Tenor

The major areas explored by Dominique Vellard in his musical carreer are rooted in his childhood experiences as a choirboy at Notre-Dame de Versailles. The choirmaster, Pierre Béguigné, who was trained in the Niedermeyer school, nurtured in him a passionate love of Gregorian chant, Renaissance polyphony, the French composers of the seventeenth century and Bach organ music and chorales .

Soon after completing his studies at the Versailles conservatory, Dominique Vellard encountered the new approach to the various Baroque repertoires currently being led by the “harpsichordist-conductors” of the seventies . Stimulated by their challenges to received ideas about performance practice, he concentrated his work on Monteverdi for three years before deciding to devote most of his time  to  the medieval  and  Renaissance  repertoires , fields in which he felt he was entirely free to express his musical aesthetics .

Today, enriched by his experience of those earlier periods, he is returning to the vocal repertoires of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, for which he has an enduring affection, and is offering interpretations that are more lyrical and contrapuntal than those many audiences are used to .

Alongside his “medieval carrer”, Dominique Vellard has kept up his involvement in other repertoires, exploring the fruitful possibilities of encounters between the earliest works in his repertoire and traditions as varied as North Indian Classic repertories (with Ken Zuckerman), Southern Indian Carnatic singing (with Aruna Saïram), Breton Guerz (with Yann-Fañch Kemener), and Spanish traditions  (with Ana-Isabel Arnaz de Hoyos -Ensemble "Vox suavis"), while remaining active in recitals with the organist and composer Jean-Pierre Leguay, whose Secundum Matthæum (‘According to Matthew ’, 1999),  Pater noster  and  Alleluia   (2001) are dedicated to him. In 2005 he was involved in a creation by Gilbert Amy.

Dominique Vellard has made about forty recordings, whether as soloist, conductor, or at the head of the Ensemble Gilles Binchois, which he has directed since 1979 .

He has taught at the Schola Cantorum in Basel since 1982. He is also the Artistic director of the festival “Les Rencontres Internationales de Musique Médiévale du Thoronet” since it was first held in 1991, and from 2003, of "Les Meslanges de Printemps"(Dijon) .

As a composer, he writes regularly, since 1999, for the Ensemble Gilles Binchois and for friends, mostly vocal music :

A first CD of his vocal music is edited by the record company GLOSSA

Soprano

Born in 1983 in Reggio Emilia, Alice Borciani graduated in trumpet and
in singing at the conservatory of  Reggio Emilia. She specialized in
Baroque vocal repertoire with Monica Piccinini.
In 2012 she graduated with distinction at the Schola Cantorum
Basiliensis under the guidance of Gerd Türk.
 
In december 2010 she won the Third Prize in the International
competition of Baroque singing “Francesco Provenzale” in Napoli
organized by the Cappella Pietà dei Turchini. In 2013, with the
ensemble Cafebaum, she won the first prize at the Göttingen
Händel-Festspiele competition for young ensembles of baroque music.
 
Alice Borciani sang as a Soloist and in Vokalensembles in many
theaters and Music festivals in all Europe (Salzburg Festspiele,
Ravello festival, Fringe Utrecht Oudemuziek festival, Leipzig
Bachfest, Theater Basel, Concertgebouw Amsterdam, Potsdam
Schlosstheater, Cité de la Musique Paris, Arena di Verona, FAMB Basel,
La Folia festival Rougemont).
 
She sang under the baton of J. Savall, O. Dantone, A. Marcon, T.
Hengelbrock, D. Fasolis, H. Niquet, L. G. Alarcon, and with many
different Ensembles as La Cetra, Cappella Real de Catalunya, Balthasar
Neumann Chor, Accademia Bizantina, Venice Baroque Orchestra, Coro
della Radio Svizzera, Cappella Mediterranea, La Divina Armonia, Musica
Fiorita, I Virtuosi italiani, Ensemble Melpomen, Zürcher Singakademie.
 

http://www.aliceborciani.it

Lute

Vincent Flückiger was born in Fribourg in Switzerland and lives today in Basel. He first studied electrical guitar before showing interest in the historically informed performance practice and devoting himself to the study of the lute and other plucked instruments. He studied with Jonathan Rubin and Christine Gabrielle at the Centre de Musique Ancienne de Genève, where he graduated in 2003 and studied then till 2008 at the Schola Cantorum Basiliensis with Peter Croton and Hopkinson Smith.

Vincent Flückiger works with many different ensembles specialised in the practice of ancient instruments as, for instance, Les Ombres, La Chapelle Ancienne, the ensemble Turicum, the Akademie für Alte Musik Berlin, Al Ayre Español, the ensemble Stravaganza and the orchestra Les Passions de l’Âme, which led him to play in many festivals in Europe, North America and Australia. He also plays electric guitar in the jazz-fusion band Heima, works with electronic music and composes. In 2014, his piece Padumoj was nominated as best classical composition of the year in Latvia.

He recorded discs for the labels Harmonia Mundi, Mirare, K 617, Capriccio and Unit Records.

Percussion

The internationally renowned percussionist, Murat Coskun gives concerts worldwide with his solo program "Rhythms of Life" and with international musicians and ensembles such as the Giora Feidmann Sextet, with Kudsi Erguner, the ensemble Early Music Freiburg, and the ensemble FisFüz, at numerous concerts and festivals including in Mongolia, the United States, South Korea, Africa, the Near East and Western and Eastern Europe.

Based on his study of music ethnology and his Oriental studies, he serves as an intermediary between the musical worlds of the Orient and the West, draws from a large music repertoire of the most varied of cultures and deals with many directions of style such as Jazz, world music, early music, classics and experimental percussion.
Numerous CD recordings and radio productions such as with the SWR and Deutschland Radio and TV productions such as for ZDF, ARTE, BR and SWR provide an extension of his artistic career. In addition, he also composes film and stage music.

Murat Coskun works as a guest lecturer for Oriental percussion and frame drums including for the Freiburg Music University and since 2015 at the Popakademie Baden-Wuerttemberg (lecturer for mediterranean percussion) and gives international master classes including in Turkey and Iran. As an author and teacher, he developed the first worldwide frame drum instructional DVD, Finger Dance, and as an endorser of the company, Schlagwerk, he is participating in the development of new frame drums.
Murat Coskun is the founder and director of the international frame drum festival Tamburi Mundi which he organizes since 11 years in Freiburg (Germany).

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www.murat-coskun.eu

Soprano

The Spanish soprano, María Espada, studied singing at the Conservatorio de Mérida with Mariana You Chi Yu, at the Conservatorio Superior de Madrid con Pedro Lavirgen and at the Escuela Superior de Música Reina Sofía with Alfredo Kraus. She has attended master-classes courses with Charles Brett, Thomas Quasthoff, Hilde Zadek, Helena Lazarska, Montserrat Caballé, Manuel Cid, Julia Hamari, etc. She received the "Outstanding Thesis Award" and Award "Lucrecia Arana", both from the Conservatorio Superior de Madrid, and was awarded the Concurso internacional de canto Alfredo Kraus .

In 1996, María Espada began her career as a soloist. She has performed as soloist Matthäus-Passion (BWV 244), Johannes-Passion (BWV 245) and Magnificat (BWV 243) by J.S. Bach; Mass in C minor, Requiem and Coronation Mass by W.A. Mozart, The Creation and The Seasons by J. Haydn, 9th Symphony by L.v. Beethoven, Requiem by Gabriel Fauré, The Messiah and The Resurrection by George Frideric Handel, German Requiem by Johannes Brahms, Gloria by Antonio Vivaldi, etc. In the field of opera has performed L'incoronazione di Poppea (Virtu, Damigella, amore) by Monteverdi, La Bohème (Musetta) by Puccini, La Traviata (Annina) by Verdi's Magic Flute (Pamina) by W.A. Mozart, L'elisir d'amore (Giannetta) by Donizetti, etc..

María Espada has performed in such venues as the Teatro Real, Auditorio Nacional, Teatro Monumental and Teatro de la Zarzuela in Madrid; Teatre del Liceu, Palau de la Música Catalana and L’Auditori in Barcelona; Kursaal de S. Sebastián, Concertgebouw in Amsterdam, Vredenburg in Utrecht, Santa Cecilia in Rome, Funkhaus in Vienna, Teatro Arriaga de Bilbao, Maestranza in Sevilla, Auditorio de Zaragoza, Auditorio de Galicia, Teatro Gayarre and Baluarte in Pamplona, Auditorio Príncipe Felipe de Oviedo, etc.

María Espada has sung with conductors such as Fabio Bonizzoni, Frans Brüggen, Jordi Casas, Aldo Ceccato, Diego Fasolis, Eduardo López Banzo, Jesús López-Cobos, Ernest Martínez Izquierdo, Andrea Marcon, Salvador Mas, Giuseppe Mega, Juanjo Mena, Josep Pons, Alexander Rahbari, Antoni Ros Marbá, Emil Simon, Alberto Zedda, etc. She has worked with groups like La Risonanza (Fabio Bonizzoni) Armoniosi concerti (J.C. Rivera), Estro cromatico (M. Scorticati), La Trulla de Bozes zes (C. Sandúa), Ministriles de Marsias (F. Rubio), etc., and with orchestras such as the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra, Venice Baroque Orchestra, L'Orfeo Barockorchester (Director: Michi Gaigg), Orchestra of the 18th Century, Helsinki Baroque Orchestra, Al Ayre español, Orquesta Barroca de Sevilla, Orquesta Ciudad de Granada, Orquesta de la Comunidad de Madrid, Orquesta Sinfónica de Madrid, Orquesta de RTVE, Orquesta Sinfónica de Barcelona y Nacional de Cataluña (OBC), Orquesta Ciudad de Oviedo, Orquesta Sinfónica de Navarra, Orquesta Filarmónica de Málaga, Orquesta de Extremadura, Orquesta de Castilla y León, etc

Her interest in the field of chamber music has led her to perform works from the Baroque to the 20th century, both in recitals with piano and small chamber groups.