Ensembles
The Ensemble Seraphim was founded in Basel by its artistic director Raffaella Bortolini. It has specialised in the repertoire written for medieval and Renaissance wind instruments, the bassa and the alta cappella. In their various concerts the ensemble features instruments belonging to the families of the shawms and bombards, douçaines and medieval recorders (including the double flute), as well as brass instruments such as the long trumpet, the slide trumpet and the sackbut. The Ensemble Seraphim often plays with guest musicians (singers, percussionist or other wind instrument players) presenting varied and festive programmes, which are well suited for outdoor venues.
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Further information: www.ensembleseraphim.com
The Ensemble Ignis Musicalis started very naturally in 2015, when Claire Foltzer (violin), Maud Haering (soprano), Camille Bloch (violoncello and viola da gamba), Gwennaëlle Alibert (harpsichord) and Rachel Heymans (recorder and Baroque oboe) taught together for the first time at the chamber music course “Les Rencontres musicales Vosgiennes”. This course for adults amateurs takes place every year in Munster (FR) at the end of summer or beginning of autumn. The teachers so much enjoyed playing together, that they decided to continue as an ensemble beyond the frame of the course.
In their programmes, which are performed on historical instruments, they find elegant ways to juxtapose everything that speaks to their hearts: medieval virelais might be played after French chansons, followed by a virtuosic Händel aria or a cantata by Vivaldi.
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Further information:
Based in Belgium, the Ensemble Bradamante was founded by its musicians Anne-Catherine Gosselé (recorders), Leonor Palazzo (cello, 5-string cello), Paule Van Den Driessche (harpsichord) and Rachel Heymans (recorders and Baroque oboe) at the beginning of their studies at the Conservatoire royal de Bruxelles. The Ensemble plays mostly in Belgium and recorded the CD “Concerti a quattro” with the label Muso (https://www.muso.mu/artistes/ensemble-bradamante/).
They dedicate themselves to the Baroque repertoire originally written or transcribed for their instruments.
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Further information: www.ensemblebradamante.com
Rachel Heymans (oboe) and Nelly Sturm (bassoon) met during their respective recorder studies (one of them studying in Brussels, the other in Leipzig) when they were both visiting masterclasses in Italy, Switzerland and Germany, before starting studying together at the Schola Cantorum Basiliensis in 2011.
Since then they have been researching and playing together, focusing on chamber music from the late classical and early romantic repertoire for mixed strings and winds in the ensemble Des Femmes tenant Salon. Their duo repertoire is at the core of varied programmes, aiming to recreate the intimate atmosphere of the “salons” of the end of the 18th and beginning of the 19th century.
