Orquestra Barroca Casa da Música

Orquestra Barroca Casa da Música was formed in 2006 with the aim of performing Baroque music from a historically informed perspective. In addition to its regular work with its principal conductor, Laurence Cummings, the orchestra has performed under the direction of renowned conductors such as Rinaldo Alessandrini, Alfredo Bernardini, Amandine Beyer, Fabio Biondi, Harry Christophers, Antonio Florio, Paul Hillier, Paul McCreesh, Riccardo Minasi, Hervé Niquet, Andrew Parrott, Rachel Podger, Christophe Rousset, Dmitri Sinkovsky, Andreas Staier, and Masaaki Suzuki. The orchestra has also worked with esteemed soloists such as Andreas Staier, Roberta Invernizzi, Franco Fagioli, Peter Kooij, Dmitri Sinkovsky, Alina Ibragimova, Rachel Podger, Marie Lys, Iestyn Davies, Rowan Pierce, Andreas Scholl, Pieter Wispelwey, and ensembles such as The Sixteen, Coro Casa da Música, and Coro Infantil Casa da Música.

The orchestra’s performances have garnered unanimous acclaim from both national and international critics. It premiered Handel’s opera Ottone in Portugal and, in 2012, performed the modern premiere of Francisco António de Almeida’s L’Ippolito. The orchestra has toured extensively, performing at the Festival de Música Antigua de Úbeda y Baeza (FeMAUB) and in Ourense (Spain), the London Handel Festival (UK), the Opéra de Dijon and Baroque Festivals at Sablé and Ambronay (France), BASF in Ludwigshafen am Rhein (Germany), the Wiener Konzerthaus (Austria), and the China Conservatory of Music in Beijing (China), as well as in various Portuguese cities, including the Braga Barroca and Noites de Queluz festivals. Together with Coro Casa da Música, it has performed Christmas cantatas, the h-Moll-Messe and the Easter, Ascension, and Christmas oratorios by Bach, Charpentier’s Te Deum and Missa Assumpta est Maria, Handel’s Messiah, and Domenico Zipoli’s Vespri di S. Ignazio. In 2015, the orchestra made its debut at the Palau de la Musica in Barcelona, receiving enthusiastic praise from critics. That same year, the orchestra’s complete performance of the Brandenburg Concertos under Laurence Cummings’ direction was particularly noteworthy. The orchestra frequently collaborates with internationally renowned harpsichordist Andreas Staier, with whom it recorded the album À Portuguesa (Harmonia Mundi, 2018), featuring two concertos by Carlos Seixas, which they presented in Porto and on tour in Dijon, Ludwigshafen am Rhein, Vienna, and Sintra. In recent seasons, the orchestra has performed Pergolesi’s and Vivaldi’s Stabat Mater, Monteverdi’s espro della Beata Vergine, and excerpts from Bach’s Die Kunst der Fuge.

Orquestra Barroca Casa da Música has released live recordings of works by Avison, D. Scarlatti, Carlos Seixas, Avondano, Vivaldi, Bach, Muffat, Handel and Haydn, under the direction of some of the most prestigious conductors in the international music scene.

Principal Conductor

LAURENCE CUMMINGS

Laurence Cummings is one of the most versatile musicians in the field of historical performance in England, both as a harpsichordist and conductor. He is the musical director of Academy of Ancient Music, the London Handel Festival, and Orquestra Barroca Casa da Música. He is considered an authority on Handel’s music and “one of the best advocates of the composer worldwide”.

Frequently acclaimed for his sophisticated and thrilling interpretations in opera houses, he has performed across Europe, conducting productions for the Opernhaus Zürich (Belshazzar, King Arthur), Theater an der Wien (Saul), Göteborgsoperan (Gluck’s Orphée et Eurydice, Giulio Cesare, Alcina, and Idomeneo), the Théâtre du Châtelet (Saul), and the Opéra de Lyon (Messiah). In the UK, he is a regular guest of English National Opera (Radamisto, L’Incoronazione di Poppea, Semele, Messiah, Orfeo, and Indian Queen), the Glyndebourne Festival (Saul, Giulio Cesare, and Fairy Queen), and Garsington Opera (L’Incoronazione di Dario, L’Olimpiade, and Vivaldi’s La Verità in Cimento). He has also performed at the Linbury Theatre Covent Garden (Berenice and Alceste), Opera North (L’Incoronazione di Poppea), the Buxton International Festival (Tamerlano and Mozart’s Lucio Silla), and with Opera Glassworks (The Rake’s Progress). In the 2020/21 season, he organized the final edition of the Göttingen International Handel Festival as Artistic Director, a position he held for nine years.

Cummings is also an experienced conductor in concert halls and is frequently invited to conduct period and modern instrument orchestras, including Academy of Ancient Music, Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment, English Concert, Handel and Haydn Society in Boston, Hrvatski barokni ansambl, La Scintilla (Zurich), Juilliard 415, Musikcollegium Winterthur, St. Paul Chamber Orchestra, Chamber Orchestras of Basel, Moscow, and Scotland, and Washington, Kansas, Jerusalem, and Frankfurt Radio Symphony Orchestras. In the UK, he has conducted Royal Northern Sinfonia, Hallé Orchestra, Bournemouth Symphony, Royal Liverpool Philharmonic, Ulster Orchestra, and Royal Scottish National Orchestra.

His discography includes recordings with Emma Kirkby and Royal Academy of Music (BIS), Angelika Kirchschlager and Basler Kammerorchester (Sony BMG), Maurice Steger and English Concert (Harmonia Mundi), and Ruby Hughes and Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment (Chandos). He has also recorded a series of operas and concerts at the Göttingen Internationella Händelfestivalen (Accent), as well as numerous solo harpsichord and chamber music recitals for Naxos.

He was an organ scholar at Christ Church, Oxford, where he graduated with distinction. Until 2012, he was the head of historical performance studies at the Royal Academy of Music, where he established baroque and classical orchestra practice in the curriculum. William Crotch is now Professor of Historical Performance. 

Musicians