Andreas Arend
Andreas Arend studied music in Hamburg with Eicke Funck and Wulfin Lieske, focusing on guitar, and attended composition lectures with Manfred Stahnke and Alfred Schnittke. He later continued his studies in Berlin, specializing in lute with Nigel North and Elizabeth Kenny. Since 2002, he has been based in Berlin.
He performs internationally as a soloist with lute repertoire, as a chamber musician, and with orchestras. He also creates his own productions with Artemision Ensemble and Metamorphosen Musiktheater. With the latter, he initiated a Berlin concert series combining literature and music.
He has participated in more than 40 CD recordings, including Baroque with Nils Mönkemeyer. From 2007 to 2011, he taught early music at the Royal Danish Academy of Music, and since 2013 has taught at University of Music and Theatre Rostock.
Arte dei Suonatori
The most recognizable Polish ensemble on the international music scene performing the music of past eras in a historically informed manner formed by violinists Ewa and Arek Golinski. After years of joint and individual experience, the musicians’ artistic search focuses on a constant exploration of the core of the musical language of composers of past eras, which, combined with historical instruments, has led to the creation of a style that is both historical, modern and thoroughly individual. The vast repertoire of this ensemble exceeds 700 compositions, representing a wide-range of styles and forms from the 17th and 18th century as well as the contemporary era.
Over 30 years in operation Arte dei Suonatori have recorded and released 18 albums produced by renowned record companies (including BIS Records, Alpha, Channel Classics), distinguished by international music critics with awards such as Gramophone Award (Recording of the Year: Concerto in 2003 for Vivaldi’s Violin Concerti “La Stravaganza”) amongst many others.
Concerto Copenhagen
For more than 30 years, Concerto Copenhagen has explored and performed the music of the Baroque, Viennese Classical, and early Romantic periods with historical awareness and artistic integrity, and today stands as an international leader in its field. Musical director Lars Ulrik Mortensen and Concerto Copenhagen combine artistic authenticity with innovation, bringing new life and relevance to the music for modern audiences through original interpretations.
The orchestra’s musicians belong to the international elite of baroque performers, and since its first concerts in 1991, Concerto Copenhagen has been on an exciting artistic and musical journey, earning acclaim from audiences and critics around the world. With a repertoire that combines well-known European music with lesser-known Scandinavian works as well as contemporary compositions, the orchestra celebrated its 30th anniversary in 2021 and was subsequently named P2 Artist of the Year in 2022.
Iestyn Davies
Iestyn Davies is internationally recognised as one of the leading countertenors of his generation, celebrated for the beauty and technical agility of his voice as well as his intelligent musicianship. His awards include two Gramophone Awards, a Grammy Awards, the Royal Philharmonic Society Awards Young Artist Award, and the Critics’ Circle Awards for Exceptional Young Talent. In 2017, he was appointed MBE for services to music.
Born in York into a musical family, he sang as a chorister at St John’s College, Cambridge before studying archaeology and anthropology there, later continuing his vocal studies at the Royal Academy of Music, where he is now a Fellow.
His operatic appearances include productions at Glyndebourne Festival Opera, English National Opera, The Metropolitan Opera, Royal Opera House, Houston Grand Opera, and Teatro alla Scala, performing works by composers such as Claudio Monteverdi, George Frideric Handel, Benjamin Britten, and George Benjamin. In 2015, he appeared alongside Mark Rylance in Farinelli and the King at the Shakespeare’s Globe and later in the West End and on Broadway.
Girls’ Choir of Fredensborg Slotskirke – Cille Buch, conductor
Cille Buch trained as a classical singer and vocal teacher at the Royal Danish Academy of Music in Copenhagen. Since then, she has worked as a freelance opera singer, vocal teacher for the DR Girls’ Choir, choir director of Fredensborg Palace Chapel Girls’ Choir, and of Vokalensemblet Suona. For many years, Cille Buch has focused on working with young voices and has established a learning environment and choir school in North Zealand with singers ranging from 5 to 35 years old.
In recent years, Fredensborg Palace Chapel Girls’ Choir has developed into one of Denmark’s leading choirs for equal voices and is in demand for concert collaborations with established artists, in addition to presenting its own concerts and studio recordings. The choir performs 25–30 concerts annually and is also employed by Fredensborg Palace Chapel and Asminderød Church, where its members participate in approximately 100 high mass services and musical church services each year in various formations.
The choir’s repertoire spans a wide range of styles, from sacred music to newly composed works and popular music.
Reiko Ichise
Tokyo born viola da gamba player Reiko is one of the most sought after musicians in the UK. After reading musicology, Reiko left Japan to the UK to pursue her study of viola da gamba at the Royal College of Music. Reiko’s passion for chamber music led her to be a member of several prestigious ensembles such as Florilegium, Passacaglia, The King’s Consort, Bach Players and the Elephant House Quartet. Reiko has made numerous critically acclaimed cd recordings and radio broadcasts. From 2009 to 2017, Reiko was a member of award- winning viol consort Fretwork with whom she had a privilege in performing both old and new music.
As a soloist, she is in great demand, regularly performing with many leading orchestras including Academy of Ancient Music, English Baroque Soloists, Gabrieli Consort, Arte dei Suonatori, Britten Sinfonia, Halle Orchestra, appearing in many international festivals and series. Reiko is a viola da gamba professor at the Royal College of Music and lives in London.
Elizabeth Kenny
Elizabeth Kenny is one of Europe’s leading lute players. Her playing has been described as “incandescent” (Music and Vision), “radical” (The Independent on Sunday) and “indecently beautiful” (Toronto Post).
In thirty years of touring, she has played with many of the world’s best period instrument groups and experienced many different approaches to music making. She now concentrates on smaller collaborations and recitals, both solo, and with friends and colleagues who inspire her. Her love of seventeenth century theatre has lead her to direct programmes with Theatre of the Ayre, and to appear as a guest director for projects where singers and players work on equal terms. Since 2020 she has been Dean of Students at the Royal Academy of Music alongside her teaching of the lute and related plucked instruments.
Leif Meyer
Leif Meyer (harpsichord & organ) studied organ with Professor Hans Fagius at the Royal Danish Academy of Music and also studied harpsichord with Karen Englund and Lars Ulrik Mortensen. He has participated in masterclasses with, among others, Harald Vogel, Hans-Ola Ericsson, and Christophe Rousset.
Leif Meyer has performed both in Denmark and abroad with ensembles such as Ars Nova Copenhagen, Leipziger Kammerorchester, and The Harp Consort, and has contributed to numerous radio broadcasts and CD recordings. Since 2011, Leif Meyer has been affiliated with the Royal Danish Academy of Music as a part-time lecturer in basso continuo.
Hille Perl
Musician, gamba-player, has played music as long as she can think. For her, music is the foremost means of communication between human beings, more precise and intense and unmistakable than language, of greater emotional significance than any other experience besides love. To her, music is a means of connecting not only the past and the future but also a way of socially integrating the most conflicting aspects of existence.
She travels the world, playing concerts and recording CDs with different groups or soloizing, mostly in the field of 17th and 18th century music but also letting the music take her to places she never even dreamed of.
When she is not travelling she lives in a farmhouse in northern Germany with her family and a few chickens, horses, cats and rabbits.
She passionately teaches her students at the University of the Arts in Bremen, Germany, everything she knows about music, playing the gamba, and how not to be jealous if someone plays better than you.
Michala Petri
Michala Petri started playing the recorder at the age of 3. Since the age of 17 had a full time international career unusual for her instrument and has in many countries brought the recorder to the concert stages alongside more established concert instruments. She has performed more than 5.000 concerts around the world in major concert halls and festivals and has a discography of more than 80 critically-acclaimed and award winning recordings.
Her repertoire spans the Baroque, Classical, and Romantic eras and extends into contemporary and improvised music and multi-media. More than 150 works have been commissioned and composed especially for her.
Petri’s personal honors and awards include Wilhelm Hansen Music Prize 1998; Léonie Sonnings Music Prize 2000; European Soloist Prize Pro Europa 2005; Knight of the Dannebrog, 1. Rank in 2011; nominatons for Nordic Council Music Prize 1996 and 2015; and Danish Radio Artist of the year 2019.
Allan Rasmussen
Allan Rasmussen graduated from the Royal Danish Academy of Music, making his soloist debut in organ and harpsichord in 1993.
In addition to his work as organist at Frederiksberg Church, he is active internationally as an organ soloist, conductor, and chamber musician, primarily with the ensembles Arte dei Suonatori and Baroque Fever. He has also appeared as a harpsichord soloist with a number of Nordic symphony orchestras.
He received the Musikanmelderringens Kunstnerpris in 1999.
Bolette Roed
Bolette Roed graduated from the advanced solo performance class at the Royal Danish Academy of Music in Copenhagen. Soon after her debut, she was appointed Artist-in-Residence with Danish National Radio and nominated for the Nordic Council’s Music Prize in 2011. She received the Grand Prize of the Jacob Gade Foundation in 2003 and “The Danish Music Critics Prize” in 2014, and was selected for the Danish State Art Council’s “Young Elite” program.
A versatile musician, Bolette works with classical recorder repertoire as well as improvisation, folk, and world music. Her range spans from medieval and baroque to contemporary, and she has premiered numerous works. She continually seeks to expand the recorder’s musical scope.
Since 2004, Bolette has toured as a soloist with ensembles including Arte dei Suonatori, Concerto Copenhagen, the Danish National Symphony Orchestra, Holland Baroque, and the Royal Danish Orchestra. She also performs with her own ensembles Alpha, Concert Pastoral, and Elephant House Quartet. Her CD releases include the first-ever recording of Frans Brüggen’s complete arrangements for recorder of J. S. Bach’s solo cello suites and violin partitas, and a selection of Vivaldi’s violin concertos.
Veronika Skuplik
The internationally renowned violinist Veronika Skuplik finds her artistic sphere of activity in touring, teaching and recordings. She primarily plays in solo ensembles such as Concerto Palatino, Weser-Renaissance Bremen, the FBO Consort la dolcezza and with her duo partners Andreas Arend (lute) and Jörg Jacobi (organ). UrgentMusic is her ensemble, in which she meets with passionate musicians she holds in high esteem.
She was artist in residence at the Festival Oude Musik in Utrecht in 2011 and at the Festivalul de Musica Veche Timisoara in 2012. She is a lecturer for baroque violin and viola as well as ensemble playing at the Hochschule für Künste in Bremen and gives masterclasses in Sweden, the Netherlands, Germany, New York (Carnegie Hall) etc. She has been a lecturer for the European Hanse Ensemble and in the studios of the Musikfest Bremen for many years.
Clara Cecilie Thomsen
Soprano Clara Cecilie Thomsen is a graduate of the Royal Danish Academy of Music and the Opera Academy. She made her debut at the Royal Theater in 2017 as Barbarina in “The Marriage of Figaro” and has since performed roles such as the Countess in “The Marriage of Figaro,” Donna Anna in “Don Giovanni,” and Pamina in “The Magic Flute.” In 2019, she appeared in Kasper Holten’s production of “Amadeus” and in Christian Lollike’s experimental production of “Don Juan.” In 2020, she made her debut at the Jutland Opera in Mozart’s “The Abduction from the Seraglio.”
Clara Cecilie Thomsen has performed with orchestras such as the Royal Danish Orchestra, Aalborg Symphony Orchestra, and Copenhagen Philharmonic, and has appeared in major venues across Europe, including the Musikverein in Vienna with the Tonkünstler Orchestra. Additionally, she has performed as a soloist in cantatas and passions, including Handel’s “Messiah,” Bach’s “St. John Passion” and “St. Matthew Passion,” and Mozart’s “Requiem.” She has received awards such as the Copenhagen Opera Festival’s Talent of the Year, the Leonié Sonning Talent Prize, and the Critics’ Talent Prize.
Joachim Becerra Thomsen
Joachim Becerra Thomsen is the principal flutist of the Royal Danish Orchestra and former principal flutist of the Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra and the Finnish Radio Symphony Orchestra. He has performed as principal flutist across Europe and the USA with several other orchestras and chamber ensembles, including the Philharmonia Orchestra London, Malmö Symphony Orchestra, City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra, the Danish National Symphony Orchestra, and the Danish Entertainment Orchestra, among others.
Joachim has received several awards and grants, both in Denmark and in the USA. He studied at the Royal Danish Academy of Music in Copenhagen with a focus on historical performance practice, and later completed an Artist Diploma at the renowned Colburn School in Los Angeles.
Trinitatis Kirke Kor
The church choir consists of professional singers, and it has become a tradition for the church’s musicians and choir to participate in the Copenhagen Baroque Festival with a festive cantata service on the festival’s final day.
The soloists in the cantata are:
Camilla Toldi Bugge, soprano
Kristin Mulders, mezzo-soprano
Gerald Geerink, tenor
Torsten Nielsen, bass
Clare Wilkinson
Clare Wilkinson has been described as “flawless… heartfelt… heavenly” by Early Music America, “heart-stopping” by The Guardian, and “one of the best young singers in the Renaissance game” by The Independent. She performs with ensembles of many different forms, including baroque orchestras, viol consorts, and vocal ensembles.
Particularly sought after for her interpretations of Johann Sebastian Bach, she has appeared as alto soloist in many of his major works with John Eliot Gardiner, including Cantata 170 at the Spiegelsaal Köthen and the St Matthew Passion at the St. Thomas Church. Her Bach recordings include Welt, Gute Nacht, the St John and St Matthew Passions, the St Mark Passion, and Trauer-Music.
Recent collaborations include performances with Jos van Veldhoven, Laurence Cummings, Adam Fischer, Bart Van Reyn, Gijs Leenaars, Mats Bertilsson, and Philip Pickett.
Georg Zeike
Georg Zeike grew up in a family of church musicians. At the age of eleven, he began studying the violoncello and later studied cello, viola da gamba, and baroque cello at the Leipzig University of Music and Theatre, among others with Siegfried Pank.
As a freelance gambist and cellist, he performs basso continuo, solo arias in oratorios and cantatas, and baroque chamber music on historical instruments. He also teaches both children and adults in cello, baroque cello, and viola da gamba. From 2010 to 2018, together with soprano Christiane Wiese, he directed the music theatre project Das musikalische Fabularium, which toured throughout Germany and appeared several times at the Bachfest Leipzig with commissioned works.
With the ensemble Himmelpfortgrund, Georg Zeike performs classical and romantic chamber music repertoire by composers such as Ludwig van Beethoven, Franz Schubert, and Felix Mendelssohn on historical instruments. This work has resulted in radio productions and CD recordings, including Schubert’s Octet and Conradin Kreutzer’s Septet.
Nadja Zwiener
Nadja Zwiener is a baroque violinist known for her communicative and collaborative approach to music-making. A founding member of the Kuss Quartett at the Musikgymnasium Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach, she later continued her studies at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama, where she discovered her passion for baroque violin through the music of Claudio Monteverdi.
Since 2007, she has worked closely with The English Concert as leader, chamber musician, and concerto soloist. From 2016 to 2022, she was concertmaster of the Internationale Bachakademie Stuttgart and helped develop the original-instrument orchestra Gaechinger Cantorey. She also appears regularly with B’Rock Orchestra and other early music ensembles.
Her work ranges from historically informed performance to projects combining early music with improvisation and contemporary elements. Her recordings include Senza Basso – Auf dem Weg zu Bach (2021) and 1723 with Johannes Lang (2023), which led to the founding of Collegium Musicum ’23 at St. Thomas Church.