The Amsterdam Baroque Orchestra

Ton Koopman founded the Amsterdam Baroque Orchestra in 1979. The group consists of internationally renowned baroque specialists who meet up several times a year and work together to prepare and perform new and exciting programmes. For the musicians, each concert is a new experience and Koopman’s boundless energy and enthusiasm are a sure guarantee of the highest quality.

The Amsterdam Baroque Choir was founded in 1992 and it made its debut during the Holland Festival of Early Music in Utrecht, performing the world premiere of the Requiem (for fifteen voices) and Vespers (for thirty-two voices) by Heinrich Ignaz Franz Biber. The recording of both of these works won the Cannes Classical Award for the best performance of 17^th-18^th century choral music. For its rare combination of textural clarity and interpretative flexibility, the Amsterdam Baroque Choir is considered among today’s most outstanding choral ensembles.

In 1994 Ton Koopman and the Amsterdam Baroque Orchestra and Choir embarked upon their most ambitious recording projects of the last decades – an integral recording of Bach’s secular and sacred cantatas. For this extraordinary project Koopman and his ensemble received the Deutschen Schallplattenpreis – Echo Klassik. In addition to CD recordings, three books have been edited and published by Ton Koopman and the musicologist Christoph Wolff, and a series of six documentaries was produced and broadcast by various television companies.

Alongside Bach’s music, the Amsterdam Baroque Orchestra and Choir have recorded all major baroque and classical works. Major recognitions include the Gramophone Award, the Diapason d’Or, the 10-Repertoire, the Stern des Monats-Fono Forum, the Prix Hector Berlioz and two Edison Awards. In 2008 the ensemble and Ton Koopman were honoured with the prestigious BBC Award, and in 2009 – for the second time – with the Echo Klassik award for Vol. VII of Buxtehude Opera-Omnia.

All new CDs and DVDs of Ton Koopman and the Amsterdam Baroque Orchestra and Choir are released by Antoine Marchand, a sub-label of Challenge Classics. The latest releases include all twenty-two boxes of Bach’s Cantatas, Bach’s St Matthew Passion and St Mark Passion (on CD and DVD), the first sixteen volumes of the Buxtehude Opera-Omnia edition and Bach’s Musikalisches Opfer.

Ton Koopman and the Amsterdam Baroque Orchestra and Choir are regular guests at the major concert halls of Europe, the USA and Asia.