Musica Viva: Ombra e Luce

Costumes of baroque music by Bach, Biber, Uccelini and others

Tabea Höfer, violin
Georg Kallweit, violin/viola
Björn Colell, theorbo and lute

The great enthusiasm of the ensemble, which was founded ten years ago in Berlin, is for early Italian music for violin and theorbo. Here, the musicians keep discovering incredible and untapped treasures. Both the courts of Modena and Bologna as well as Venice offered an almost inexhaustible wealth of first-class solo and chamber music in the 17th century. With sophisticated programs full of mostly extremely virtuoso music, the ensemble delights audiences and the press at home and abroad: "The music is refined and brilliantly illusionistic, and the three outstanding protagonists seduce the audience with the utmost clockwork precision to a delightfully virtuosic and brilliant frenzy. This not only pays tribute to the composers, but also makes it clear what kind of artists and experts are performing and conjuring us here. Bravissimo e Meravigliosa!"

A native of Potsdam, Tabea Höfer was a violinist in the Berlin Radio Symphony Orchestra for many years after studying at the Hanns Eisler Academy of Music in Berlin. She has performed with this orchestra and other ensembles in Europe, America and Japan. Her in-depth study of music before 1750 and the baroque violin has been followed by extensive concert activities for many years now, in which she performs as a soloist, chamber musician and concertmaster. Her artistic work regularly brings her together with outstanding vocal soloists, instrumentalists and distinguished ensembles.

Georg Kallweit is considered one of the most renowned German baroque musicians. As concertmaster and soloist of the Akademie für Alte Musik Berlin and other renowned ensembles, he is a highly sought-after specialist and is regularly invited as artistic director or concertmaster by various renowned European baroque orchestras. He has made more than

eighty CD recordings, which have won many international prizes, including recordings of violin concertos for Harmonia Mundi France and a wide range of chamber music with the Berlin Baroque Compagney and other ensembles. His diverse international concert activities have taken him to almost all European countries as well as regularly to Japan, China, North and South America and Australia. Georg Kallweit plays a baroque violin by Camillus Camilli (Mantua 1740).

Since studying with Jakob Lindber at the Royal College of Music in London, lutenist Björn Colell has performed extensively all over the world, including as a member of the Berlin Baroque Soloists. His special quality as a sensitive and virtuoso accompanist is celebrated by critics and audiences alike and has been honored with numerous international awards. He has performed as a soloist and continuo player in the most prominent concert venues throughout Europe, Australia, Japan and South and North America, including Carnegie Hall New York, London's Royal Albert Hall, the Teatro Colon Buenos Aires and the Berlin Philharmonie. He is regularly invited as a lutenist by the Akademie für Alte Musik Berlin, the Freiburg Baroque Orchestra, the Drottningholm Baroque Orchestra and other renowned musicians such as Maurice Steger and Philippe Jaroussky. CD recordings with Björn Colell, including together with Cecilia Bartoli and Maurice Steger, have been honored with numerous awards, including the ECHO Klassik, the Grammy and the Choc du Monde de la Musique.