R E B E L
Jörg-Michael Schwarz & Karen Marie Marmer, directors

Hailed by the New York Times as “Sophisticated and Beguiling” and praised by the Los Angeles Times for their “astonishingly vital music-making”, the New York-based Baroque ensemble REBEL (pronounced “Re-BEL”) has earned an impressive international reputation, enchanting diverse audiences by their unique style and their virtuosic, highly expressive and provocative approach to the Baroque and Classical repertoire.

The core formation of two violins, recorder/traverso, cello/viola da gamba and harpsichord/organ expands with additional strings, winds, theorbo and vocalists, performing on period instruments. REBEL is currently in residence at historic Trinity Church, Wall Street in New York City, collaborating with Trinity Choir in works ranging from the cantatas of Bach to the major oratories of Handel, Bach, Mozart and Haydn.

Named after the innovative French Baroque composer Jean-Féry Rebel (1666-1747), REBEL was originally formed in The Netherlands in l99l. In the Fifth International Competition for Ensembles in Early Music, Utrecht 1991 (now the Van Wassenaer Competition) REBEL was awarded first prize. Since then the ensemble has performed at European venues such as the Holland Festival Oude Muziek, Tage Alter Musik Berlin, the Konzerthaus (Vienna), La Chapelle Royale (Versailles), Internationale Festtage für Alte Musik Stuttgart, Tage Alter Musik Regensburg and the Händel Festspiele (Halle an der Saale, Germany), amongst others.

REBEL has appeared to critical acclaim at distinguished American venues such as the Da Camera Society, the Schubert Club , Friends of Music Kansas City, the Clarice Smith Performing Arts Center, Library of Congress, Caramoor, Chautauqua Institution, Stanford Lively Arts, University of Chicago Presents, University of Arizona (Tucson) Presents, the Shrine to Music Museum, the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, the Cleveland Museum of Art, the Boston and Berkeley Early Music Festivals and Music Before l800 in New York City.

REBEL has collaborated with renowned vocalists Max von Egmond, Derek Lee Ragin, Suzie Le Blanc, Daniel Taylor, Peter Kooy and Barbara Schlick; in 2005 REBEL appeared in collaboration with Renée Fleming at Carnegie Hall to critical acclaim. The ensemble has recorded for all the major European national radio networks and has been showcased in performance and interview on BBC’s Radio 3. Arguably the most aired American Baroque ensemble in the U.S. today, REBEL has been regularly featured on NPR’s Performance Today and MPR’s St. Paul Sunday. In 1999 REBEL became the first and only period instrument ensemble to be awarded an artists’ residency at National Public Radio.

REBEL has recorded for Deutsche Harmonia Mundi (Tombeau: Trio Sonatas of J.-F.
Rebel; Fantaisie Champestre: Pièces en Trio by Marais); Dorian Recordings (Rossi and his Circle; Concerti di Napoli; Telemann alla Polacca), ATMA Classique (Giuseppe Sammartini: Sonate e Concerti with Ensemble Caprice); Hänssler Classic (Haydn: Two Masses with REBEL Baroque Orchestra & Trinity Choir) and Bridge Records (Antonio Vivaldi: Shades of Red; Biber: Harmonia Artificiosa -Ariosa). Forthcoming CDs include Corellisante: Trio Sonatas by A.Corelli & G.Ph.Telemann, and Haydn: St.Nicolai Mass & Grand Organ Mass.

The REBEL Baroque Orchestra first gained wide recognition for its acclaimed performance of Mozart’s Requiem with Trinity Choir under the direction of Dr. Owen Burdick, broadcast nationally over National Public Radio in September 2001, and for its annual performances of Handel’s Messiah and the sacred choral works of Haydn, which are broadcast live over WQXR-FM in New York City , as well as internationally over the internet since December 2001. A recording of the complete sacred choral works of Haydn will be released in 2009. www.rebelbaroque.com