ARTIST PROFILE

REBEL

BIOGRAPHY

Hailed by the New York Times as "Sophisticated and Beguiling" and praised by the Los Angeles Times for their "astonishingly vital music-making", the New York-based Baroque ensemble REBEL (pronounced "Re-bel") has earned an impressive international reputation, enchanting diverse audiences by their unique style and their virtuosic, highly expressive and provocative approach to the Baroque and Classical repertoire.

The core formation of two violins, recorder/traverso, cello/viola da gamba and harpsichord / organ expands with additional strings, winds, theorbo and vocalists, performing on period instruments. REBEL is currently in residence at historic Trinity Church, Wall Street in New York City, collaborating with Trinity Choir in works ranging from the cantatas of Bach to the major oratories of Handel, Bach, Mozart and Haydn.

Named after the innovative French Baroque composer Jean-Féry Rebel (1666-1747), REBEL was originally formed in The Netherlands in l99l. In the Fifth International Competition for Ensembles in Early Music, Utrecht 1991 ( now the van Wassenaer Competition) REBEL was awarded first prize. Since then the ensemble has performed at European venues such as the Holland Festival Oude Muziek, Tage Alter Musik Berlin, the Resonanzen Festival (Vienna), La Chapelle Royale (Versailles), Internationale Festtage für Alte Musik Stuttgart, Tage Alter Musik Regensburg and the Händel Festspiele (Halle an der Saale, Germany), amongst others.

REBEL has appeared to critical acclaim at distinguished American venues such as the DaCamera Society (Los Angeles), the Seattle Early Music Guild, Houston Early Music, the Clarice Smith Performing Arts Center (MD), Chamber Music Sedona (AZ), Caramoor (New York), Chautauqua Institution (NY), the San Diego Early Music Society, the Howard Mayer Brown International Concert Series (Chicago), the Shrine to Music Museum (SD), the Cleveland Museum of Art, the Boston and Berkeley Early Music Festivals and Music Before l800 in New York City.

REBEL has collaborated with renowned vocalists Max von Egmond, Peter Kooy, Barbara Schlick and Suzie LeBlanc and has recorded for all the major European national radio networks as well as the BBC. Arguably the most aired American Baroque ensemble in the U.S. today, REBEL has been regularly featured on NPR's Performance Today and MPR's St. Paul Sunday and on numerous local radio stations across the country. In 1999 REBEL became the first and only period instrument ensemble to be awarded an artists' residency at National Public Radio.

REBEL has recorded for Deutsche Harmonia Mundi and more recently, Dorian Recordings ('Rossi and his Circle;' 'Concerti di Napoli'; 'Telemann alla Polacca'). 'Giuseppe Sammartini: Sonate e Concerti' (in collaboration with Ensemble Caprice, Montréal) on ATMA Classique, and Haydn: Two Masses (REBEL Baroque Orchestra & Trinity Choir, on Hänssler Classic) were released in 2002. Forthcoming CDs include 'Vivaldi: Shades of Red', 'Corellisante: Trio Sonatas by A.Corelli & G.Ph.Telemann' (Dorian), and 'Haydn: St.Nicolai Mass & Grand Organ Mass' (Hänssler) and Biber: Harmonia Artificiosa Ariosa.

The REBEL Baroque Orchestra first gained international recognition in 2001 for its performance of Mozart's Requiem with Trinity Choir, broadcast nationally over National Public Radio in memoriam of the victims of September 11, and for its annual performances of Handel's Messiah and the sacred choral works of Haydn, which have been broadcast live over WQXR-FM in New York City and over XM Satellite Radio, as well as internationally over the internet since December 2001.