EarlyMusicNews.org

“The Maryland Cantabile is a community chorus dedicated to exploring music from the early to contemporary period.  Our current focus is early music and we welcome the opportunity to collaborate with other music groups.”

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Added on: Nov 12, 2012 | Hits: 3844

“Larksong is a troupe of harmonious voices that loves the sound and performance of fine a cappella music.

We are available for hire for social events, festivals, or other get-togethers in the Baltimore/Annapolis (Maryland) area.

We have a wide repertoire of a cappella music from 16th to 20th century, sacred to secular, and love songs to holiday favorites. We will perform in Renaissance style clothing, Victorian era costumes or formal wear for your occasion.”

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Added on: Nov 12, 2012 | Hits: 3540

“Peter Kooij started his musical career at 6-years-old as a choir boy and sang many solo soprano-parts in concerts and recordings. He started his musical studies however as a violin student. This was followed by singing tuition from Max van Egmond at the Sweelinck Conservatory in Amsterdam, which led to the award of the diploma for solo performance.

He has been an active soloist in many concerts all over the world in the most important concert-halls like Concertgebouw Amsterdam, Musikverein Wien, Carnegie Hall New York, Royal Albert Hall London, Teatro Colon Buenos Aires, Berliner and Kölner Philharmonie, Palais Garnier Paris, Suntory and Casals Hall Tokyo, where he performed with famous conductors like Philippe Herreweghe, Ton Koopman, Frans Brüggen, Gustav Leonhardt, René Jacobs, Sigiswald Kuijken, Roger Norrington and Iwan Fisher.

His wide repertoire contains all kind of music from Schütz to Weill and he has made over 130 CDs for Philips, Sony and Virgin Classics, Harmonia Mundi, Erato, EMI and BIS. He was invited by BIS to record the complete Bach cantatas, passions and masses with the Bach Collegium Japan under the direction of Masaaki Suzuki.

Peter Kooij is the artistic director of the "Ensemble Vocal Européen". From 1991 to 2000 professor at the Sweelinck Conservatorium in Amsterdam. From 1995 to 1998 Lehrauftrag at the Musikhochschule in Hannover. Since 2000 Professor at the Tokyo University of fine Arts and Music. From September 2005 professor at the Royal Conservorium in Den Haag. He was invited to give master classes in Germany, France, Portugal, Spain, Belgium, Finnland and Japan. “

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Added on: May 09, 2009 | Hits: 3352

“Formed in 1998 by its artistic director Laurence Brisset, the De Caelis Ensemble specialises in the performance of unaccompanied vocal works of the Middle Ages. The Ensemble’s passion for this little-known repertoire has resulted in a body of work that is based upon knowledge of original sources, of systems of notation and of the context of the works concerned. The quality of De Caelis’ original and lively performances is recognised not only by specialists but also by audiences in general.”

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Added on: Nov 13, 2011 | Hits: 3224

"Linking professional and amateur countertenors and people interested in the CT repertoire" ...

Added on: Aug 03, 2007 | Hits: 2580

"Mixed chamber choir Cantio antiqua Praha was establish in the end of 80's by ex-members of student choir Cantus semper vivus, which was run by Grammar school Budejovicka in Prague 4 and which was conducted by Mrs. Vera Jankovicova. In the present structure Cantio antiqua Praha performs from cca 1999.

Cantio antiqua Praha is mainly concentrate on renaissance and early baroque polyphonic music. The repertoire is build from up to octovoiced secular and sacred vocal works from Italian, French, British, German and Spanish composers. The independent part of our repertoire are Christmas songs, which represent character of this music in Bohemia and Moravia from beginning of 15th century until works of early baroque composers.

Cantio antiqua Praha's chamber cast (four sopranos, one mezzo-soprano, three altos, one tenor and one bass) enables to approach to period interpretative practise, when every voice went about perhaps only one singer or instrumentalist. Cantio antiqua Praha occasionally collaborate with instrumentalists who play recorders, lutes, guitars, stringed instruments or harpsichords. " Visit website for more information. (ed.)

Added on: Jul 30, 2008 | Hits: 2505

"Ulrike Hofbauer was born in Bavaria and studied voice and voice teaching at the Universities of Wurzburg and Salzburg, and at the ‘Schola Cantorum Basiliensis’ in Basle. The teachers who influenced her most profoundly were Sabine Schutz, Evelyn Tubb and Anthony Rooley; further musical insights were provided by Christina Pluhar und Andrea Marcon.

Ulrike now lives in Basel and as a soloist has worked with conductors such as Christoph Hammer, Konrad Junghänel, Daniel Reuss, und Philippe Herreweghe. The soprano is a member of several vocal ensembles including the ‘Collegium Vocale Gent’, ‘Cantus Coelln’, ‘L’Arpeggiata’ and sang with the acclaimed German vocal sextett ‘Singer Pur’ for several years.

Her versatility as a singer is documented not only in recordings and live performances on the radio, but in a number of CD recordings.

Currently she is devoting much of her energies to her own baroque ensemble ‘savādi...’, with whom she won the Early Music Competition in York in 2003 and also the Van Wassenaer Concours in The Hague in 2004. (www.savadi.net).

Teaching is also an important part of her life and has taken her to, inter alia, the Universities of Bogota (Colombia), Minsk (Belarus) and the "Bayersische Theaterakademie" in Munich.

She enjoys exploring new and unusual repertoires covering different epochs and styles. Ulrike is particularly interested in the “recitar cantando” style as well as the use of dramatic theatrical techniques to heighten the emotional impact of the text and music. " Visit website for more information. (ed.)

Added on: May 04, 2008 | Hits: 2148

“NEW YORK POLYPHONY is gaining a reputation as the preeminent male classical vocal quartet in the fields of early and new music. Praised for a “rich, natural sound that’s larger and more complex than the sum of its parts” (National Public Radio), the four men deliver dynamic performances in a wide range of styles. From austere medieval melodies to cutting edge contemporary works, NYP balances refined musicianship with a uniquely modern sensibility.

Hailed as a “stunning tour through chant, polyphony and renaissance harmonies” (Minnesota Public Radio), their current CD Tudor City spent three weeks in the Top 10 of Billboard’s classical album chart. It has been featured on Danish Public Radio, American Public Radio and NPR’s All Things Considered.

NYP’s debut CD I sing the birth was released in 2007. The disc—an intimate meditation on the Christmas season—garnered unanimous praise. Gramophone Magazine named it “one of the season’s best”, BBC Music Magazine selected it as Editor’s Christmas Choice 2007, and Classic FM Magazine hailed it as “a disc for all seasons. …”

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Added on: Nov 08, 2011 | Hits: 2058

"She was born in Huesca, Spain. At the age of nine she began studying voice and piano at the Miguel Fleta School of Music. From there she went on to study voice at the Conservatorio del Liceu de Barcelona where she specialized in opera and received an honours diploma. Subsequently she transferred to the Schola Cantorum Basiliensis in Basel, where she studied with Dominique Vellard and Richard Levitt and began working as a soloist and chamber musician with various groups such as Gilles Binchois (medieval and renaissance music), Vox Suavis, (founded by her and Dominique Vellard, dedicated to traditional and medieval spanish music) and la Cecchina (baroque music). With these ensembles she has performed regularly at international festivals in Italy, France, Germany, Spain, Switzerland and the United States. She also has given introductory courses to the interpretation of old music at the conservatory of Huesca (Spain), in New Hampshire (USA) and at the Pigna University in Corsica. She has collaborated in several cd recordings with Gilles Binchois and la Cecchina."

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Added on: Apr 18, 2008 | Hits: 1961

“The Countertenor Kai Wessel was born in Hamburg and studied music theory (Prof.R.Ploeger), composition (Prof.Dr.F.Döhl), and voice (Prof.U.v.Garczynski, concert examination passed with honours) at the Lübeck Academy of Music. During his Lübeck years Wessel was also an external student in the field of baroque performance practice at the Schola Cantorum Basiliensis (René Jacobs).
 
Wessel received numerous prizes between 1984 and 1990, including the special prize of the German Theater Society for the best interpretation of a contemporary work (Berlin, 1988) and a prize at the Musica Antiqua Competition of the Flanders Festival in Bruges. He received fellowships from the Studienstiftung des Deutschen Volkes and the DAAD (studying under Peter Kooj in Hilversum/Holland). Wessel has served as an assistant to René Jacobs in the production of operas by P.A.Cesti, F.Cavalli and C.W.Gluck for the International Festival Week of Early Music in Innsbruck, for the WDR Radio, and at the Hamburg State Opera.
 
As one of the leading countertenors Wessel is invited to music festivals all over the world (Paris, Madrid, Vienna, Schwetzingen, Salzburg, Innsbruck, Tokyo, San Francisco, a.o.) and to numerous opera houses (Freiburg, Basel, St.Gallen, Barcelona, Nice, Berlin a.o.) where he took part in stage-productions by Herbert Wernicke (in Theodora and Giulio Cesare by G.F.Handel, Aus Deutschland by Mauricio Kagel, Wie liegt die Stadt so wüste with the music by H.Schütz/M.Weckmann and Actus tragicus with the music by J.S.Bach), Joachim Schlömer (as Orfeo in Orfeo ed Euridice by Chr.W.Gluck), Claus Guth (in Schwarzerde by Klaus Huber), Peter Oskarson (in Luci mie traditrici by Salvatore Sciarrino), Gilbert Déflo (in Orfeo by Claudio Monteverdi), John Dew (in Hippolyte et Aricie by Jean Philippe Rameau) a.o. He has been involved in performances, radio broadcasts, amore than sixty recordings under the direction of Philippe Herreweghe, William Christie, Jordi Savall, Gustav Leonhard, Ton Koopman, Michael Schneider, Nikolaus Harnoncourt, Martin Haselböck, Reinhard Goebel, Konrad Junghänel, Michael Hofstetter, Nicholas McGegan, Sigiswald Kuijken, Michel Corboz, Hans-Werner Henze, Arturo Tamayo, Hermann Max, and others.
 
Kai Wessel is teaching voice and baroque performance practice at the Superiour Highschool of Music Cologne/Germany, and regularly giving summer-classes in Germany and Austria. “

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Added on: May 09, 2009 | Hits: 1922

"Founded in Oslo in 1997, trio mediaeval has developed three distinct strands of repertoire: polyphonic medieval music from England and France, contemporary works and Norwegian medieval ballads and songs. The group's initial phase was inspired by intense periods of work at the Hilliard Summer Festival in England and Germany, and subsequently with Linda Hirst and John Potter. " Visit website for more information. (ed.)

Added on: Apr 20, 2008 | Hits: 1908

“ The Ensemble was founded in the Galilee region of Israel by the bass and harpsichordist Elam Rotem. It is currently based in Switzerland, where all its members undertook further study at the Schola Cantorum Basiliensis. The ensemble has benefited both individually and collectively from the expertise of leading musicians, amongst them Evelyn Tubb, Anthony Rooley, Gerd Türk and Dominique Vellard. …”

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Added on: Jul 21, 2011 | Hits: 1905

“graindelavoix (grain of the voice) is an art-collective formed by björn schmelzer. since 1999 he is looking for musicians who want to experiment between performance and creation. the necessity of autoproductive and physical art keeps them together.

graindelavoix is fascinated by voices that stop communicating, that have no message anymore but rather are the pure expression of their underground: the gritty, intense and instinctive...

graindelavoix uses early music repertoires to find the undercurrent that illuminates our own times: a timeless spirit that stretches out to embrace an interval, a space.

what preoccupies graindelavoix in early music is the bond between notation and what eludes it: the higher consciousness and savoir-faire that the performer brings to a piece (ornamentation, improvisation, gestures...). to graindelavoix, singers are 'spiritual automata'...

material they work with includes ockeghem's polyphony, the plainte, machicotage, mediterrenean practices, late scholastic dynamics and kinematics, the affective body, gesture and image culture...

graindelavoix gives performances (concert/music theatre) that are the accumulated fragments of a wider work and research process: this site makes an attempt at framing.

graindelavoix is 'special guest' of “music-centre de bijloke in” ghent and has an artistical partnership with the “cultural centre of genk“. cd's are produced exclusively for glossamusic. ..“

Facebook site: https://www.facebook.com/graindelavoix

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Added on: May 17, 2009 | Hits: 1892

"Julianne Baird, soprano, has been hailed as "one of the most extraordinary voices in the service of early music that this generation has produced. She possesses a natural musicianship which engenders singing of supreme expressive beauty." She maintains a busy concert schedule of solo recitals and performances of baroque opera and oratorio. Ms. Baird has also appeared as soloist with many major symphony orchestras including the Cleveland Orchestra under Christoph von Dohnanyi, the Brooklyn Philharmonic under Lukas Foss, the New York Philharmonic under Zubin Mehta and, in the 2000-2001 season, the Philadelphia Orchestra. James R. Oestreich, in his comprehensive survey of New York's seasonal performances of Handel's Messiah for the N.Y. Times, recently concluded with special praise for Julianne Baird's interpretative skills: "in that respect, Ms. Baird remains the model". " Visit website for more information. (ed.)

Added on: Mar 23, 2008 | Hits: 1879

“Franz Vitzthum received his initial musical training as a member of the Regensburger Domspatzen. In 2007 he completed his degrees at the Musikhochschule Köln as a pupil of Kai Wessel. At present he is working with Stefan Haselhoff (Basel).

In addition to his ensemble work with groups including the Weser Renaissance under Manfred Cordes and Cantus Cölln under Konrad Junghänel, Franz Vitzthum focuses his attentions on solo engagements where he has worked with the conductors Christoph Poppen, Peter Neumann or Nicholas McGegan.

Franz Vitzthum has made guest appearances at international festivals including the Händel-Festspiele Göttingen, Kultursommer Rheinland-Pfalz, Oude Muziek Festival Utrecht, La Folle Journée Nantes, The Bach Festival Philadelphia (USA) and has performed with such orchestras as the Chamber Orchestra Basel Barock and The English Concert. ..“ Visit website for more information. (ed.)

Added on: Apr 27, 2009 | Hits: 1858

" The Renaissance Singers were founded in 1972. The choir's early reputation was based on its polished performances of Renaissance a capella literature. Today, the choir sings music from the masters of all centuries. The Renaissance Singers have also commissioned and premiered the works of leading Canadian composers. Every year, the Singers perform four Saturday and Sunday concerts in the Waterloo Region.

The choir was the first Canadian choir to sing in the fringe of The Three Choirs Festival, the oldest music festival in the world. In 1989, the choir was invited to return, becoming the first Canadian choir to sing in the main festival. The choir has been on tour four times, and has sung n Westminster Abbey, Yorkminster, and the cathedrals of Canterbury, Chichester, Ely, Guildford, Norwich, Salisbury, Wells, Winchester, St. George's Chapel, Lincoln, St. Alban's and Ripon. The highly regarded chamber choir has four recordings to its credit, with plans for more in the near future. " Visit website for more information. (ed.)

Added on: Nov 16, 2008 | Hits: 1754

“The ensemble Encantar was founded end 2006 by four young female singers.

They set themselves a target to study the rich polyfonic repertoire of the 14th, 15th and 16th centuries in order to present it in a contemporary way to the public. The ensemble investigates the possibility to perform with female voices this repertoire that was written originally for men’s voices.  

Encantar mainly focusses on religious repertoire of Flemish, Spanish and Italian composers, next to anonymous works and French and English compositions of the same period. Encantar made a special program for ‘Jeugd & Muziek‘ entitled “Mix Méditerrané“ featuring some great works of southern polyphonists such as Cristobal de Morales, Francisco Guerrero, Bernardo Pisano, Costanzo Festa and Giovanni Perluigi da Palestrina. Encantar cooperated for this production with Hendrik De Smedt (actor) under direction of Maja Jantar.

Recently, Encantar has been on tour with “La déclinaison de la femme“ a program featuring Marguerite of Austria (1480-1530).

In 2009, Encantar won the Klara Tandemtrofee 2009, together with the Audience Prize and the Radio Klara Prize.

Encantar followed masterclasses with Erik Van Nevel, Jean Tubéry and Marcel Pérès. Every year, the ensemble travels to Arezzo (Italy) to be coached by Jill Feldman and Kees Boeke.

Two recordings have been made so far, one together with the recorder consort Flanders Recorder Quartet (Aeolus) (release December 2010) and one with two lutes and renaissance harp for the label Phaedra (release May 2011).

In July 2011, Encantar won the York Early Music Festival Friends ‘ Prize.“

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Added on: Jul 21, 2011 | Hits: 1744

“Collegium Vocale Gent was founded in 1970 on the initiative of Philippe Herreweghe. It was one of the first ensembles to use the then-new ideas about baroque practice in vocal music performances. Musicians such as Gustav Leonhardt, Ton Koopman and Nikolaus Harnoncourt immediately took an interest in the Flemish ensemble’s fresh, new approach, which led to intensive collaboration. In the mid-1980s the ensemble acquired international fame and was invited to all the major concert halls and music festivals of Europe, Israel, the United States, Russian, South America, Japan, Hong Kong and Australia. ..“ 

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Added on: Apr 20, 2009 | Hits: 1723

“Dominique Visse began his singing career at the age of 11 as a chorister in the Cathedral of Notre Dame in Paris. At the same time he began studying the organ and flute at the Versailles Conservatory.

Already passionate about Renaissance and Mediaeval music, in 1976 he met the grand pioneer of the countertenor voice, Alfred Deller, and became his pupil. He also worked with Nigel Rogers, René Jacobs and William Christie.

In 1978 Dominique Visse founded the Ensemble Clément Janequin with whom he has made a series of benchmark recordings of French polyphonic chansons of the 16th Century. The following year he became one of the founding members of Les Arts Florissants and edited much of the ensemble's repertoire in its early years.

Since that time Dominique Visse has become one of the most popular lyric artists in the world of Baroque opera, working with René Jacobs, Jean-Claude Malgoire, Philippe Herreweghe, Ton Koopman, William Christie, Alan Curtis, Nicholas McGegan, Christophe Rousset, Ivor Bolton and Robert King, in the opera houses of Paris, Berlin, Cologne, Amsterdam, Lausanne, Tel-Aviv, Montpellier, Houston, Barcelona, Munich, Versailles, at the Monnaie in Brussels, at the Châtelet and the Théâtre des Champs Elysées in Paris, on tour in Japan and North America, and at the Festivals of Aix en Provence, Innsbruck and Edinburgh. ..”

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Added on: May 18, 2009 | Hits: 1720

“Internationally renowned, Acadian soprano Suzie LeBlanc has established an extraordinary career specializing in Baroque and Classical repertoire and exploring and recording a substantial amount of unpublished material while living in Europe. Her thirst and curiosity for new vistas now lead her toward the repertoire of French mélodies, lieder, Acadian folk music, contemporary music as well as exploring the art of improvisation with Helmut Lipsky and « Au parfum de Tango ».

Her contribution to Acadian culture with the CDs La Mer Jolie and Tout passe and with the documentary Suzie LeBlanc : A Musical Quest, directed by Donald Winkler, along with her performances of Early Music have earned her honorary doctorates from King’s College University in Halifax and Mount Allison University in New-Brunswick. …

She has worked with many of the world’s leading early music ensembles in concert and opera performances as well as on film and on disc. Concerts have taken her to Festivals all over the world as well as to the Concertgebouw (Amsterdam), the Wigmore Hall and the Konzerthaus in Vienna. On the opera stage, she has performed for De Nederlandse Opera, Festival de Beaune, Opéra de Montréal, the Boston Early Music Festival, Tanglewood, Festival Vancouver and Early Music Vancouver.

In recent seasons, she recorded Mozart’s Die Zauberflöte (Pamina) with La Petite Bande (Bayer Records) and Mozart lieder with Yannick Nézet-Seguin (ATMA) and returned to the Brooklyn Academy of Music for Bach’s St-Matthew Passion as staged by Jonathan Miller. Other recent recordings include Lully’s Thésée (CPO), Gluck’s Orphée (Naxos), Buxtehude motets with Emma Kirkby, Peter Harvey and the Purcell Symphony (Chandos), and a Handel Portrait (ATMA). …

Suzie LeBlanc is artistic director of Le Nouvel Opéra (www.lenouvelopera.com) which is ensemble-in-residence at the Montreal Conservatory and co-artisic director of the Elizabeth Bishop Centenary Festival (2011) in Nova Scotia (www.elizabethbishopcentenary.blogspot.com).”

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Added on: Mar 28, 2012 | Hits: 1659

"TACTUS, an eight-voice vocal ensemble, specializes in repertoire of the European Renaissance and is dedicated to musical scholarship and excellence in performance techniques. Performing without a conductor and usually a capella, the ensemble's work emanates from their combined skills and experience and from their intuitive connections to each other and to their passion for early music.

TACTUS has sung at the Guelph Spring Festival, Toronto's Hummingbird Centre and has been featured on CBC Radio Two's Music Around Us and Choral Concert. TACTUS was featured in Soul Music, a Vision TV documentary hosted by Howard Dyck. Artistic collaborations with Dancetheatre David Earle, the Toronto Bach Consort, Tafelmusik's Charlotte Nediger and Sergei Istomin, Arbor Oak Ensemble, the Penderecki String Quartet and NUMUS have enabled TACTUS to branch into Baroque, 19th century and contemporary repertoire. " Visit website for more information. (ed.)

Added on: Nov 16, 2008 | Hits: 1655

“ARS NOVA Copenhagen is widely recognized as one of the finest vocal groups in Europe. Founded in 1979, the ensemble today is busier than ever. In addition to its annual season of concerts in Copenhagen and throughout Denmark, the ensemble regularly appears across Europe, in North and South America, and Asia. Ars Nova is also building collaborations with creative artists in different fields such as drama, film and ballet, as well as cultivating new modes of concert performance and innovative repertoire.

At the heart of ARS NOVA Copenhagen’s work is its equal dedication to early music and new music. Some programs explore the cross-currents between the two, while others form detailed portraits of individual composers or genres within a given period.

Each season, the group has a composer in residence: Toivo Tulev (Estonia) in 2007-8, Bernd Franke (Germany) 2008-9, Sunleif Rasmussen (Faroe Islands) 2009-10, Áskell Másson (Iceland) 2010-11 and Steve Martland (UK) in 2011-12.

The group has its own record label, ARS NOVA Records (distributed by Naxos) on which ‘Taverner & Tudor Music II - Gloria tibi Trinitas Mass’ is the most recent release. Other recordings – like ‘Taverner & Tudor Music I’, the voices-and-percussion version of Terry Riley’s ‘60s masterpiece 'In C' and 'The Christmas Story' told through plainchant, motets and traditional folk carols -  all received great reviews all over the world. …”

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Added on: Feb 23, 2012 | Hits: 1588

"La Trulla de Bozes was founded in 1998 by Carlos Sandúa to explore and perform the renaissance and early baroque Spanish polyphonic vocal repertoire.

After a first establishment period, in the year 2000 La Trulla de Bozes attracted the attention of the European environment specialized in early music when they obtained the first prize in the noted competition for ensembles of the XXXVII Festival Van Vlaanderen in Brugge. During the same year the group was named Revelation Ensemble after winning The International Young Artists Presentation/Early Music in Antwerp becoming the only Spanish group that have obtained these prizes.

The standard staff of the group is formed by five singers and one organist/harpsichordist. The group can increase the number of singers and instrumentalists according with the repertoire demands. All members of the ensemble are thoroughly familiarized with the performance practice of the early music, having worked individually with the finest groups specialised in this field, such as Les Arts Florissants (William Christie), La Capilla Reial de Catalunya (Jordi Savall), Ensemble Elyma, (Gabriel Garrido), Les musiciens du Louvre (Mark Minkovski), Al ayre español (Eduardo López-Banzo)… "

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Added on: Jul 15, 2008 | Hits: 1530

"John Potter's musical collaborators include the composer Ambrose Field, video artist Michael Lynch and the lutenist Ariel Abramovich, as well as The Dowland Project, Red Byrd and the Gavin Bryars Ensemble. He is a member of the German ensemble The Sound & The Fury, and with fellow tenor Christopher O’Gorman is a part of the Hyperion/University of Southampton Conductus Project. A writer and scholar as well as a singer, he has published four books on singing and is a former British Library Edison Fellow. He is Reader Emeritus in Music at the University of York, having left the university in 2010 to focus on his portfolio of freelance activities.

John's eclectic performing experience has ranged from first performances of works by Berio, Stockhausen, James Dillon and Michael Finnissy to backing vocals for Manfred Mann, Mike Oldfield and The Who (among others). Red Byrd, the group he founded with bass Richard Wistreich, has recorded music as diverse as Monteverdi (both straight and with electric guitars), Leonin (3 albums for Hyperion) and the Led Zeppelin bassist John Paul Jones (for Factory Records). He was a major contributor to the Hilliard Ensemble’s Officium project (for which he has five gold discs), and subsequently developed many of the ideas in The Dowland Project’s four albums for ECM; he also produced the first three ECM albums by the Scandinavian trio mediaeval.

Current projects include multimedia presentations of music by Ambrose Field (Being Dufay and its successor, both with films by Michael Lynch) and the Conductus Project (three albums for Hyperion with associated live performances also with films by Michael Lynch). His lute song repertoire ranges from Thomas Ford to Benedetto Ferrari and beyond, and includes programmes of Dowland and Campion. He also works with vihuela on the 15th/16th century ‘intabulation’ repertory, and with chitarrone on later music by Blow, Purcell and others."

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Added on: Apr 08, 2008 | Hits: 1527

“ensemble officium was founded by Wilfried Rombach in 1999.

In the past few years, ensemble officium has made an excellent name for itself with its interpretations of Renaissance music and Gregorian chant and has become internationally well-known. It usually consists of twelve singers.
   
ensemble officium carries out thorough research, performs scholarly interpretations of Renaissance vocal polyphony and pays close attention to the semiotics and nuance of Gregorian chant. The intense studies of the scores lead time and again to fascinating discoveries, such as “The Loreto Vespers” for 12 voices by Antonio Cifra (1629). By performing the music as authentically as possible, the ensemble creates a unique and absorbing atmosphere. Works of sacred music from the Middle Ages, based on liturgical texts and retaining original liturgical framework, are also part of the ensemble’s specialties. In this way, the close connection between early vocal polyphony and Gregorian chant can ably be demonstrated.

ensemble officium not only experiments with integrating new music. Every so often, the group includes music of the Franco-Flemish School. Here, the focus lies in particular on Heinrich Isaac and his generation of composers. …”

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Added on: Jan 30, 2012 | Hits: 1520