ENSEMBLES - ANDREAS RICHTER – CULTURAL CONSULTING

Vox Luminis

Vox Luminis was established almost 20 years ago; today, the ensemble uses its sparkling traits to enhance the world of early music! The push was made in 2004 by Lionel Meunier – bass and founding base of Vox Luminis. The objective is to gain access to the Light through the Voice. Every year, the ensemble releases on average two discs and offers its audience more than 60 concerts on Belgian, European and international stages.

They define themselves as a group of soloists with a variable combination (with a base from the Royal Conservatoire in The Hague) and of a continuo, additional instrumentalists or a full orchestra, depending on the repertoire. The repertoire is essentially Italian, English and German and spans the 16th through the 18th centuries. Since its creation, the ensemble has been noted for its cohesion and it charms with the personality of every timbre and the homogeneity of the voices.

The year 2018 was marked by two awards: first, Vox Luminis won the famous BBC Music Magazine AWARD 2018 in the category “Choral Award Winner” for their recording Ein Feste Burg Ist Unser Gott, following the disc Luther et la Musique de la Réforme. Second, KLARA named them “Ensemble of the Year”.

Today, Lionel Meunier has established himself as the internationally well-known conductor and artistic director of the Vox Luminis ensemble, which he created in 2004.

The ensemble is supported by the Fédération Wallonie-Bruxelles, the City of Namur and Namur Confluent Culture and the Art and Life Tours (a funding program for concerts in Wallonia).

VIDEO

PRESS

„Individual voices had the clarity and color to pick them out of the ensemble while the blend among them was finely balanced. The thoughtfulness and musicality were most impressive.“

New York Classical Review, 28 October 2024

„… and the result is another deeply musical triumph.“

The Guardian, 30 June 2019

“Director Lionel Meunier is the real star, with a soaring vision of Purcell’s music in a class of its own.”

BBC Music Magazine

SELECTION OF PROJECTS 2026/27

10 – 23 December 2026
THE CHRISTMAS STORY

With his Christmas Story, Heinrich Schütz created the model for the Christmas oratorio – a form that would later inspire Bach and his contemporaries. Vox Luminis and Lionel Meunier enrich this seminal work with motets for the Christmas season by Heinrich Schütz and Andreas Hammerschmidt.

H. Schütz: Weihnachtshistorie SWV 435, works by A. Hammerschmidt, M. Praetorius

“De Lionel Meunier et son ensemble Vox Luminis, on n’attendait pas moins que cette réalisation musicale proche de la perfection.”

Telerama, 2024

“2024’s Best Classical Christmas Albums.”

WFMT, 2024

Dates upon request
SACRO MONTEVERDI

C. Monteverdi: Excerpts from Selva morale e spirituale, SV 252-288

DOWNLOADS

–Vox Luminis press photo 1

–Vox Luminis press photo 2

–Vox Luminis press photo 3

–Vox Luminis XL press photo 4

–Vox Luminis press photo 5

–Biography (PDF)

Oberon Trio

The Oberon Trio was founded in 2006. Shortly after the ensemble’s premier concert, the Flensburger Tageblatt already credited the Oberon Trio with “enormous interpretive abilities, which testify to the enchanting ripeness and stylistic command of this new ensemble.” Meanwhile, Oberon Trio has given performances at the Berliner Philharmonie, the Wiener Konzerthaus, the Laeiszhalle in Hamburg, the Konzerthaus Dortmund and Esterházy Palace, among others, as well as in Italy, Bulgaria, Israel, India, Egypt and the Ukraine. Its three members are committed to offering performances of lesser-known compositions alongside with established masterpieces. Their repertoire extends from piano trios by CPE Bach and Joseph Haydn, the pioneers of the medium, to those by Jörg Widmann and Charlotte Bray, whose trios were recorded by the ensemble for the first time. Oberon Trio also collaborates regularly with chamber music partners such as Tabea Zimmermann, Ian Bostridge, Christoph Prégardien and Shirley Brill.

A special passion of the Oberon Trio is the establishment of greater intimacy between the performers and the public. Through moderated concerts and by publishing their own programme notes of performed works among other approaches, they provide listeners with an insight into their working process and the background of their interpretations.

On November 19, 2022, the Oberon Trio invited to the TRIOGIPFEL E.T.A.200. Together with the Amatis Trio, the Morgenstern Trio and the actress Stella Maria Adorf, the ensemble celebrated the poet, composer and caricaturist E.T.A. Hoffmann, whose death anniversary in 2022 was the 200th.

The trio celebrates its 20th birthday in 2026.

VIDEO

PRESS

„Sehr fein, leicht und voller Spielfreude musizierte das Oberon Trio!“

Unnaer Zeitung, 17. Januar 2023

„Zuhören einfach ein Genuß!“

Passauer Neue Presse, 16. Juli 2022

„Haydn und Schumann klingen frisch wie am ersten Tag, Hosokawas spirituelle Dimension ist geradezu eine Offenbarung, und Copland stringentes Doppelspiel mit Zwischentönen gelingt grandios.“

Crescendo, Februar 2020

SELECTION OF PROJECTS 2026/27

–Project Overview 2026/27 (PDF)

Dates available upon request
LIEBST DU UM SCHÖNHEIT
with Ian Bostridge, tenor

Rückert songs by Franz Schubert, Gustav Mahler, Clara Schumann a.o.

Dates available upon request
FOLK SONG BY HAYDN AND BEETHOVEN
with Christoph Prégardien or Ian Bostridge, tenor

With songs and trios by L. v. Beethoven and J. Haydn

DOWNLOADS

–Oberon Trio press photo 1

–Oberon Trio press photo 2

–Oberon Trio press photo 3

–Biography (PDF)

–Projects 2026/27 (PDF)

–Beethoven hoch Drei (PDF)

PAST CONCERTS – A SELECTION

19 November 2022, KühlhausBerlin
TRIOGIPFEL E.T.A.200 –
“Wo die Sprache aufhört, fängt die Musik an.”
A chamber music festival for Berlin on the occasion of the 200th anniversary of the death of E.T.A. Hoffmann

Contributors: Oberon Trio, Amatis Trio, Morgenstern Trio, Stella Maria Adorf

“The result is an impressive plea for the piano trio genre.”

nmz, 20 November 2022

27 June 2020, Ludwigsburger Schlossfestspiele
Beethoven3
Oberon Trio / Christoph Pregardién, tenor

Kronos Quartet

For nearly 50 years, San Francisco’s Kronos Quartet—David Harrington (violin), Gabriela Díaz (violin), Hank Dutt (viola) and Ayane Kozasa (cello)—has reimagined what the string quartet experience can be. One of the most celebrated and influential groups of our era, Kronos has given thousands of concerts worldwide, released more than 70 recordings, and collaborated with many of the world’s most accomplished composers and performers across many genres. Kronos has received more than 40 awards, including three Grammys and the Polar Music, Avery Fisher, and Edison Klassiek Oeuvre Prizes.

Through its non-profit organization, Kronos Performing Arts Association (KPAA), Kronos has commissioned more than 1,000 works and arrangements for quartet. KPAA also manages Kronos’ concert tours, local performances, recordings, and education programs, and produces an annual Kronos Festival in San Francisco. In its most ambitious commissioning effort to date, KPAA has recently completed 50 for the Future: The Kronos Learning Repertoire. Through this initiative, Kronos has commissioned—and distributed online for free—50 new works for string quartet designed for students and emerging professionals, written by composers from around the world.

VIDEO

PRESS

„Now after 45 years, the Kronos life journey [has become] a relentless endeavor to open up the world’s music for everyone.“

Metro Silicon Valley

„As Ben Jonson said of Shakespeare, [Kronos Quartet is] not of an age but for all time.“

Santa Cruz Sentinel

„The most far-ranging ensemble geographically, nationally and stylistically the world has known.“

Los Angeles Times

DOWNLOADS

–Kronos Quartet press photo 1

–Kronos Quartet press photo 2

–Kronos Quartet press photo 3

–Kronos Quartet press photo 4

–Biography (PDF)

–Projects 26/27 (PDF)

PAST CONCERTS

16 May 2023, Pierre Boulez Saal
A THOUSAND THOUGHTS – A Live Documentation with the Kronos Quartet
Sam Green, speaker

20 May 2023, Pierre Boulez Saal
BLACK ANGELS
Works for string quartet by F. Ali-Sade, S. Gubaidulina, M. Gordon, T. Riley & G. Crumb

21 May 2023, Pierre Boulez Saal
Open house day
Works for string quartet by various composers
Kronos Quartet / students of the Barenboim-Said Akademie, Hochschule für Musik „Hanns Eisler“ and Berliner Universität der Künste

The legendary Kronos Quartet was a guest at the Pierre Boulez Saal in Berlin for a week as part of the Quartet Summer. In addition to a concert with groundbreaking string quartet works from the 20th and 21st centuries, the quartet also presented a live musical documentation of its eventful history. The residency was also accompanied by a comprehensive education programme with young string quartets

Kronos Quartet © Peter Adamik

“Crumbs Black Angels are part of music history, just like the very lively Kronos Quartet.“

111 Konzertgänger in Berlin, 23 May 2023

14 MAY 2024 Kunstfestspiele Herrenhausen
KRONOS Five Decades
Works by Terry Riley, Sun Ra, Aleksandra Vrebalov, Nicole Lizee, Tanya Tagaq

The Kronos Quartet has massively expanded, if not blown up, the boundaries of the string quartet with sound and style experiments, excursions into genres far removed from classical music and multimedia worlds. In the current season, the quartet is celebrating its 50th birthday with an European tour: new commissioned works, characteristic interpretations from its extensive repertoire and pieces from its latest project “Kronos Fifty for the Future” are on the anniversary programme.

Kronos Quartet © KunstFestSpiele Herrenhausen 2024, Helge Krückeberg

„An intense evening ends in a standing ovation.“

Hannoversche Allgemeine Zeitung, 22. Mai 2024

Chamber Orchestra of Europe

The COE was founded in 1981 by a group of musicians graduating from the European Union Youth Orchestra. It was their ambition to continue working together at the highest professional level, and of that original group, thirteen remain in the current core membership of around sixty. The members of the COE, selected by the Orchestra itself, pursue parallel careers as international soloists, Leaders and Principals of nationally-based orchestras, as members of eminent chamber groups, and as professors of music. Performances are given regularly in the major cities of Europe and occasionally in the USA and Asia. The COE has strong links with many of the major festivals and concert halls in Europe including the Festspielhaus Baden-Baden, the Kammermusiksaal der Philharmonie in Berlin, the Cologne, Luxembourg and Paris Philharmonies, the Concertgebouw in Amsterdam and the Alte Oper in Frankfurt. In partnership with the Kronberg Academy, the COE has been the first-ever Orchestra-in-residence at the Casals Forum in Kronberg since 2022. The COE has also been Orchestra-in-residence at the Esterházy Palace in Eisenstadt since 2022.

Currently the Orchestra works closely with Yannick Nézet-Séguin, Sir Simon Rattle and Sir András Schiff, who are Honorary Members (following in the footsteps of Bernard Haitink and Nikolaus Harnoncourt), and also Sir Antonio Pappano and Robin Ticciati. The COE works with all the major recording companies and, in just over forty years years, has recorded more than 250 works and won numerous international awards, including three Gramophone Record of the Year awards and two Grammys. The Orchestra’s latest recording was a Brahms Symphony Cycle with Yannick Nézet-Séguin, recorded at the Baden-Baden Festspielhaus and released by Deutsche Grammophon in July 2024.

The COE created its Academy in 2009 and each year awards scholarships to talented postgraduate students and young professionals to study with the COE’s principal players when the Orchestra is ‘on tour’. The Orchestra receives invaluable financial support from The Gatsby Charitable Foundation and a further number of Friends including Dasha Shenkman, Sir Siegmund Warburg’s Voluntary Settlement, the Rupert Hughes Will Trust, the Underwood Trust, the 35th Anniversary Friends and American Friends.

VIDEO

PRESS REVIEWS

„There was a standing ovation at the end – and rightly so.“

Hamburger Abendblatt, 30 May 2024

„The virtuosic joy of playing and depth of feeling came together so naturally here together in a way that only the greats can achieve.”

Sächsische Zeitung, 30 May 2023

„At its end, this “dream team” of players and conductor took thunderous applause.“

Bachtrack, 20th August 2018

SELECTION OF PROJECTS (2026/27)

–Overview projects 2026/27 (PDF)

28 – 29 November 2026
Yannick Nézet-Séguin, conductor / Beatrice Rana, piano

J. Brahms: Academic Festival Overture op. 80
J. Brahms: Piano Concerto no. 2 in B flat major op. 83
J. Brahms: Symphony no. 2 in D-major op. 73

16 – 18 April 2027
Andrés Orozco-Estrada, conductor / Kirill Gerstein, piano (tbc)

Programm will be announced

DOWNLOADS

–COE press photo 1

–Biography (PDF)

–Projects 2026/27 (PDF)

PAST CONCERTS – A SELECTION

28 January 2025, Philharmonie Berlin / 29 January 2025, Elbphilharmonie Hamburg

Robin Ticciati, conductor / Iestyn Davies, countertenor
Works by G. F. Haendel & W. A. Mozart

One of the COE‘s most important partners is Robin Ticciati, with whom the orchestra performed in Berlin and Hamburg in January 2025. Joining as soloist was Iestyn Davies, who is performing with the COE for the first time. The concert programme juxtaposed arias from operas and oratorios by George Frideric Handel with arias from Mozart’s opera Mitridate, which he composed at the age of 14, and explores the transition between the late Baroque and Classical periods.

„Otherworldly Evening.“

Hamburger Abendblatt, 30 January 2025

„It was an emotional and eloquent Mozart rollercoaster, a memory to be cherished for a long time..“

DrehPunktKultur, 3 February 2025

22 June 2024 Schloss Esterházy – 24 June 2024 Lugano LAC – 26 June 2024 La Grange au Lac, Evian – 28 June 2024 Ravenna Festival – 30 June 2024 Epidaurus Festival, Athen

Sir Simon Rattle, conductor / Magdalena Kožená, mezzo-soprano
A. Dvořák: Scherzo Capriccioso
G. Mahler: Rückert Lieder
B. Bartók: Five Hungarian Folk Songs
F. Schubert: Symphony no. 9 in C major “The Great”

“Towards the end, an orchestral storm unexpectedly breaks into this melodic bliss – and then and afterwards nothing is as it was before.”

bachtrack, 26 June 2024

22 September 2023 Beethovenfest Bonn, Kreuzkirche

Robin Ticciati, conductor / Alice Coote, mezzo-soprano, Allan Clayton, tenore
B. Dean: “Pastoral Symphony” for chamber orchestra
G. Mahler: “Das Lied von der Erde”

24 September 2023 Beethovenfest Bonn, Theater Bonn (Abschlusskonzert)

Robin Ticciati, conductor / Christian Tetzlaff, violin
J. L. Adams: “Ten Thousand Birds”
H. Berlioz: “Scene d’amour” from “Roméo et Juliette”, Symphonie Dramatique op. 17
R.Schumann: Violin Concerto in D minor WoO 1
L. v. Beethoven: Symphony no. 7 in A minor op. 92