the concord ensemble

The award winning Concord Ensemble came together in 1997 and was quickly catapulted into the international music scene by winning the Grand Prize in the First Early Music America Recording Competition. Subsequently their debut recording, "The Victory of Santiago: Voices of Renaissance Spain", earned them the prized “5-Star” distinction in Goldberg Magazine.

The Concord Ensemble has toured extensively throughout the United Status and in Europe, and has headlined some of the most prestigious festivals, including the early music festivals of Berkeley, Washington, D.C., Madison, Milwaukee, Bloomington (IN), San Francisco, San Diego, Phoenix, Pittsburgh, New York’s Cloisters, Indianapolis, Tage Alter Musik Regensburg (Germany) and Feldkirchen (Austria). Their work has been broadcast on National Public Radio’s Harmonia, Millenium of Music and Performance Today.

The most recent performances of Concord include newly commissioned programs of Spanish and Latin American Christmas and paschal music. Equally at home in the contemporary medium, Concord has performed music by Karlheinz Stockhausen, Stephen Hartke, Steve Reich, Arvo Pärt, and Libby Larsen. The ensemble regularly commissions new works from award-winning composers N. Lincoln Hanks and Forrest Pierce.

The group has an outstanding tradition of collaborating with several instrumental ensembles of renown, including Musica Angelica Baroque Orchestra, the Folger Consort, Piffaro, the Renaissance Wind Band, and the contemporary dance troupe the Pennington Dance Group. The ensemble’s versatility recently reached the rock world, when the men of the ensemble were asked to perform with Sting and Bosnian lutenist Edin Karamazov to sold-out audiences at Walt Disney Concert Hall. The program featured Sting’s latest foray in the music of 17th -century English composer John Dowland in a program titled “Songs of the Labyrinth.”

Highlights for the 2008-09 season include performances in Washington, D.C. with the Folger Consort, a guest performance in Portland for the Cappella Romana series, and this collaboration with Musica Angelica Baroque orchestra, featuring Purcell’s "The Fairy Queen."