I Zefirelli

Founded in Hamburg, the ensemble I Zefirelli brings a fresh breeze to the world of early music. Drawing on its experience in chamber and solo performance, as well as historically informed practice, I Zefirelli aims to create intuitive and electrifying interpretations of Baroque repertoire. The ensemble is named after Zephyr, the god of the West Wind, who is also known as the herald of spring.
 
I Zefirelli has performed at the musical festivals, such as the Internationale Händel-Festspiele Göttingen, the Musikfestspiele Potsdam Sanssouci, and the Innsbrucker Festwochen der Alten Musik, among others, in the concert hall Riga Early Music Centre, and on WDR 3 Alte Musik and BBC 3 Early Music.
 
In 2017, the six musicians received a prize from the Career Centre of the Hamburg University of Music and Theatre for Mr. Handel in the Pub, an innovative programme exploring the connection between Baroque and folk music that premiered in an English pub. The ensemble’s main musical focus is on London and its musical life around 1700.
 
At the Internationaler H. I. F. Biber Wettbewerb in 2019, I Zefirelli was awarded the Westdeutscher Rundfunk (WDR) Prize, which was followed by a concert broadcast on WDR 3 Alte Musik. In 2021, the ensemble won the Bärenreiter Urtext-Preis at the international Göttingen Händel Competition. For the final performance, they arranged the Händel’s opera Berenice, regina di Egitto specifically for the six members of the ensemble, complementing the work with their own compositions. In 2022, I Zefirelli was chosen to participate in EEEMERGING+, a project for emerging ensembles in the field of early music, initiated by the European Union under its Creative Europe programme.