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The orchestra Les Muffatti was created in 1996 in and around the Royal Conservatory of Brussels by a group of twelve idealistic musicians who wanted to ensure that the Baroque music repertoire for string orchestra was sufficiently addressed in their education. The members agreed to work on several projects per year, inviting a different music director for each one.
When the group began to realize that its potential as a steady ensemble was growing quickly, and each member had specialized in Baroque strings, they decided, by the end of 2003, to present Les Muffatti to the public and give it a more official character. The group attracted new members and began to look for a regular music director, settling on Peter Van Heyghen, an internationally recognized specialist in performance practices of Renaissance and Baroque music. In June 2004, the ensemble performed its debut concert in Brussels under his direction.
Les Muffatti was promptly noticed by several concert organizers, and immediately invited to present concerts at the Concertgebouw, Bruges, the Handel Akademie in Karlsruhe, the Aqua Musica festival in Amsterdam, the festival Musica Antiqua Bruges, the Holland Oude Muziek festival in Utrecht, the Musica Sacra festival in Maastricht, and the Bozar concert series in Brussels.
The name Les Muffatti reflects not only what the ensemble considers to be its basic repertoire, but also its approach to performance practice. Georg Muffat (1653-1704), a cosmopolitan composer, is a key historical figure in the creation of the string orchestra, and one of the first authors to have clearly mapped out the main differences between French and Italian musical styles around 1700.
Les Muffatti's favorite repertoire consists of the various sinfonias, sonatas, concertos, and overtures for string orchestra composed between c. 1680 and 1740 by such composers as Georg Muffat, Arcangelo Corelli, Georg Philipp Telemann, Georg Friedrich Handel, and many others.
Future plans include focusing on Italian oratorios, serenatas, and intermezzi by Alessandro Scarlatti, Giovanni Bononcini, Antonio Caldara, Johann Adolph Hasse, and others; these are all compositions for string orchestra with an extended continuo section, a few vocal soloists, and the occasional wind instrument.
For these two types of repertoire, the ensemble attempts to present to the listener as many scores as possible, the original materials of which are preserved in Belgian music libraries.
From 2007 to 2009 Peter Van Heyghen will be artist in residence of the Augustinus Muziekcentrum (AMUZ) in Antwerp.
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Trevor David Pinnock is a British harpsichordist and conductor.
Georg Muffat was a Baroque composer and organist. He is best known for the remarkably articulate and informative performance directions printed along with his collections of string pieces Florilegium Primum and Florilegium Secundum in 1695 and 1698.
This is a list of notable events in music that took place in the year 1735.
This is a list of notable events in music that took place in the year 1734.
This is a list of notable events in music that took place in the year 1733.
The year 1726 in music involved some significant events.
The year 1721 in music involved some significant events.
Christophe Rousset is a French harpsichordist and conductor, who specializes in the performance of Baroque music on period instruments. He is also a musicologist, particularly of opera and European music of the 17th and 18th centuries and is the founder of the French music ensemble Les Talens Lyriques.
Fabio Biondi is an Italian violinist and conductor. He is a specialist in Baroque and early music.
The French musical ensemble Les Talens Lyriques was created in 1991 in Paris, France, by the harpsichordist and orchestral conductor Christophe Rousset. This instrumental and vocal formation derives its name from the subtitle of Les fêtes d'Hébé (1739) an opera by Jean-Philippe Rameau.
Vittorio Ghielmi is an Italian musician, conductor, compose Compared by critics to Jasha Heifetz ("Diapason") for his virtuosity, and described as "An Alchemist of sound" for the intensity and versatility of his musical interpretations, Vittorio Ghielmi attracted notice while still very young for his new approach to the viola da gamba and to the sound of early music repertoire. He is Professor for viola da gamba and Head of the Department für Alte Musik at the Mozarteum Universität Salzburg and visiting professor at the Royal College of London. He is graduate at the Università Cattolica di Milano.
New Collegium is a baroque orchestra and chamber ensemble based in The Netherlands. The orchestra was founded in 2006 by Brazilian/Italian harpsichordist Claudio Ribeiro.
La Petite Bande is a Belgium-based ensemble specialising in music of the Baroque and Classical eras played on period instruments. They are particularly known for their recordings of works by Corelli, Rameau, Handel, Bach, Haydn, and Mozart.
Michael Schneider is a German flautist, recorder player, conductor and academic teacher. He is especially connected with later Baroque repertoire such as the works of Telemann and with early Classical repertoire such as the works of Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach, and founded the orchestra La Stagione to perform and record such repertoire.
Alexis Kossenko is a French contemporary flautist, conductor and musicologist.
B'Rock Orchestra is a Belgian Baroque orchestra. The orchestra combines works by established baroque composers like Johann Sebastian Bach, Antonio Vivaldi and Georg Friedrich Händel with the lesser-known repertoire of the 17th and 18th centuries like Georg Philipp Telemann, Alessandro Scarlatti and Giovanni Battista Pergolesi. In addition, the orchestra focuses on giving first performances of new music written with its historic instruments in mind. The orchestra also has a reputation for cross-genre productions like Early Music in combination with theatre, opera, visual art, dance and/or video.
Anne Schumann is a German violinist and docent in Baroque music.
Valer Barna-Săbăduș, also Valer Sabadus, is a Romanian-German countertenor. He sings in both the alto and soprano range.
The La Folia Barockorchester is a Baroque orchestra dedicated to historically informed performance. It was founded in Dresden, Saxony, Germany, in 2007 by Robin Peter Müller, who has been its artistic director and concert master. Named after "La Folia", it is focused on music that was performed at the court of Dresden, which they have played at international festivals, and recorded.
Kate Clark is a solo, chamber, and orchestral flutist based in Amsterdam, The Netherlands. She is a specialist in the performance and performance practice of historical flutes from the renaissance to the early modern period, and teacher of historical flutes at the Royal Conservatory of The Hague.
