Régence sonore

Régence sonore is an award-winning young ensemble composed of Polish musicians, each of whom are active internationally and have been educated in the finest centres for early music in Europe. Following the ensemble’s participation in the gottingen händel competition 2024, Régence sonore were distinguished with both the Bärenreiter Urtext Prize and with an invitation to join this year’s S-EEEmerging program. The ensemble’s members are thrilled at this chance to further their artistic cooperation under the tutelage of Europe’s most prominent early music specialists.

The ensemble’s founding interdisciplinary project, La reine danse, was a program that combined historical dance with French Baroque music from the Sun King’s court in Versailles. The program was premiered in the 2023 edition of the Ogrody Muzyczne (Music Gardens) festival. Through the diverse educational background of the ensemble’s members (the Schola Cantorum Basiliensis in Switzerland, the Royal Conservatoire in the Hague, and the Polish early music scene) and their shared national heritage, Régence sonore consistently seeks to combine their musically diverse skills and expertise, and to draw upon inspirations and references from other fields of art and academic research.

The ensemble’s name is reflective of the role of art and music in shaping everyday life and identity, both historically and now. The name also calls to mind France’s Regency period – which spanned the reigns of Louis XIV and Louis XV – and symbolises the historical synthesising of the Early Baroque with the High Baroque and the galant style; as well as the ensemble’s desire to balance historically informed practice and research with virtuosity and taste, thus achieving the same artistic effect in their audiences as their forebears.