Marian Song with Voces Suaves and Concerto Scirocco

The Basel vocal ensemble Voces Suaves brings Renaissance and Baroque music back to life. Its trademark? The group’s members develop their programs as a collective without a fixed musical director. This demands the creative input of each individual member, and allows everyone to share equally in the artistic responsibility. The core of the ensemble, founded in 2012 by baritone Tobias Wicky, consists of eight singers. Voces Suaves concentrates on vocal music from the early German Baroque and Italian madrigal tradition, but regularly joins forces with other ensembles to perform larger Italian oratorios and masses. In addition to performing works by famous composers such as Claudio Monteverdi and Heinrich Schütz, the group also devotes itself to music by lesser-known masters such as Stefano Bernardi, Giaches De Wert and Giovanni Croce. Voces Suaves performs at major festivals throughout Europe. Several recordings have been released since 2015, and have been awarded numerous international prizes.

The early music ensemble Concerto Scirocco was founded by recorder-player and bassoonist Giulia Genini in 2009, and has been focusing on the repertoire of the 16th and 17th centuries ever since. The members of the Swiss ensemble combine a creative approach with a sound knowledge of historical performance practice; they bring a passion for music-making, verve and a wealth of unusual timbres to their performances. Concerto Scirocco performs at leading festivals, including the Innsbruck Festival of Early Music, the Basel Early Music Festival and the Festival Label Suisse in Lausanne. Gramophone magazine has praised the musicians' "clarity of detail" and "intelligently balanced musicality"; their phrasing, ornamentation and communication of emotions is based, according to the magazine, on a deep understanding of Baroque music. The ensemble's recordings, many of which were made in collaboration with the singers of Voces Suaves, have won several awards. An album with the Canzoni da Sonar by the Venetian Giovanni Picchi, which was nominated for the German Record Critics' Award, also met with enthusiastic acclaim.

Francesco Corti is a "powerhouse of unbridled vitality, captivating and stirring at the same time,” enthused BBC Music Magazine. Corti, who is active both as an ensemble director and as a harpsichord soloist, has been Music Director of the Royal Theater in Drottningholm near Stockholm since January 2023, and has conducted Les Musiciens du Louvre regularly since 2015; he is also Principal Guest Conductor of Il Pomo d'oro. Corti's recordings have been praised by the press and awarded prizes inluding the Diapason d'Or. Born in Arezzo, Tuscany, Francesco Corti first studied organ in nearby Perugia, then the harpsichord in Geneva and Amsterdam. As a harpsichordist and conductor, he performs throughout Europe, the USA, Canada, Latin America and Asia, and is a guest at festivals such as the Salzburg Festival, the Festival Oude Muziek Utrecht, the Musikfest Berlin and the Festival Radio France Montpellier. Francesco Corti is also active as a harpsichordist in various ensembles, including Les Talens Lyriques, Le Concert des Nations and the Bach Collegium Japan. He gives masterclasses worldwide and has been Professor of Harpsichord and Basso continuo at the Schola Cantorum Basiliensis since 2016.