It is impossible to imagine Dutch musical life without Camerata Trajectina. The early music ensemble has made a name for itself by pleading for Dutch music from the 16th en 17th century, in particular songs, and aims to bring this music back to life, in a playful and scientifically justified way.
Camerata Trajectina comprises a nucleus of musicians, to which musicians and ensembles can be added. The group’s programmes deal chiefly with social events, such as exhibitions and commemorations of events and individuals from Dutch history.
The group took part in almost all editions of the Utrecht Early Music Festival, gave hundreds of concerts in the Nederlands and Flanders and toured to amongst others the United States, Canada, Ghana and Indonesia. It has also recorded more than 30 albums with Dutch music.

In 2012, recorder player Saskia Coolen discovered by chance, in the Historical Museum in Den Briel, the head joint of an alto recorder, made by the instrument maker Engelbert Terton. She brought in the recorder builder and expert Jan Bouterse who thoroughly cleaned and restored the joint. He suggested that there might well be other playble recorders to be found in private collections. In the years since then, Saskia’s research has turned up six forgotten eighteenth-century recorders: five altos and a sopranino.
On this album she plays these rediscovered recorders, together with gambist Rainer Zipperling and harpsichordist Patrick Ayrton, in eighteenth-century music by De Fesch, Nozeman, Van Wassenaer and other contemporaries.
In 2004 Saskia also played on historic recorders, from the collection of the Gemeentemuseum in The Hague, resulting in the album Recorders Recorded.

After having been a student in mathematics at the Leiden University, Nico van der Meel decided to become a professional musician. He initially studied choral conducting at the Rotterdam Conservatory, but from 1982 he studied singing with professor Margreet Honig. He concluded his studies cum laude in 1987, after which he took part in masterclasses with Evelyn Lear, Ruud van der Meer, Robert Holl, Elly Ameling and Elisabeth Schwarzkopf amongst others. In the past few years he has been invited as a teacher to several summercourses, like the "La Caixa" Curso Internacional de Música.

Nico van der Meel made an early debut with the Concertgebouw Orchestra during the 1987/1988 season and that same season also sang the tenor arias in a recording of Bach's St. John Passion conducted by Sigiswald Kuijken. He performed with conducters such as Nikolaus Harnoncourt, John Eliot Gardiner, Gustav Leonhardt, Peter Schreier, Jan Willem de Vriend, Jos van Veldhoven, Helmuth Rilling, Michel Corboz and Sir Colin Davis. Although he became internationally known for his performances of the role of Evangelist in J.S.Bach's Passions, he has a broad concert repertoire, including music from the 16th to the 20th century. In the years 1989 to 1996 he took part in concert tours and recordings of Bach's Mass in B minor and – as Evangelist – in Bach's St.John Passion and St.Matthew Passion by the Orchestra of the 18th Century conducted by Frans Brüggen for Philips Classics. Nico van der Meel can be heard on large number of other albums with early music, as the discograhpy on this website reveals.

In the Netherlands Nico van der Meel was a guest at all major stages for chamber music, but also in Germany, Spain and France he performed in song recitals. For these recitals he works in close connection with pianists Dido Keuning and Leo van Doeselaer amongst others. Albums were published with early songs by Hugo Wolf and with songs by the Dutch composers Johannes Verhulst, Leander Schlegel and Constantijn Huygens.

He has performed a number of operatic roles, including Alfred in Fledermaus by Johann Strauss, Sellem in Stravinsky's The Rake's Progress, Pedrillo in Mozart's Entführung aus dem Serail conducted by Christopher Hogwood, Don Ottavio in Mozart's Don Giovanni directed by Arnold Östman (recorded by Decca L'Oiseau Lyre) and Camacho in Mendelssohn's Die Hochzeit des Camacho with Anima Eterna led by Jos van Immerseel (recorded by Channel Classics).

Nico van der Meel is a member of the ensemble Camerata Trajectina which is recognized as a major advocate for Dutch music of the 16th and 17th century. With this ensemble he made more than fifteen albums. Nico van der Meel is also the leader of the William Byrd Vocal Emsemble, a choir that is mainly occupied with a capella music from the middle ages until the 21th century. Furthermore he coaches ensembles and led projects with various groups.