Our Values
"Every moment seems fresh and new..." (KlassikInfo.de)
The ZBO was founded in 2002 at the Zurich University of Music. Since 2018, the two Zurich violinists Monika Baer and Renate Steinmann have shared the artistic direction and thus live a rarely encountered form of collaboration. Making repertoire that has rarely been performed or never been heard before accessible to an audience has been a key goal of the orchestra since the very beginning. Thematic focuses and topical references characterize the programming. The artistic directors are committed to making music tangible in more than just the classical concert format: In constantly renewing forms of exchange between audience and orchestra, the ZBO seeks innovative ways to retell early music.For several years, the Zurich Baroque Orchestra has worked closely with the Forum Alte Musik Zürich and has repeatedly realized very successful concert evenings specially tailored to the various festival themes: In spring 2023, the ZBO performed G.Ph. Telemann's rarely performed integral Musique de Table I as part of the "Vespers" festival - a project that will be continued over the next two years with the two other books. On the theme of "all'improvviso", the ZBO conceived a program entitled LA VOCE DELL' ARCO: music by G. Tartini and P. Locatelli was improvisationally combined by the orchestra and soloist Chouchane Siranossian. With the successful program DAVID`S HARP - a musical narrative about the biblical figure David - the orchestra gave a concert together with the up-and-coming countertenor Terry Wey on the occasion of the "Saitenspiele" festival. The program will be produced in a similar form as an audio recording in 2024, and in summer 2023 the project DU MATIN AU SOIR was successfully realized in collaboration with the Zurich-based composer and sound artist Lara Stanic. Her interventions, specially conceived for the ZBO and entitled "Sonnenstand", combined and commented on J. Haydn's three daytime symphonies. At unusual locations such as the Letzigraben outdoor pool and the Botanical Gardens - as part of the Long Night of Museums - new audience segments were won over in a low-threshold and humorous way. The FESTA CORELLIANA with a very large formation of Zurich baroque specialists and TRESOR with newly discovered music from a lost library also attracted a lot of attention. TERPSICORE, an opéra-ballet with music by G.F. Händel and J. Schieferdecker in collaboration with the dancer and musician Mojca Gal and her dance company, celebrated its success in 2019 with two sold-out evenings at Zurich's Theater Rigiblick.In addition to large-scale projects, the Zurich Baroque Orchestra also repeatedly cultivates the baroque art of consort playing. In spring 2021, CONSORT COLLECTION was realized with music from 17th century libraries and produced as a live stream from the Kulturhaus Helferei Zurich with great resonance. In spring 2022, the ZBO performed English music for violin consort as part of the GO FROM MY WINDOW project and combined the music with selected poetry from the Golden Age. The last program in autumn 2023 combined excerpts from a letter by J. Dowland with his seven Lachrimae pavans and, in the second part, brought H. Purcell's Fantazias to life, which the ensemble recorded together with John Holloway for the renowned ECM label.the Canton of Zurich will support the ZBO from 2024 with a multi-year grant. The city of Zurich awarded the orchestra the Werkjahr Interpretation in 2019. This award encouraged the management team in its work and confirmed the direction that the ZBO has taken: Bringing early music to today's audiences in a professional, fresh and lively way.