Drottningholm Baroque Ensemble

The Drottningholm Baroque Ensemble was founded in 1971 by viola player Lars Brolin. The original six members, at the time leading musicians at the famous Drottningholm Royal Court Theater, set as an overarching goal to perform music from the 17th and 18th century on period instruments. Today, the ensemble has grown considerably to allow orchestral music from the time of Claudio Monteverdi to symphonies by Ludwig van Beethoven, including a full string section, wind, brass, harpsichord, lute and percussion.

Over the years the ensemble has had the opportunity to perform in a large number of countries, more or less covering all continents – Europe, USA, China, Japan, Africa and Australia. Numerous well-known artists and conductors have chosen to work with Drottningholm Baroque Ensemble. Among these, conductors as Christopher Hogwood, Andrew Parrott, Sigiswald Kuijken, Emmanuelle Haim and Alfredo Bernardino, as well as soloist like Ann Sophie von Otter, Malena Ernman, Emma Kirkby and Barbara Hendricks can be mentioned. Numerous concerts and international tours have been arranged together with Eric Ericsson’s Chamber Choir, the Swedish Radio Choir and they have played with in principle all leading choirs throughout Sweden. The ensemble is also regularly invited to play at formal ceremonies at the Royal Court.

The ensemble has recorded a variety of period music on more than 60 recordings on a number of labels, EMI, BIS, Naxos and Musica Svecia, to mention a few. The recording of Vivaldi’s “The Four Seasons” was internationally acclaimed and selected ‘best recording’ by the highly prestigious German magazine Audio. A recording with Swedish composer Johan Agrell’s rarely performed symphonies was released in 2023.