Ensemble Counterpoint
Biography Ensemble Counterpoint
Ensemble Counterpoint
was formed in 2000 specifically to work with vocal ensembles. Its membership is drawn from the leading young period instrument specialists living and working in London, players who have performed and recorded with many of the leading British early music ensembles, such as the English Baroque Soloists, the Parley of Instruments, Florilegium, The Academy of Ancient Music and The English Concert. The ensemble uses original instruments or excellent copies made using the latest theories and techniques of historic instrument manufacture. Its members have a great deal of expertise and are therefore comfortable in a wide range of idioms from Monteverdi through to Beethoven.
Highlights of previous seasons include opening the prestigious Viterbo Early Music Festival in Italy, performing Handel’s Israel in Egypt with Canticum and Mark Forkgen; Handel’s Messiah, Bach’s St John Passion, St Matthew Passion, Mass in B Minor and Magnificat. They have performed Monteverdi’s Vespers of 1610 at St Martin-in-the-Fields as well as Haydn’s Creation in the final concert of the Chichester Festival with Canticum. With London Concert Choir they have also taken part in Purcell’s Dido and Aeneas, Gluck’s opera Orfeo, Bach’s St Matthew Passion and Christmas Oratorio and Monteverdi’s Vespers.