DAVID JAMES countertenor ROGERS COVEY-CRUMP tenor STEVEN HARROLD tenor GORDON JONES baritone Unrivalled for its formidable reputation in the fields of both early and new music, The Hilliard Ensemble is one of the world's finest vocal chamber groups. Its distinctive style and highly developed musicianship engage the listener as much in medieval and renaissance repertoire as in works specially written by living composers. The group’s standing as an early music ensemble dates from the 1980s with its series of successful recordings for EMI (many of which have been re-released on Virgin) and its own mail-order record label hilliard LIVE, now available on the Coro label; but from the start it has paid equal attention to new music. The 1988 recording of Arvo Pärt’s Passio began a fruitful relationship with both Pärt and the Munich-based record company ECM, and was followed by their recording of Pärt’s Litany. The group has recently commissioned other composers from the Baltic States, including Veljo Tormis and Erkki-Sven Tüür, adding to a rich repertoire of new music from Gavin Bryars, Heinz Holliger, John Casken, James MacMillan, Elena Firsova and many others. In addition to many a cappella discs, collaborations for ECM include most notably Officium andMnemosyne with the Norwegian saxophonist Jan Garbarek, a partnershipwhich continues to develop and renew itself, and Morimur with the German Baroque violinist Christoph Poppen and soprano Monika Mauch. Based on the research of Prof. Helga Thoene, this is a unique interweaving of Bach’s Partita in D minor for solo violin with a selection of Chorale verses crowned by the epic Ciaconna, in which instrumentalist and vocalists are united. The group continues in its quest to forge relationships with living composers, often in an orchestral context. In 1999, they premiered Miroirs des Temps by Unsuk Chin with the London Philharmonic Orchestra and Kent Nagano. In the same year, James MacMillan’s Quickening,commissioned jointly by the BBC and the Philadelphia Orchestra, was premiered at the BBC Proms. With Lorin Maazel and the New York Philharmonic, they performed the world premiere of Stephen Hartke’s 3rd Symphony which was subsequently premiered in Europe by the Deutsche Radio Philharmonie Saarbrücken Kaiserslautern and Christoph Poppen. They have also collaborated with the Munich Chamber Orchestra with a new work by Erkki-Sven Tüür. In 2007 they joined forces with the Dresden Philharmonic Orchestra to premiere Nunc Dimittis by the Russian composer Alexander Raskatov, also recording this for ECM. In 2009 worked with the Arditti Quartet performing a substantial new work, Et Lux by Wolfgang Rihm.
A new development for the group began in August 2008 with the premiere at the Edinburgh International Festival of a music theatre project written by Heiner Goebbels in a production by the Théâtre Vidy, Lausanne: I went to the house but did not enter. This has subsequently been presented throughout Europe and the US.
With the release of their third collaboration with Jan Garbarek on the ECM label, Officium Novum,the group continues to tour extensively in Europe. The composer Alexander Raskatov features highly in their planning as does a new work by Nico Muhly which they will tour with the viol group Fretwork. In 2013 their album Prayers and Praise is released on Challenge Classics.

Krystof Maratka’s music ranges from chamber music to full- scale symphonic works with choir and they have been performed all over the globe and received numerous prizes. His most outstanding works invite us on journeys in time and in space: Anthology of dreams – piano trio, Hypnozy - a woodwind quintet, The four legged crow- a melodrama, Chant g’hai for traditional Chinese suona and orchestra, and even Otisk (Imprint) for large symphonic orchestra that explores an audacious hypothesis regarding the nature of Palaeolithic music fifty thousand years ago. This work was commissioned in 2004 by three American orchestras (Toronto Symphony Orchestra, Saint-Luke Orchestra and Colorado Symphony Orchestra) and played several times in Denver, New York and Toronto.
A well as composing, orchestral conducting is a major part of Maratka’s work; “It is a necessity for me, it is one thing to write music and something else to bring it to life on stage. The two go hand in hand, and as a composer, it is only during the moments of creation as a performer that I feel whole.” Maratka has performed with many renowned orchestra and groups including: the Prague Philharmonia, Philharmonic Orchestra of the Polish Radio Orchestra, Orchestra Colonne Paris, the National Theatre Orchestra in Prague, the Irkoutsk Philharmonic Orchestra, La Follia in Strasbourg, the Academy Orchestra of St. Cézaire, Jyväskyla Orchestra (Finland), Nordenwest Philharmonie Herford in Germany, Bydgoszcz Philharmonia Pomorska (Poland), Ensemble Calliopée (Paris), Talich Chamber Orchestra (Czech Republic).
Born in Prague, Maratka, studied piano and chamber music, and then style, analysis and composition at the Prague Conservatoire with Bohuslav Rehor and Petr Eben. With a grant from the French institutes in Prague he moved to Paris and continued is studies with Jean-Claude Pennetier and then computer music at the IRCAM. He has collaborated with many international orchestras and ensembles such as Shanghai Symphony Orchestra, the National Orchestra of France, the Czech Philharmonic Orchestra, the Philharmonic Orchestra of Radio France, the Camerata of Saint Petersburg, the Lodz Philharmonic, as well as with the Evian Competition, the Présences Festival at Radio France, the Contemporary Music Festival in Dresden, Korsholm Music Festival in Finland, the Rostal Competition in Berlin, the Caramoor Festival in the USA.
Two CDs of Krystof Maratka’s works have been released. In June 2001 a disc of his Chamber Music on the Lyrinx label which received a prize from the Académie Charles Cros. In 2005, the second CD was released on Arion, which includes his clarinet concerto Luminarium and his viola concerto Astrophonia.
Recent highlight have included: the premier of Zverohra a series of anthropoid songs for soprano and orchestra, commissioned by Radio France and premiered at the Prague Premiers Festival in April 2008 with Czech Philharmonic Orchestra. Mélopa for harpsichord dedicated to Élisabeth Chojnacka 2009 and Praharphona a concerto for harp and orchestra, commissioned and premiered by the Kiel Symphony Orchestra (Germany) 2010.
Maratka has won numerous prizes including: 1st Prize from the Shanghai Spring Festival for his piece Chant G’hai in 2007, the Tansman Prize in 2006 and the Audience Prize for his work Luminarium, a concerto for clarinet and orchestra, at the Fourth International Musical Celebrity Competition in Lodz.
In 2007 the Académie des Beaux-Arts in France awarded Maratka the Pierre Cardin Prize in musical composition for that year. The television channel, MEZZO recently made a documentary portrait about him.
His works are published by Editions Jobert Paris.

The Netherlands Chamber Orchestra was formed in 1955, since when it has proved itself an exceptional ensemble with a long history of notable achievements. Although it merged with the Netherlands Philharmonic Orchestra in 1985, the orchestra has never lost its own identity. In fact, the Netherlands Chamber Orchestra has consistently surprised its symphonic ‘big brother’. Particularly notable is the dynamic between the members of the orchestra, which rarely performs under a conductor. The musicians have complete confidence in each other and their chemistry is obvious to all. “It’s a state of mind in which everything comes together. You can rise above yourself. Everyone goes to a own special place where we all meet each other. Call it a common feeling, a certain mythology, a scent, poetry, whatever. The Netherlands Chamber Orchestra can do that,” states concertmaster Gordan Nikolitch with verve. Gordan Nikolitch was appointed concertmaster in 2004. Through his passion and commitment, the Serbian-born violinist has spurred the orchestra to ever greater artistic heights. Nikolitch is aware that he is the custodian of a rich artistic heritage. The Netherlands Chamber Orchestra rose to international fame under violinist and conductor Szymon Goldberg, who founded the ensemble in 1955 and continued in the role of concertmaster until 1979. Goldberg took the orchestra on several international tours. On one occasion, the music critic of the New York Times wrote, “If ever a concert merited the epithet ‘perfect’, it was the one given by Szymon Goldberg and his Netherlands Chamber Orchestra at Carnegie Hall.” The Netherlands Chamber Orchestra gives dozens of concerts every year. It can regularly be heard in Amsterdam’s Royal Concertgebouw and the Muziekgebouw aan ’t IJ, as well as other major concert halls throughout the Netherlands and beyond. The orchestra also plays in venues that are not so readily associated with classical music, such as Amsterdam’s Paradiso where an enthusiastic capacity audience enjoyed a programme of works by Stravinsky and Ravel. Like the Netherlands Philharmonic Orchestra, the Netherlands Chamber Orchestra often takes part in productions of the Dutch National Opera.