice; Medieval Weeks at Brisighella; Associazione Internazionale di studi di Canto Gregoriano in Cremona; Centro Italiano di Studi sull'Alto Medioevo in Spoleto. ... " Visit website for more information. (ed.)

Added on: May 24, 2008 | Hits: 296

" The group was initially formed to support organisations working towards the protection of the national artistic patrimony of Piemonte and other regions of Italy. The profits made out of the concerts are used towards the restauration of Churches, paintings and frescos.

The 'Archilegio Ensemble' gathers musicians of different musical background and origin and aims to promote and reveal some of the less knowen Baroque repertoire.

The common passion for the music combined with a strong sense of harmony within the group have allowed the Ensemble to achieve considerable musical results, therefore obtaining positive feedback from critics and audiences. ... " Visit website for more information. (ed.)

Added on: Jun 29, 2008 | Hits: 328

"Ensemble Arcomelo, founded by Michele Benuzzi, is a group of varying number which unites musicians who have been dedicated for years to study of the Baroque music and the problems related to its performance on period instruments.

Its repertoire spans from the early seventeenth century to the Classical period. Its main interest is in the works of composers of the late-eighteenth century, especially the concertos for harpsichord and orchestra unpublished and still in manuscript form in European libraries.

Arcomelo has performed for important music festival in Italy and abroad: Serate Muscali di Milano, La Societa' dei Concerti di Milano, Bach Festival di Modena, Musica e Poesia a San Maurizio di Milano, Tiroler Festspiele (Austria), Les Fete Musicales de Savoie (France), Musicales Internationales Guil Durance (France), Festival de Musica Antigua de Daroca (Spain), Hakuju Hall Tokyo, Tochigi Kuranomachi Early Music Festival in Japan. In 2002 the ensemble began performing the complete Concertos for harpsichord and orchestra by C.Ph.E.Bach.

The ensemble Arcomelo records for the Milanese label la Bottega Discantica. " Visit website for more information. (ed.)

Added on: Aug 02, 2008 | Hits: 357

"he cultural association Ensemble Baschenis takes its name from the well-known XVIIth century painter Evaristo Baschenis, who is considered the most accomplished painter of musical instruments in figurative art. Affiliated to the association are few selected Groups and Ensembles of high quality performers. Ranging from music from the Renaissance to XVIIIth century music for mandolin, the association organizes concerts of Early Music at the highest level of philological research, from both a musical and a technical point of view. Different formation and fields of interest characterize our Association's vast repertory: from a duo for voice and lute, to the Ensemble Salomone Rossi which has a specialized interest in the repertoire of Jewish music from the Baroque period. ... " See website for more details. (ed.)

Added on: Feb 18, 2008 | Hits: 365

"The Ensemble D.S.G. (Soli Deo Gloria) is a complex vocal and instrumental composed of young musicians engaged in the study, in the rediscovery and implementation of new musical heritage of Italian Baroque. The Ensemble, born in 2000, performs especially in Bologna and its glorious musical institutions, among which figure in the first place, the Chapel of St. Petronio. ... " (Google translation) Visit website for more information.

Added on: Jul 31, 2008 | Hits: 267

"The Ensemble dei Suoni Residui was born in 1994 to perform some music commissioned for a theatrical spectacle. The music played was a particular mix between the music and popular period between the end of the fifteenth century until the middle of XVII (or Renaissance and Baroque) " Visit website for more information. (ed.)

Added on: Jul 25, 2008 | Hits: 267

"The Ensemble dell'Accademia was created within the Accademia Bartolomeo Cristofori, a Florentine Institute which is dedicated to the spreading of fortepiano and its repertoire. The musicians of this ensemble both collaborate with the best ensembles and orchestras which are active in the field of early music – Sonatori della Gioiosa Marca, Barocchisti, Europa Galante, Concerto Italiano, Giardino Armonico, and usually play as principals in some important symphonic orchestras – Maggio Musicale Fiorentino, Orchestra of Toscana and Orchestra of the Teatro Verdi of Trieste. They have decided to put together their experiences in a joint project which aims to offer a modern listening of the classic and pre-classic repertoire for wind instruments. The performances, which are given with historical instruments, allow the Ensemble dell'Accademia to play the music in its original timbre and sound context, and also to recover its chamber value. Focusing on the period between the Eighteen and the Nineteen century, when the wind instruments started to be played in soloist and chamber roles, the Ensemble dell'Accademia dedicates itself to the philological reinterpretation of the great repertoire, as the quintetti with fortepiano by Mozart and Beethoven, but also – and particularly – to the research of unpublished works of composers which are too often superficially considered minor ones. The ensemble is particularly interested in the collaboration with the Tuscan Musical Treasures Project, and in the research of the music of those composers who worked in the Tuscan area, where, dating from the second half of the Eighteen century – thanks to the contribution of French and Austrian composers who were related with the Court of the Lorena, the wind instruments had an essential role in the evolution of the orchestra of the Grand Duke. The production for wind instruments by composers such Cambini, Boccherini, Nardini, Giovanni Francesco Giuliani and Joseph Lidarti is revisited in the context of the relations and reciprocal stylistic and formal influences that were established during the second half of the Eighteen century in Tuscany and in the main European musical centres. " Visit website for more information. (ed.)

Added on: Jul 17, 2008 | Hits: 266