English Baroque Soloists

Founded in 1978 by John Eliot Gardiner, the English Baroque Soloists seeks to challenge preconceptions of 200 years of music ranging from Monteverdi to Mozart and Haydn. Equally at home in chamber, symphonic, and operatic performances, the group’s distinctively warm and incisive playing is instantly recognisable. One of today’s leading period-instrument orchestras, the ensemble has performed at many of the world’s most prestigious venues including the Milan’s Teatro alla Scala, the Concertgebouw in Amsterdam, and the Sydney Opera House.

In 2021, the ensemble performed its first live streamed concert; Bach’s St John Passion, filmed in Oxford’s historic Sheldonian Theatre and streamed on Deutsche Grammophon’s DG Stage online platform. It also gave critically acclaimed performances of Handel and Bach at two of Europe’s most prestigious music festivals; the BBC Proms and the Berliner Festspiele.

In 2019, the EBS made its inaugural visit to South America for the Cartagena International Music Festival, and subsequently undertook a tour of Handel’s dramatic oratorio Semele with the Monteverdi Choir, visiting a series of iconic venues including Barcelona’s Palau de la Música and Milan’s Teatro alla Scala. The ensemble then gave its debut performances in Russia, Brazil, Uruguay, Argentina, and Chile alongside the Monteverdi Choir, with a program of works by Monteverdi, Carissimi, Scarlatti, and Purcell.

2017 saw the EBS take part in the celebrated Monteverdi 450 tour, in which it performed all three of Monteverdi’s surviving operas across Europe and in the US, a project that was recognised by a Royal Philharmonic Society award in the Opera and Music Theatre category.