We are delighted to announce on short notice a tour of the Budapest Festival Orchestra under the baton of Iván Fischer for the early part of March 2022. The guest performances of the Saint Petersburg Philharmonic Orchestra had to be postponed due to corona. Now the BFO, Iván Fischer and outstanding soloists will present varying programs featuring Russian and European Romantic music.
Author: Andrea Kerner
EUROPA GALANTE // L’Orfeo in the Elbphilharmonie
Europa Galante and Fabio Biondi continue a personal Monteverdi tradition in Hamburg.
In April 2019 they debuted at the Elbphilharmonie with Il Ritorno d’Ulisse in Patria (1641), now L’Orfeo (1607) follows. With the title role, Monteverdi created one of the most demanding vocal parts in the history of early opera, which is ideally cast here with the exceptional tenor Ian Bostridge. The orchestra is collaborating with the world-renowned RIAS Kammerchor for the first time on this occasion.
Claudio Monteverdi: L’Orfeo – Favola in musica Ian Bostridge (Orfeo) / Monica Piccinini (Euridice, La Musica) / Marina de Liso (Messagera, La Speranza) / RIAS Kammerchor / Europa Galante / Fabio Biondi (direction) a.o.
Babylon ORCHESTRA
Babylon ORCHESTRA, founded in 2016, is a Berlin-based urban fusion ensemble that combines European and Middle Eastern music with the sound of a big band and contemporary orchestra. Our aim is to promote intercultural artistic cooperation and thus to give different musical traditions and cultures a place in a new shared and unique sound world of the present. We bring people with their stories, songs, instruments, rhythms in the hope of providing creative impulses for new musical works.
By combining and juxtaposing classical and traditional instruments, such as oud and guitar, ney and flute, kamanche and violin, or other exciting combinations, we also aim to foster a deeper understanding of non-European cultures.
The orchestra also sees itself as a platform for exceptional musicians who do not want to squeeze their art into classical or popular musical forms and instead want to find an expression for the specificity of their countries of origin.
In 2021, the ensemble performed with the Rundfunksinfonieorchester Berlin, the Dortmund Philharmonic Orchestra, at the Office of the German Federal President, the Konzerthaus Berlin and the ODEON Göppingen, among others. In 2022, the ensemble performs in Greece and at several German festivals, releases an EP and makes its debut in Switzerland.
VIDEO
PRESS
“This is where the happy pigeonholing fails.”
concerti, 15th of November 2021
“A fascinating fusion concert that breaks all musical expectations as well as the fourth wall.”
Tagesspiegel Berlin, 18th of June 2019
“Babylon Orchestra is the wonder of world music.”
Berliner Kurier, 22th of November 2018
SELECTION OF PROJECTS 2026/27
Availability upon request
Echoes of the Mediterannean
“Echoes of Mediterranean” is a project by Babylon ORCHESTRA which presents love songs, ballads, personal stories and newly written vocal pieces based on texts by authors who lived in the countries around the Mediterranean or have a relationship to it. Hence, the listener encounters a performance taking him through the history of the Mediterranean cultures. Two to three singers from Greece, Syria and Turkey and 7 to 16 musicians from various countries of the Middle East and Europe are performing together as a mixed ensemble with traditional and modern instruments. By using combinations of composed and improvised elements, acoustic and electric as well as electronic instruments, the ensemble creates a lively and dramatic, almost scenic performance showcasing the richness of this cultural heritage. Sephardic, Arabic, Turkish and Greek folk songs with new arrangements (like f.e. Smirneiko Minore from 1909 from Smyrna or Morena me liaman from Sephardic Jewish tradition in Spain) make the core of this concert program.
“Vital playing joy of epic passion, fueled by centuries-old music:
pure emotionality, pure presence.”
Ludwigsburger Kreiszeitung, 15. Mai 2023
Availability on request
COOPERATION WITH SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA
Programme example:
Johann Sebastian Bach: Suite No. 3 in C major, BWV 1009, Bourrée I and II
Heitor Villa-Lobos: Bachianas Brasileiras No. 9 for string orchestra, W 449
Ludwig van Beethoven: Leonoren Ouverture No. 3, Op. 72b
Babylon/Hani Mojtahedy: Improvisation
Antonín Dvorak: Symphony No. 9 in E minor, Op. 95, B. 178, 2d movement “Largo” Mischa Tangian: The forgotten
Layale Chaker (Arr. L. Chaker/M. Tangian): Frah el Donniye
Hani Mojtahedy and Mischa Tangian (Arr. M. Tangian): Nour
Osama Abdulrasol: Sumerian harp
Isaac Albeniz (Arr. M. Tangian): Suite Española No. 5 “Asturias”
César Guerra-Peixe (Arr. M. Tangian): Mourão
Hermeto Pascoal (Arr. M. Tangian): O Ovo
Johann Sebastian Bach (Arr. M. Tangian): Flute Sonata in E-Flat major, BWV 1031: II, Siciliano
Charbel Rohana (Arr. M. Tangian): Sama’i Bayati
DOWNLOADS
PAST CONCERTS – A SELECTION
27 & 28 OCtober 2024, Staatsoper Stuttgart / Liederhalle
THE ORDER OF TIME
Roshanak Rafani, percussion / Babylon ORCHESTRA & Staatsorchester Stuttgart / Tianyi Lu, conductor
Works by G. Kancheli, M. Tangian (world premiere) & A. Dvořák
Founder and artistic director, Mischa Tangian, has written a work for orchestra and percussion for the Staatsorchester Stuttgart, which was premiered in Stuttgart at the end of October 2024. The work, entitled The Order of Time, centers on the encounter between European and non-European musical cultures and their instruments. The soloist for the evening was Iranian percussionist Roshanak Rafani, conducted by Tianyi Lu.
Babylon ORCHESTRA © Marc Schmuck
Babylon ORCHESTRA © Marc Schmuck
“It doesn’t get more varied than this.”
Stuttgarter Zeitung, 29 October 2024
“Asian music and European sounds blended with an expressive musical language.”
Onnline Merker, 27 October 2024
14 August 2023, Berlin
WASSERMUSIK AUF DER SPREE
Babylon ORCHESTRA / Mischa Tangian, violin & leader
As part of Berlin’s Summer Festival of Culture 2023, Babylon ORCHESTRA and Sarahbanda, founded by Sarah Willis, set sail on two rafts and immerse the audience on the shores between Holzmarkt 25 and Funkhaus Berlin in rousing Mediterranean, Middle Eastern and Caribbean worlds of sound. They dropped anchor at the landing stages Mercedes Benz Arena/East Side Gallery and Funkhaus Berlin on Nalepastrasse. The ensembles played half-hour concerts at both stops, two at the East Side Gallery and one at the Funkhaus..
Wassermusik auf der Spree © Markus Werner
Babylon ORCHESTRA © Markus Werner
Babylon ORCHESTRA © Markus Werner
Wassermusik auf der Spree © Markus Werner
Coro Ghislieri & Giulio Prandi winner of ICMA 2022!
We are very happy about the victory of Rossini’s “Petite Messe Solennelle” wonderful recording by Giulio Prandi and Coro Ghislieri in the category “choral music” if the International Classical Music Awards 2022!
“The Petite Messe Solennelle is an enigmatic and mysterious masterpiece. Perhaps it is only with this recording (which for the first time makes use of the new critical edition), wonderfully conducted by Giulio Prandi with the Ghislieri Choir and four top class singers, that we can truly understand the mysteries of the old Rossini, who winks at the opera theatre but from a now distanced perspective.” ICMA’s jury
The news of this award surprised and delighted me. It is the corollary of a journey that began twenty years ago; the extraordinary adventure of a group of young artists who came together in an ensemble, animated by the desire to get to the bottom of a marvellous and much-loved repertoire, that of Italian 18th century vocal music, through radical study and research. The only focal point is to bring out not only the beauty, but also the profound ability of this music to speak to the contemporary world. We would not have got this far without the Fondazione Collegio Ghislieri, which has strongly supported this project, first and foremost through Professor Andrea Belvedere. In his more than forty years as Rector, he has shaped the Ghislieri of the Future, and the Centro di Musica Antica Ghislieri, of which he is still President, is one of his most significant achievements, the result of five decades of hard, constant, patient work.
In an extremely difficult historical moment, in a country where the music scene has tended to shrink, in perpetual suffering, the Ghislieri is entering a new phase. After the Abbiati Prize in 2019, the award for “best choral record” at the ICMA 2021 makes us look to the future with renewed enthusiasm. The Coro e Orchestra Ghislieri have many concerts and recordings to perform between now and 2024, as well as many of my commitments as conductor. My personal activity, through encounters with different and extraordinary orchestras, choirs and artists, allows me to compare notes, increase my experience and mature my sensitivity. These experiences I then bring back home, to Ghislieri, putting them at the service of my wonderful musicians, so that I can grow even more with them. Therefore, I sincerely thank the ICMA jury and, with it, all those who believed in me and in the Ghislieri artistic project. A deep gratitude, which turns into energy and desire to go forward.
Giulio Prandi
You can find the album on Apple Music or Spotify.
The award ceremony will take place on the 21st of April 2022 at the Philharmonie in Luxembourg.
Season Greetings
Once again we look back on a challenging year that kept the music world and its players constantly on tenterhooks: complete closures of theatres and concert halls at the beginning of the year, cautious attempts in early summer to get concert life going again by means of sophisticated hygiene concepts, finally almost “normal” performances under 3G, 2G and/or 2G+ at the beginning of the season, when quite a few already thought they were at the end of the pandemic tunnel. Now we are once again in the midst of a huge wave, which we hope to weather well together!
Nevertheless, the year 2021 brought many rays of hope that strengthened us in our actions, inspired us to new plans and brought us together with new partners – the latter often virtually, but time and again also analogue and personally. First and foremost, of course, were the wonderful concerts that took place, especially in the second half of the year: the Chamber Orchestra of Europe, which has been delighting international concert audiences for 40 years now, returned to the Berlin Philharmonie with Sir András Schiff, as did Teodor Currentzis and musicAeterna, who, as usual, “made the Phlharmonie quake”, as the Tagesspiegel Berlin commented. Iván Fischer and the Budapest Festival Orchestra and the Freiburger Barockorchester provided fantastic concert experiences, as did the La Folia Barockorchester and the Finnish Baroque Orchestra, the Oberon Trio, the Berlin StegreifOrchester and the Belgian choir Vox Luminis.
Life within the agency also provided ample opportunity to keep moving: In mid-June we moved into a larger and even nicer office within our Schöneberg neighbourhood, which is also almost completely furnished by the end of the year 😉 We like our new website at least as much, which we were able to launch at the beginning of December.
Before we start our Christmas holidays, we would like to wish you a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!
Our office will be closed between 23 December 2021 and 03 January 2022.
August 2023
3 + 4 August
Freiburger Barockorchester
with Windsbacher Knabenchor
»Johann Sebastian Bach: St Matthew Passion bwv 244«
24 July – 6 August
Chaarts Chamber Artists
with Anna-Maria and Malte Arkona, acting
»A midsummer night’s dream«
7 – 10 August
Vox Luminis Choir and Orchestra
with Lionel Meunier, bass & direction
»Spem in Alium«
25 + 31 August as well as on request
Il Giardino Armonico
with Giovanni Antonini, direction & recorder // Anna Prohaska, soprano
»Serpent & Fire«
26 – 31 August
B’Rock Orchestra
with Alexander Melkinov, fortepiano, artistic direction and concept
»Beethoven – The listeners academy«
August
B’Rock Orchestra
with Evgeny Sviridov, artistic director // Nardus Williams, soprano
»Adventurers, or: a dirty business«
August
Chaarts Chamber Artists
with Regula Mühlemann, soprano
»Fairy Tales«
on request
B’Rock Orchestra
with Antoine Tamestit, artistic director and viola
»Tears of Melancholy«
July 2023
10 – 23 July
Vox Luminis Choir and Orchestra
with Lionel Meunier, bass & direction
»Mass in B minor«
10 – 23 July
Vox Luminis Choir and Orchestra
with Lionel Meunier, bass & direction
»Vespers«
18 – 28 July
Orchestra of the Eighteenth Century
Alexander Janiczek, conductor
Ilse Eerens, soprano
»Scena di Berenice«
21 – 31 July
franz ensemble
»Works by Ludwig van Beethoven, Franz Berwald, Helena Winkelmann and others«
24 July – 6 August
Chaarts Chamber Artists
with Anna-Maria and Malte Arkona, acting
»A midsummer night’s dream«
31 July
Freiburger Barockorchester
with Valer Sabadus, soprano / Terry Wey, alto
on request
B’Rock Orchestra
with Antoine Tamestit, artistic director and viola
»Tears of Melancholy«
July
Chaarts Chamber Artists
with Regula Mühlemann, soprano
»Fairy Tales«
June 2023
15 – 20 June
Freiburger Barockorchester
with René Jacobs, direction / RIAS Kammerchor (SATB) / Helena Rasker, Orfeo, alto / Polina Pastirchak, Euridice, soprano / Kateryna Kasper, Amore, soprano
»Christoph Willibald Gluck: Orfeo ed Euridice (concert version)«
5 – 18 June
Chaarts Chamber Artists
with Regula Mühlemann, soprano
»Fairy Tales«
1 – 30 June
B’Rock Orchestra
with Antoine Tamestit, artistic director and viola
»Tears of Melancholy«
May 2023
1 – 8 May
Chaarts Chamber Artists
with Regula Mühlemann, soprano
»Fairy Tales«
8 + 9 May
Freiburger Barockorchester
with Pablo Heras-Casado, direction / RIAS Kammerchor / n.n.. soprano (2X)
»A Midsummer Night’s Dream«
22-31 May
franz ensemble
»Works by Ludwig van Beethoven, Franz Berwald, Helena Winkelmann and others«
