List of early music ensembles explained
An early music ensemble is a musical ensemble that specializes in performing early music of the European classical tradition from the Baroque era and earlier – broadly, music produced before about 1750. Most, but not all, of these groups are advocates of historically informed performance, and attempt to re-create the music as it might have sounded at the time it was written, using period instruments and modifying playing techniques according to the most recent scholarly research into music of the time.
Names in parentheses below indicate current directors, unless otherwise indicated.
List of ensembles
Australia
Austria
Belgium
Canada
Colombia
Czech Republic
Denmark
Estonia
Finland
France
Germany
- Akademie für Alte Musik Berlin: baroque orchestra
- Pera Ensemble: baroque orchestra, Alla Turca
- Cantus Cölln (Konrad Junghänel): Renaissance and baroque vocal
- La Capella Ducale Musica Fiata (Roland Wilson)
- Cologne Chamber Orchestra (Helmut Müller-Brühl): baroque orchestra
- Concerto Köln: baroque orchestra; concert master: Evgeny Sviridov, guest conductors inc. Evelino Pidò, Daniel Harding
- Ensemble amarcord, Leipzig, vocal ensemble, medieval, Renaissance, contemporary
- Ensemble Santenay, Trossingen, Germany: Renaissance choral
- Ensemble Schirokko Hamburg
baroque orchestra
Greece
Iceland
Israel
- Jerusalem Baroque Orchestra: baroque orchestra (music director: David Shemer)
- Accademia Daniel: baroque chamber group
- Ensemble PHOENIX on period instruments: broad ensemble performing from Middle Ages to Early Romantic music on period instruments, working since 1998 (conductor & musical director Myrna Herzog)[1] [2]
- Profeti della Quinta, Israel/Switzerland: vocal ensemble
- Barrocade: baroque orchestra (music director: Amit Tiefenbrunn)
Italy
Japan
Latvia
- Canto (Andris Gailis), Riga: Renaissance and baroque vocal and instrumental music
- Collegium Choro Musici Riga (Māris Kupčs): baroque choir
- Collegium Musicum Riga (Māris Kupčs): baroque orchestra
- Lirum, Riga: Renaissance vocal music ensemble
- Ludus (Māra Birziņa), Riga: late Renaissance to early baroque (chamber music)
- Schola Cantorum Riga (Guntars Prānis): gregorian and early medieval chants
- Trakula: medieval and Renaissance vocal and instrumental music
Netherlands
Poland
Portugal
- Concerto Atlântico (Pedro Caldeira Cabral): medieval to baroque
- Officium Ensemble (Pedro Teixeira): renaissance
- Il Dolcimelo (Isabel Monteiro): Renaissance
- Orquestra Barroca Casa da Música (Laurence Cummings): baroque orchestra
- AVRES SERVA (Nuno Oliveira): early baroque to early classical
- CONCERTO IBÉRICO ORQUESTRA BARROCA (João Paulo Janeiro): baroque orchestra
- FLORES DE MVSICA (João Paulo Janeiro): instrumental and vocal ensemble, renaissance to classical
Russia
Serbia
- Ensemble Renaissance, Belgrade: medieval and Renaissance
- Ensemble Musica Antiqua Consort, Belgrade (1977): Medieval and Renaissance, also Baroque (vocal-instrumental ensemble, founder and director: Vera Zlokovich)
- Ensemble Musica Antiqua Serbiana, Belgrade (1987): Medieval vocal music of the Orthodox spiritual tradition (ensemble founder and director: Vera Zlokovich)
- New Trinity Baroque (Predrag Gosta), Belgrade
South Korea
Spain
Switzerland
Taiwan
- Baroque Camerata[3]
- Formosan Baroque[4]
- The Gleam Ensemble[5]
United Kingdom
- Academy of Ancient Music (Christopher Hogwood founder, currently Laurence Cummings): baroque orchestra
- Alamire (David Skinner): vocal consort
- Avison Ensemble: baroque orchestra
- The Band of Instruments: baroque orchestra, New Chamber Opera
- Brandenburg Consort (Roy Goodman): baroque orchestra
- Brecon Baroque (Rachel Podger): baroque orchestra
- The Brook Street Band, Handel specialists
- Cancionero, Kent
- Cantilena (Adrian Shepherd): baroque on modern instruments
- The Cardinall's Musick (Andrew Carwood): choir
- City Waites (inc. Lucie Skeaping): medieval to baroque English music and folk
- Collegium Musicum 90 (Simon Standage), English baroque orchestra
- The Consort of Musicke (Anthony Rooley): Renaissance vocal, madrigals
- Deller Consort (founded by Alfred Deller d.): Renaissance and baroque chamber
- Dufay Collective: William Lyons, artistic director, medieval and renaissance instrumental and vocal
- Dunedin Consort Director John Butt. Based in Scotland.
- Early Music Consort of London (David Munrow d.): medieval, defunct
- Early Opera Company: baroque opera
- English Baroque Soloists (John Eliot Gardiner): baroque and classical-era music
- The English Concert (Trevor Pinnock founder, then Andrew Manze, now Harry Bicket)
- Ex Cathedra (Jeffrey Skidmore): choir and baroque orchestra
- I Fagiolini: vocal consort, madrigals
- Florilegium, London: baroque
- Fretwork: viol consort
- Gabrieli Consort & Players (Paul McCreesh): baroque choir and orchestra
- Gothic Voices (Christopher Page): medieval and Renaissance music
- The Hanover Band: period instrument orchestra
- The Harp Consort (Andrew Lawrence-King): Renaissance consort
- The Hilliard Ensemble (formerly directed by Paul Hillier): medieval, Renaissance and contemporary music
- The King's Consort (Robert King): baroque orchestra; see also Retrospect Ensemble
- King's Singers: vocal sextet
- London Baroque (founded in 1978 by Ingrid Seifert and Charles Medlam): baroque chamber orchestra
- Magpie Lane, Oxfordshire: folk band
- Musica Reservata (John S. Beckett), London
- New London Consort (Philip Pickett): medieval to baroque orchestra
- Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment: baroque orchestra
- Orchestre Révolutionnaire et Romantique (John Eliot Gardiner): classical and romantic orchestra
- Orlando Consort: vocal quartet
- Oxford Camerata (Jeremy Summerly): Renaissance choral
- Palladian Ensemble, British instrumental ensemble (co-founded by Rachel Podger)
- The Parley of Instruments (Roy Goodman): baroque orchestra
- Phantasm: viol consort
- Philip Jones Brass Ensemble (Philip Jones): brass quintet
- Polyphony (Stephen Layton): Renaissance, romantic and contemporary music
- Pro Cantione Antiqua: Renaissance choral
- Raglan Baroque Players (Nicholas Kraemer): baroque orchestra
- Red Priest: baroque orchestra, specializing in Vivaldi
- Retrospect Ensemble: baroque orchestra
- Rose Consort of Viols
- La Serenissima (Adrian Chandler): baroque orchestra, Vivaldi
- The Sixteen (Harry Christophers): mostly a cappella music of the Renaissance, with baroque orchestra for Handel
- Solistes de Musique Ancienne: baroque orchestra and choir
- Sounds Baroque (Julian Perkins): period instrument ensemble
- Stile Antico: early music vocal ensemble
- Tallis Scholars (Peter Phillips): a cappella Renaissance music
- Taverner Consort and Players (Andrew Parrott): Renaissance choir and baroque orchestra
- Theatre of Voices: vocal consort
- Tonus Peregrinus (Antony Pitts): Renaissance and contemporary choir
- Trinity Baroque, Trinity College, Cambridge: vocal ensemble
- Voces8: vocal ensemble
- Westminster Abbey Choir (Simon Preston)
- Westminster Cathedral Choir (David Hill)
United States
- Alkemie Early Music Ensemble
- American Bach Soloists
- Anonymous 4: all-female a cappella ensemble specializing in medieval music
- Apollo's Fire (Jeannette Sorrell), Cleveland: Renaissance, baroque, early classical orchestra
- Arcadia Players
- Asteria Medievale, duo, New York: Renaissance chansons
- Austin Baroque Orchestra & Chorus: baroque orchestra and choir specializing in Iberian and Latin American early music
- Bach Ensemble (Joshua Rifkin): baroque soloists and orchestra
- Bach Sinfonia (Daniel Abraham), Maryland
- Baltimore Consort
- Blue Heron, Boston
- Boston Baroque (Martin Pearlman): baroque orchestra
- Boston Camerata (Anne Azéma)
- Boston Early Music Festival: baroque orchestra and opera company
- Bourbon Baroque (Nicolas Fortin and John Austin Clark): baroque orchestra
- Camerata Mediterranea (Joel Cohen)
- Chanticleer: choir
- Early Music New York, medieval, Renaissance, baroque and classical
- Ensemble Alcatraz (Shira Kammen): medieval
- Fanfare Barok, baroque, Washington, D.C.
- Folger Consort
- Handel and Haydn Society, Boston: baroque choir and orchestra
- Indianapolis Baroque Orchestra (Barthold Kuijken)
- Istanpitta Early Music Ensemble (Albert Cofrin): Medieval
- Lyra Baroque Orchestra (Jacques Ogg): baroque to early classical orchestra
- Magnificat Baroque Ensemble
- Music of the Baroque (Jane Glover), Chicago
- Musica Angelica (Martin Haselböck), Los Angeles
- New Trinity Baroque (Predrag Gosta), Atlanta
- New York Collegium (Andrew Parrott), dissolved
- New York Polyphony
- New York Pro Musica Antiqua (Noah Greenberg d. 1966, then John Reeves White to 1974): choir, defunct
- Newberry Consort, at the Newberry Library: baroque chamber
- North Carolina Baroque Orchestra, Davidson, NC
- Opera Lafayette: pre-1800 opera
- Philharmonia Baroque Orchestra (Nicholas McGegan): baroque orchestra
- Piffaro, The Renaissance Band, Philadelphia
- Portland Baroque Orchestra (Julian Perkins)
- Project Ars Nova (inc. Crawford Young): medieval
- Renaissance Street Singers, New York City, a cappella Renaissance
- Rose Ensemble Jordan Sramek, St. Paul
- Schola Antiqua of Chicago
- Texas Early Music Project, Austin, Texas
- Tempesta di Mare: The Philadelphia Baroque Orchestra (Gwyn Roberts)
- TENET (ensemble), now known as TENET Vocal Artists, New York, NY
- Three Notch'd Road: The Virginia Baroque Ensemble, Charlottesville, VA
- Virginia Tech Early Music Ensemble
- Voices of Music, San Francisco, California
- Wyoming Baroque, Sheridan, Wyoming
Unspecified or international
References
- Web site: Ensemble PHOENIX . .
- Web site: Ensemble PHOENIX, Israel - YouTube . .
- Web site: Baroque Camerata . 2023-11-05.
- Web site: Formosan Baroque . 2023-11-05.
- Web site: The Gleam Ensemble Taiwan . 2023-11-05.
