News Archive

Thursday 5 June 2014

After yesterday's brilliant festival opening with L´Arpeggiata, one of Europe's most requested ensembles, Stockholm Early Music Festival continues in the Old Town of Stockholm during four jam-packed days until Sunday 8 June.

Watch the culture news SVT Kulturnyheterna report, SVT Kulturnyheterna, about SEMF 2014 and Joshua Rifkin här (the report starts at 12´42´´)

On Sunday the exclusive world sensation - Leonardo da Vinci's instrument viola organista - will be presented in The House of Nobility for the first time after 500 years! Until then the public can enjoy more than twenty international concerts, among others the Czech baroque ensemble Collegium Marianum, the French vocal ensemble Gilles Binchois and the American Joshua Rifkin's poetic interpretations of J S Bach's wedding cantatas.

Saturday 31 May 2014

The woman´s role as a composer has been hidden during history - especially in epoches of early music. SEMF takes a stand and renames the masculine noun Anonymous to ANONYMA in its programme. A tribute to the unknown female composers through time. Until else is proven.
 


Peter Pontvik
 Artistic Director SEMF

Saturday 31 May 2014

Where does all the Iberian folk music, that always seems to have been there, come from? Where does the flamenco have its roots? What did the long journey of the fandango from baroque up to nowadays look like? From castle and hut, from streets and celebration, filtered through the fiery sounding body of the baroque guitar, which provides the frantic rythms its special colour – new but old and oh so catchy…Stockholm Early Music Festival presents the multifaceted Uruguayan born baroque guitarist Rafael Bonavita, Friday 6 June at 6 PM in the Finnish Church. 24 hours later, Saturday 7 June at the same time and place/6 PM also in the Finnish Church it is time for another matchless Mediterranian experience; Corsican polyphonic singing tradition, springing from the depths of history. The six emotive male voices of A Filetta are messengers of an archaic polyphony, that has been existing on this Mediterranean island for hundreds, maybe thousands of years. A concertante reflection of deep roots and a strong identity, with an openness to the world.

Saturday 31 May 2014

Wedding hysteria with Bach! Joshua Rifkin, international frontman and Bach expert, known for his poetic interpretations of the Baroque master, visits Stockholm for the first time. During Stockholm Early Music Festival the 70 year old American maestro, together with the German soprano Ulrike Hofbauer as soloist, invites the audience to two cantatas for wedding feasts, Saturday 7 June at 9 PM in the German Church.

After 35 years of international activity and 40 CD-recordings, the Ensemble Gilles Binchois, conducted by Dominique Vellard, has assumed a special status among interpreters of sacred music from the Middle Ages and the Renaissance. With an excellent timbre and a dense vocal beauty, the ensemble addresses the Spanish Golden Age in its performance Friday 6 June at 9 PM in the German Church.

Thursday 24 April 2014

An exclusive world sensation that mustn´t be missed – only at Stockholm Early Music Festival! The instrument Viola organista, one of its kind, was invented and designed by Leonardo da Vinci in 1489 and has now, after 500 years of waiting, been built by the Polish musician Sławomir Zubrzycki. Its first foreign trip goes to Sweden, when the biggest festival for Early Music in the Nordic countries on Sunday 8 June in the House of Nobility presents it to the public with three unique concerts at 11 am, 1 pm and 3 pm. Zubrzycki will not only tell the audience about the instrument´s background but also among others play Orlando di Lasso, Marin Marais and Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach. 

Tickets and complete festival programme here.