Since its founding in 2003, the Echo-Klassik prize winner NeoBarock has earned a reputation as an excellent interpreter of exceptional programs with its captivating interpretations and musicologically based concepts. For NeoBarock historical performance is not an end in itself, a staging of past events, nor do they produce museum pieces as a musical backdrop to contemporary life. NeoBarock do not try to take today’s listeners back into the Baroque era – they transpose that era’s music into our present age. Based on profound knowledge of their source material, on constant research, employing exactly the kind of instruments a piece originally was written for, these readings are a conscious effort to get as close to a composer’s intentions as possible, to reveal the music’s timeless relevance.
In thrilling, suggestive concert performances NeoBarock present rediscovered rarities or shed new light on well-known repertoire. With its unmistakable intensity of sound the ensemble is a regular guest in renowned concert halls and at important festivals.
Highlights of the current season include the continuation of the Gesamtkunst concert series in Cologne, which in 2023 is all about the “Facets of Exile”. In the 2023/24 season, NeoBarock, whose interpretation of Bach – according to the Huffington Post, USA – “occupies a groundbreaking top position”, will present its interpretation of the Musical Offering for the first time. In combination with Isang Yun’s Königliches Thema from 1976 and the Bach-inspired Canonic Inventions by the Czech composer Vicktor Kalabis, this programme fuses early and modern music. The press has already been euphoric: “Rarely does one experience such a thoughtfully conceived, fully cohesive programme.” [Gießener Allgemeine, March 2023]
The musical fairy tale Princessin Fasola und die Muskel-Tiere, in collaboration with the storyteller Jolanda Steiner, will soon be published by ambitus Musikproduktion, as will an audio psychogram about Queen Christina of Sweden.
“A way of playing that you can’t get enough of.
… artistic mastery that is undoubtedly part of a divine order.”
Permanent members of NeoBarock:
Maren Ries – baroque violin/viola
Ariane Spiegel – baroque cello
Stanislav Gres – harpsichord
For specific projects NeoBarock expands its ensemble cast by collaborating with renowned guest musicians.
“NeoBarock’s musical performances are stylistically brilliant, dynamic, passionate and on the cutting edge of where Bach in the 21st century is heading.”