BAROQUE OPERA ORGANISATION

upcoming concerts

Erik Bosgraaf appointed principal guest conductor at Collegium Musicum Riga
The leading professional baroque orchestra in the Baltic States was founded in 1990 by conductor Maris Kupcs and focuses on historical performance of baroque repertoire. Collegium Musicum Riga has already worked successfully with Erik Bosgraaf in recent years during tours in the Baltic states and Switzerland. In 2022 they made their first widely acclaimed CD together with arrangements of music by Johann Sebastian Bach, released by Brilliant Classics in 2022.

 

Erik Bosgraaf is regarded as one of the world’s most virtuoso recorder players, and he is definitely the most adventurous. The recorder is an inexhaustible source of inspiration and possibilities for him. He improvises, plays jazz, works with electronics and seeks collaboration in other art disciplines, for example with film makers (Werner Herzog, Paul and Menno de Nooijer). Bosgraaf is also a gifted conductor. Collegium Musicum Riga in Latvia has appointed him principle guest conductor. He is artistic director of the London International Festival of Early Music (LIFEM).

Bosgraaf’s repertoire extends from medieval to Vivaldi’s Four Seasons to the music of tomorrow. For him there is no essential distinction between old and new music. ‘Early music is always new,’ in his opinion. About a hundred works have been written for him, including twelve solo concertos (Willem Jeths, Theo Loevendie, Anna Meredith and others). Pierre Boulez personally granted him permission to edit his clarinet composition Dialogue de l’ombre double for recorder. In 2019 he gave the world premiere of Arvo Pärt’s Fratres in his own version for recorder in Tallinn, Estonia.

Bosgraaf’s recording of Jacob van Eyck’s Der Fluyten Lust-hof marked his international breakthrough in 2006. Since then, numerous other CDs have been released, mainly on the Brilliant Classics label. He makes most of the recordings with his Ensemble Cordevento, with whom he also performed from Utrecht to Hong Kong. As a soloist he has played with the Dallas Symphony Orchestra conducted by Jaap van Zweden, the Dutch Radio Philharmonic, BBC Symphony Orchestra, the Duisburger Philharmoniker, the Residentie Orchestra TheHague, the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra and the Helsinki Baroque Orchestra, among others. In February 2017, at the invitation of Jaap van Zweden, he conducted the Hong Kong Philharmonic as a soloist. Concerto Köln accompanied him in 2021 at his solo debut at the Elbphilharmonie in Hamburg.

When he is not performing as a soloist, Bosgraaf leads orchestras as an experienced continuo player from behind the harpsichord, or from the front. In 2009 he received a Borletti-Buitoni Trust Award (2009), two years later he was the first recorder player to receive the Dutch Music Prize. Bosgraafteaches at the music academy in Kraków (Poland), is a regular guest teacher at the conservatories of Amsterdam and Taipei, and gives masterclasses all over the world.

erikbosgraaf.com, earlymusic.lv

 

Tomoe Badiarova, a versatile Japanese violinist, shines as a soloist, chamber musician, and orchestra leader.
Her repertoire spans from the early Baroque to the late Romantic period on both Baroque and Romantic violins, viola, and violoncello da spalla.
As a soloist, she recorded the rarely performed virtuosic violin concerto BWV1052R by J.S. Bach on an album with the Bremer Barockorchester. Her ensemble, Les Esprits Animaux, achieved an extraordinary feat by winning all four prizes at the Van Wassenaer Competition in 2016, including the 1st prize, press awards, youth awards, and early music season awards.
Based in The Hague, Netherlands, Tomoe is a key member of various European ensembles. She has excelled as a concertmaster with the Bremer Barockorchester (BBO), led the second orchestra, and performed as a soloist in J.S. Bach’s Matthäus Passion with the Amsterdam Baroque Orchestra. She has showcased her talent with the ensemble Los Temperamentos, playing the violin and the rare violoncello da spalla as the Basso Continuo.
Tomoe has shared the stage with various groups, including
the Amsterdam Baroque Orchestra, La Petite Band, the Lutherse Bach Ensemble, Ensemble Postscript, PRJCT Amsterdam, Apollo Ensemble, Collegium Vocale Gent, Ensemble Odyssee, Ensemble Corvento, and Den Haag Piano Quintet, among others.
She plays violins, viola, and violoncello da spalla, using bows crafted by Dmitry Badiarov.