Forty years after bringing together a few musician friends in the corridors of the Toulouse and Montauban conservatories, Jean-Marc Andrieu looks back on the journey of his ensemble Les Passions, shaped in particular by a determination to rediscover the Baroque musical heritage of southern France. With serenity, he is preparing to pass the torch.
The Spanish vocal group Cantoría, founded and directed by Jorge Losana, celebrates its tenth anniversary this year. Now established as one of the leading ensembles for Iberian Renaissance and early Baroque vocal music, it continues to expand its presence in Europe and, gradually, in South America. Jorge Losana looks back on this evolution, just a few weeks before a concert at the Louvre Paris on October 7 which will inaugurate “Centuries of Gold and Shadow,” a series conceived in conjunction with the museum’s Zurbarán exhibition.
In 2026, Giovanni Legrenzi would have turned 400. A major figure in seventeenth-century Italian music, admired in his day before largely disappearing from the repertoire, he occupies a pivotal place between Monteverdi’s legacy and the Venetian Baroque that would lead to Vivaldi. In Clusone, Legrenzi’s birthplace near Bergamo, the Musica Mirabilis Festival is celebrating him through October 24 with nine concerts, an international conference, and several rediscoveries.
What is the connection between the Ars Nova—a musical revolution in the mid-14th century—and contemporary composer Steve Reich, one of the pioneers of minimalist music in the 20th century? Find out on September 4 at the Utrecht Early Music Festival, featuring Michele Pasotti and his Italian ensemble La fonte musica.
To mark the 30th anniversary of L’Orfeo Barockorchester, founders Michi Gaigg and Carin van Heerden look back on three decades of intense, joyful work centered on sound and interpretation. As dynamic as ever, the ensemble will be at Greinburg Castle (Austria) from August 1 to 9 for Sophia, an imaginary opera by Bach in which cantatas and choruses engage in a dialogue with artificial intelligence, freedom, and our concept of humanity.
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.
To mark Pygmalion’s 20th anniversary, Raphaël Pichon conceived a unique pilgrimage: to retrace on foot, along with his musicians, the journey that the young Johann Sebastian Bach undertook in 1705 from Arnstadt to Lübeck, in northern Germany, to further his musical education under the great Dietrich Buxtehude. After a first stage in Thuringia in 2024, which resonated widely through ARTE and France Musique, Raphaël Pichon and his ensemble are now setting off once again for Wolfenbüttel, Lüneburg, and Lübeck, in northern Germany.
At 80, Paul Van Nevel continues to view polyphony as an art of time: balancing rhythmic precision, the legacy of Gregorian chant, and an unwillingness to compromise, he looks back on fifty-five years of exploration with the Huelgas Ensemble, at the heart of a repertoire that is as essential as it is underappreciated.
The ensemble Les Surprises and its founder and musical director, Louis-Noël Bestion de Camboulas, are celebrating their 15th anniversary in 2026, notably with a new production of Purcell’s Dido and Aeneas, on the bill since February. This emblematic work of the Baroque repertoire is reimagined by the ensemble in an original staged form: an all-female cast, musicians integrated into the action, spoken texts, and a choreographic dimension.
On Saturday, March 21, early music will be celebrated across Europe thanks to an initiative by the European Early Music Network (REMA). For the occasion, Total Baroque Magazine invites you on a journey through twelve filmed concerts in emblematic locations, from Versailles to Venice, via Madrid, Bayreuth, and Prague. An invitation to explore, wander, and immerse yourself in nearly a thousand years of music.
In March 2026, Total Baroque Magazine celebrates its first anniversary. Twelve months of investigations, interviews, and historical features exploring a repertoire that is at once rooted in heritage and deeply contemporary. This anniversary is an opportunity to take stock and share a few perspectives with you.
