Programs:

Upcoming Performances

Sequentia was so communicative that the audience sighed, laughed and applauded in all the right places. . . but it was the artistry that made the concert so meaningful.
-- The Cleveland Plain Dealer

Founded in 1977, Sequentia has grown to become the internationally-acclaimed leader in its field - an ensemble that combines vocal and instrumental virtuosity with innovative research and programming to reconstruct the living musical traditions of medieval Europe. Under the direction of its founders, Benjamin Bagby and the late Barbara Thornton, Sequentia celebrates its 22nd year as a multi-faceted ensemble whose size and composition vary with the demands of the repertoire being performed. Sequentia is based in Cologne, Germany.

Through international tours and more than twenty recordings with Deutsche Harmonia Mundi (available worldwide through BMG Classics) and major European radio networks, as well as films for television and independent film-makers, Sequentia brings to life long-forgotten repertoires from the 10th to 14th centuries.

Sequentia performs extensively in Europe and North America, and since 1979 has undertaken numerous far-reaching tours under the auspices of the Goethe Institute, performing in South America, India and the Middle East, Japan (this is the ensemble's 5th tour since 1984), Korea and North Africa. During the past several years, the ensemble has become active in the Eastern European countries as well, with a long-awaited Australian debut in 1998.

Sequentia has received prizes for several recordings, including the International CD Prize Frankfurt, the Netherlands' Edison Prize, the Innsbruck Radio Prize, a Grammy nomination (USA) and both the French Disque D'Or and Diapason D'Or, and has been awarded research grants for performance projects from the Siemens Foundation and the Volkswagen Foundation. In addition to their performing and recording activities, the members of the ensemble also teach medieval performance practice at special intensive courses held each year in Europe and North America.

After receiving the 1993 Deutsche Schallplattenpreis for their 3-CD series of medieval Spanish musc,Vox Iberica, Sequentia entered into a long-term relationship with BMG Classics / Deutsche Harmonia Mundi. This has resulted in a project to record the complete works of the German mystic and abbess, Hildegard von Bingen (1098-1179); the third CD in this series, Canticles of Ecstasy, has already sold over 400,000 copies worldwide. Sequentia's most recent releases include recent additions to the Hildegard von Bingen complete works O Jerusalem (1997), the re-recording of Ordo Virtutum (1998), and the double-CD containing songs to St. Disibod, Saints (1998), as well as two CDs featuring Christmas music from 12th-century Aquitanian cloisters, Shining Light (1996) and Aquitania (1997).

Recently, Sequentia has been immersed in a study of the Old Icelandic mythology and its performance tradition in the Middle Ages. The newest incarnation of this project is now being presented in a production called Edda:Viking Tales of Revenge, lust and Family which was commissioned by the Lincoln Center Festival and the University Musical Society of Ann Arbor, Michigan. The original musical exploration was released as a CD in 1998).