Tempus mirabilium

Hana Blažíková is an exceptional figure on the Czech and international early music scene. She graduated from the Prague Conservatory, where she studied under Jiří Kotouč. Currently, the singer specialises in the interpretation of mostly Baroque, Renaissance and Medieval repertoire and performs solo with many of the world’s leading ensembles, including Collegium Vocale Gent, Gli Angeli Genève, Bach Collegium Japan, the Amsterdam Baroque Orchestra, Ensemble Pygmalion, Nederlandse Bachvereniging, La Cetra, La Capella Reial de Catalunya, Collegium Marianum, Tiburtina Ensemble, Collegium 1704 and Cappella Mariana.   Hana Blažíková appears at major international festivals, such as the Prague Spring, the Edinburgh International Festival, Salzburger Festspiele, Oude Muziek Utrecht, Tage Alter Musik Regensburg, Resonanzen (Vienna), the Summer Festivities of Early Music, Festival de la Chaise-Dieu, Chopin i jego Europa, Festival de Saintes, Bachfest Leipzig and Concentus Moraviae.   She has also sung works by Bach with the Boston Symphony Orchestra and the Bamberger Symphoniker under the baton of Herbert Blomstedt. Her collaboration with the Bach Collegium Japan took her to New York’s Carnegie Hall. Since 2015, she has worked closely with the renowned cornetto player Bruce Dickey, with whom she has toured several times in North America, Australia and Tasmania.   In 2017, she performed in all three of Monteverdi’s operas under the direction of Sir John Eliot Gardiner and sang in leading opera and concert houses in both Europe and the USA.   Hana Blažíková also plays the Gothic and Romanesque harp. She appeared on more than forty CD recordings.

Capella de la Torre is one of the world’s leading ensembles specialising in wind music of the Renaissance and Baroque periods. The ensemble was founded in Berlin in 2005 by oboist, shawm player and expert on historical reed instruments Katharina Bäuml. Capella de la Torre has recorded thirty-four CDs and made numerous live recordings.   The name “de la Torre” can be understood in two ways. At the beginning of the 16th century, the Spanish composer Francisco de la Torre composed what is surely his most famous work for a woodwind ensemble – Danza alta. In addition to this homage to the composer, the title can also be understood literally; “downward from the tower”. At the time these pieces were written, woodwind ensembles often played on various occasions from towers or balconies.   In 2016, it won the Echo Klassik award in the Ensemble of the Year category, followed in 2017 by an award for the CD “Da Pacem – Echo der Reformation”, which the ensemble recorded together with the Rias Kammerchor choir. In 2018, Capella de la Torre received the OPUS Klassik award for the recording “Una Serata Venexiana”, and in 2023, another OPUS Klassik award for the CD “Monteverdi-Memories”.

Katharina Bäuml studied moder oboe, Baroque oboe, and historical reed instruments. She has concentrated on wind instruments of the 15th to the 17th centuries. She founded the Capella de la Torre ensemble in 2005, which is now one of the most important groups specialising in Renaissance music in Germany. In 2016, Katharina Bäuml won the Echo Klassik award in the Ensemble of the Year category with Capella de la Torre for their CD “Water Music”. Between 2017 and 2018, she and her ensemble received further OPUS Klassik awards for the albums “Da Pacem – Echo der Reformation” and “Una Serata Venexiana”.   Katharina Bäuml is not only dedicated to early music but also to the interpretation of contemporary music on historical instruments. This has led to numerous commissions for her ensemble named Duo Mixtura, which has performed, among other places, at the Berlin Ultraschall festival.   As the artistic guarantor of several festivals and concert series, Katharina Bäuml enjoys combining diverse genres, from early modern music to jazz.