Articles

Olivier Bergeron: A Year in Charpentier’s Company

In love with the French language and with voices that inhabit the space in between, Olivier Bergeron finds in Charpentier an ideal terrain. At 29, the Quebec baritone has made the composer one of the central themes of his 2026 season. A laureate of Le Jardin des Voix, trained in Montreal and Paris, he will reunite this summer with Les Arts Florissants and William Christie for a North American tour, before singing his first Papageno in Montreal.

by Justin Bernard 1 July 2026

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GEMS, The Quiet Force Behind New York’s Early Music Community

Focus

Gotham Early Music Scene

GEMS, The Quiet Force Behind New York’s Early Music Community

In New York, GEMS lives up to its name. Since 2007, this discreet yet indispensable organization has helped young early music ensembles grow, secure funding, organize concerts, and build their audiences. John Thiessen has served as Executive Director from 2022 until early 2026. As GEMS enters a new chapter under new leadership, the Canadian-born musician reflects on how the organization became one of the driving forces behind the American early music scene.

by Francine Labelle 30 June 2026

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Marcel Pérès and Ensemble Organum: Reinventing Cultural Initiatives (2/2)

Interview

From 2000 to the present day

Marcel Pérès and Ensemble Organum: Reinventing Cultural Initiatives (2/2)

What if the real revolution were to make music with human beings again? At a time when artificial intelligence is churning out fake sacred chants and culture is reduced to a consumable commodity, Marcel Pérès proposes an alternative path: human voices, passed-down gestures, unpredictable gatherings, and Old Roman chant restored to its ritual power. In Moissac, early music is once again becoming an experience.

by Benjamin François 29 June 2026

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The Metamorphoses of an Unfettered Baroque

Record of the month

Jakub Józef Orliński & Michał Biel

The Metamorphoses of an Unfettered Baroque

When a star countertenor and a chameleon-like pianist take hold of the Baroque, stylistic certainties begin to waver. And it is precisely there that the surprise begins.

by Julien Delhom 29 June 2026

Marcel Pérès and Ensemble Organum: restoring the voice of the Middle Ages (1/2)

Interview

The years 1982 to 2000

Marcel Pérès and Ensemble Organum: restoring the voice of the Middle Ages (1/2)

Who in the world of early music is not yet familiar with the mark left by Marcel Pérès and his ensemble Organum? An archaeologist of sound, a pioneer of ethnomusicology applied to early music repertoires, and a thinker on sacred music, the French musicologist, singer, and conductor has established himself as one of the leading European figures in the revival of medieval music. On the eve of his 70th birthday, he recounts his life as if it were a novel.

by Benjamin François 25 June 2026

Bach: The “Goldberg Variations” by Paolo Zanzu

Video of the week

Bach: The “Goldberg Variations” by Paolo Zanzu

What finer setting than the narthex of the Basilica of Vézelay to welcome a masterpiece by Bach? Remarkable for its wealth of atmospheres and characters, the *Goldberg Variations* resound there under the fingers of Italian harpsichordist Paolo Zanzu, who will perform them again on 16 July as part of “Vague Classique” in Six-Fours, in the south of France.

by Total Baroque 25 June 2026

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Pictures of the Week

Cremona, Potsdam, Montreal, London, Nuremberg

From Cremona to Montreal, via London, Potsdam, and Nuremberg, this week highlights new events at festivals across Europe and across the Atlantic: Cavalli’s first opera in its first modern staging, a “Grande Nuit Musicale” featuring three major concerts broadcast live, and, of course, Bach opening and closing festivals in Germany and Canada.

by Total Baroque 25 June 2026

A New Golden Age for the Mandolin in Marseille

Focus

Mandol’in Marseille & Vincent Beer-Demander

A New Golden Age for the Mandolin in Marseille

From June 30 to July 6, Mandol’in Marseille returns for a sixth edition, honouring Vladimir Cosma. At the helm of the festival, Vincent Beer-Demander continues a long-term mission: restoring Marseille’s mandolin heritage, fostering dialogue between tradition, creation, and transmission, and demonstrating that an instrument long relegated to the margins can once again become a vibrant laboratory for musical innovation.

by Alexie Valois 24 June 2026

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Wolfgang Katschner: “Early music remains alive only if it dares to confront the present”

Anniversary

40 Years of lautten compagney BERLIN

Wolfgang Katschner: “Early music remains alive only if it dares to confront the present”

Founded in the former East Germany in the 1980s, lautten compagney BERLIN recently celebrated its 40th anniversary. Today, it continues to multiply original projects, this year with countertenor Reginald Mobley, as well as a new roundtable format centered on the songbooks of John Dowland. Not to mention the KALIT Festival at the end of August, bringing together music and literature. Wolfgang Katschner, 65, the ensemble’s founder, tells us its story, which is also, in part, the story of his own life.

by Jean-Jacques Schaettel 23 June 2026

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CD in four questions

Pablo Agudo López & Les Impertinences

Bestiario: Baroque in the Wild

With “Bestiario”, Les Impertinences plunges into a free, raw, and virtuosic seventeenth century, where instruments imitate animals, bodies, cries, dance, and the tumult of the world. Around Biber, Farina, Uccellini, and Du Mont, Venezuelan violinist and director Pablo Agudo López embraces an unruly baroque style, fueled by improvisation and Latin American traditions.

by Gabriel Davigneau 22 June 2026

Three major concerts to watch live from Nuremberg

Livestream

Grand Night of Early Music

Three major concerts to watch live from Nuremberg

Solomon’s Knot at 7 p.m., Maayan Licht and {oh!} Orkiestra at 8.45 p.m., Chanticleer at 10.30 p.m.: this Friday, for the Fête de la Musique, Total Baroque Magazine invites you to watch Nuremberg’s “Grand Night of Early Music” live from Germany, in an evening of vocal virtuosity, sacred theatre and American polyphony. The three concerts will then remain available to watch on replay until December.

by Total Baroque 18 June 2026

Haendel’s “Il Trionfo” with René Jacobs & the Freiburger Barockorchester

Video of the week

Haendel’s “Il Trionfo” with René Jacobs & the Freiburger Barockorchester

Handel’s first oratorio, written at the age of 23, “Il Trionfo del Tempo e del Disinganno” here benefits from the meticulous work of René Jacobs, his soloists and the Freiburger Barockorchester, attentive to the mobility and contrasts of the score. An interpretation that places the text at its centre in order to come as close as possible to the musical and expressive fabric of the composer.

by Total Baroque 18 June 2026

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Olivier Bergeron: A Year in Charpentier’s Company

GEMS, The Quiet Force Behind New York’s Early Music Community

Marcel Pérès and Ensemble Organum: Reinventing Cultural Initiatives (2/2)

The Metamorphoses of an Unfettered Baroque

Marcel Pérès and Ensemble Organum: restoring the voice of the Middle Ages (1/2)

Bach: The “Goldberg Variations” by Paolo Zanzu

Cremona, Potsdam, Montreal, London, Nuremberg

A New Golden Age for the Mandolin in Marseille

Wolfgang Katschner: “Early music remains alive only if it dares to confront the present”

Bestiario: Baroque in the Wild

Three major concerts to watch live from Nuremberg

Haendel’s “Il Trionfo” with René Jacobs & the Freiburger Barockorchester