La Margarita

Marguerite of Austria (1480-1530) was one of the most powerful and influential women of her age. Widowed at the age of 19, she was entrusted by two separate Emperors with the Regency of the Netherlands, once by her father Maximilian I and once by her nephew Charles V. She kept her own court in Mechelen, Flanders, and her chapel choir employed several of the best composers of her age. She employed musicians on both loud and soft instruments. Her library contained three of the most important manuscripts from the years around 1500, two of polyphonic music (songs and motets) and one great rarity – one of the first surviving collections of dance music with associated choreographies.

Ensemble Inventio is an improvising renaissance wind ensemble, or Alta Capella, for the 21st century, using historical ensemble improvisation techniques not as a curiosity, but as a vital means of expression. Improvisation also informs the ensemble’s interpretation of notated works. Inventio has appeared at leading early music festivals such as the Leipzig Festival for Historical Improvisation, Fonte Vivace Festival Aachen, the Tollite Portas Festival, Kotor, Montenegro and ReReinaissance, Basel.

Ian Harrison is an inventive and virtuoso player of shawm, cornett, bagpipes, and other historical wind instruments. He started his musical career as a Lay Clerk in Canterbury Cathedral and went on to study at the City University, London, The Royal Conservatory, The Hague and the Schola Cantorum Basiliensis in Basel. He teaches historical improvisation at the Conservatories of Frankfurt and Weimar, and shawm and ensemble music of the Middle Ages and Renaissance at the Schola Cantorum Basiliensis. Until 2021 he was co-director of Les haulz et les bas and the Early Folk Band. He now directs Ensemble Inventio.

This concert is included in the LIFEM Festival Pass.