Stockholm Early Music Festival (SEMF) is the Nordic region's largest international festival for

early music Early music generally comprises Medieval music (500–1400) and Renaissance music (1400–1600), but can also include Baroque music (1600–1750). Originating in Europe, early music is a broad musical era for the beginning of Western classical m ...

, which since 2002 takes place in early June every year in

Stockholm Stockholm () is the Capital city, capital and List of urban areas in Sweden by population, largest city of Sweden as well as the List of urban areas in the Nordic countries, largest urban area in Scandinavia. Approximately 980,000 people liv ...

Sweden Sweden, formally the Kingdom of Sweden,The United Nations Group of Experts on Geographical Names states that the country's formal name is the Kingdom of SwedenUNGEGN World Geographical Names, Sweden./ref> is a Nordic country located on ...

. SEMF lasts for a week and focuses on repertoire from

Medieval music Medieval music encompasses the sacred and secular music of Western Europe during the Middle Ages, from approximately the 6th to 15th centuries. It is the first and longest major era of Western classical music and followed by the Renaissance ...

Renaissance music Renaissance music is traditionally understood to cover European music of the 15th and 16th centuries, later than the Renaissance era as it is understood in other disciplines. Rather than starting from the early 14th-century '' ars nova'', the Tr ...

and

Baroque music Baroque music ( or ) refers to the period or dominant style of Western classical music composed from about 1600 to 1750. The Baroque style followed the Renaissance period, and was followed in turn by the Classical period after a short transiti ...

. The musicians and singers come from all over the world. The festival also offers a number of seminars. Stockholm Early Music Festival is under the auspices of

Queen Silvia Queen or QUEEN may refer to: Monarchy * Queen regnant, a female monarch of a Kingdom ** List of queens regnant * Queen consort, the wife of a reigning king * Queen dowager, the widow of a king * Queen mother, a queen dowager who is the mothe ...

. The founder and main person responsible for the festival is the composer and music researcher Peter Pontvik. SEMF also arranges the festival ''SEMF Christmas Edition'', ''European Day of Early Music'' (on the 21st of March) and various concert activities all year round under the name ''Early Music Live!''.

Concert halls

Stockholm Early Music Festival's concerts and seminars are organized in The German Church (Swe: Tyska kyrkan), The Finish Church (Swe: Finska kyrkan), The Great Church / The Cathedral Parish Hall (Swe: Storkyrkosalen), (Swe: Storkyrkosalen), The Royal Armoury (Swe: Livrustkammaren), The Medieval Museum (Swe: Medeltidsmuseet) and Mästerolofsgården. All located the

Old Town In a city or town, the old town is its historic or original core. Although the city is usually larger in its present form, many cities have redesignated this part of the city to commemorate its origins after thorough renovations. There are ma ...

of Stockholm.

Artists

Over the years, SEMF has been visited by many early music artists from various countries, including:

Jordi Savall Jordi Savall i Bernadet (; born 1 August 1941) is a Spanish conductor, composer and viol player. He has been one of the major figures in the field of Western early music since the 1970s, largely responsible for popularizing the viol family of ...

(Spain),

Andreas Scholl Andreas Scholl (born 10 November 1967) is a German countertenor, a male classical singer in the alto vocal range, specialising in Baroque music. Born into a family of singers, Scholl was enrolled at the age of seven into the Kiedricher Chorbuben ...

(Germany),

Philippe Jaroussky Philippe Jaroussky (born 13 February 1978) is a French countertenor. He began his musical career with the violin, winning an award at the Versailles conservatory, and then took up the piano before turning to singing. Unusually for a countertenor ...

(France), Les Arts Florissants (France),

Anonymous 4 Anonymous 4 was an American female ''a cappella'' quartet, founded in 1986 and based in New York City. Their main performance genre was medieval music, although later they also premiered works by recent composers such as John Tavener and Steve Re ...

(USA),

Freiburger Barockorchester Freiburger Barockorchester (Freiburg Baroque Orchestra) is a German Baroque orchestra founded in 1987, with the mission statement: "to enliven the world of Baroque music with new sounds". History The orchestra is based in Freiburg im Breisgau. ...

(Germany), Collegium Musicum Wien (Austria),

The Tallis Scholars The Tallis Scholars is a British professional early music vocal ensemble normally consisting of two singers per part, with a core group of ten singers. They specialise in performing ''a cappella'' sacred vocal music. History The group was formed ...

(Great Britain),

Il Giardino Armonico Il Giardino Armonico ("The Garden of Harmony") is an Italian ensemble well noted for its practice of Historically Informed Performance and founded in Milan in 1985 by Luca Pianca and Giovanni Antonini, primarily to play 17th- and 18th-century mus ...

(Italy)

Huelgas Ensemble The Huelgas Ensemble is a Belgian early music group formed by the Flemish conductor Paul Van Nevel in 1971. The group's performance and extensive discography focuses on Renaissance polyphony. The name of the ensemble refers to a manuscript of poly ...

(Belgium), Ensemble Villancico (Sweden), Ton Kooopman & Tini Mathot (Netherlands),

L'Arpeggiata L'Arpeggiata is a European early music group led by Christina Pluhar, and founded by her in 2000. The group has presented both traditional early music and also several collaged and themed performances and recordings. The group focuses on Italian, ...

with Doron Sherwin (Europe), Operabyrån (Sweden),

Marco Beasley Marco Beasley (26 February 1957, Naples) is an Italian tenor, voice-actor and musicologist. With composer and harpsichordist Guido Morini, Beasley was one of the three founding members of the Accordone early music ensemble in 1984; Stefano Ro ...

(Italy), Swedish Vocal Harmony, Lisa Rydberg & Gunnar Idenstam (Sweden), Gothenburg Baroque (Sweden) (Swe: Göteborg Baroque),

Swedish Radio Choir The Swedish Radio Choir is a professional choir. It is part of Sveriges Radio, the public radio broadcasting company of Sweden. The choir consists of 32 singers and their chorus master Marc Korovitch. Peter Dijkstra is the choir's most recent chief ...

(Swe: Radiokören), Ida Falk-Winland (Sweden),

Les Paladins ''Les Paladins'' is an opera by Jean-Philippe Rameau first performed on 12 February 1760 at the Paris Opera. The author of the libretto is not known for sure but was probably one of the Duplat de Monticourt brothers. Rameau called ''Les Paladins'' ...

(France),

Nigel North Nigel North (born 5 June 1954) is an English lutenist, musicologist, and pedagogue. Student days He studied guitar on a scholarship to the junior department of the Guildhall School of Music and Drama (1964–70), taking up the lute in 1969, at ...

(England), Trio Mediaeval (Norway),

Concentus Musicus Wien Concentus Musicus Wien (CMW) is an Austrian baroque music ensemble based in Vienna. The CMW is recognized as a pioneer of the period-instrument performance movement. History Nikolaus Harnoncourt and Alice Harnoncourt co-founded the CMW in 1953 ...

(Austria), Sarband (Germany), Elyma (Switzerland), Drottningholms Barockensemble (Sweden), Maria-Christina Kiehr (Switzerland), L'Eventail (France), Hans-Ola Ericsson (Sweden),

Kudsi Erguner Kudsi Ergüner (born 4 February 1952 in Diyarbakır, Turkey) is a Turkish musician. He is considered a master of traditional Mevlevi Sufi music and is one of the best-known players of the Turkish ney flute. Biography As a boy, Erguner s ...

(Turkey), Dialogos (Croatia), Ensemble Inegal (Czech), L’Aura Rilucente (Hungary), Fader Seraphim (Georgia), Gogochuri Sisters (Georgia), Skip Sempé (USA), Benedek Csalog (Hungary), Orfeus Barockensemble (Sweden), Ensemble Mare Nostrum with conductor Andrea de Carlo (Italy),

Ricercar Consort The Ricercar Consort is a Belgian instrumental ensemble founded in 1980 together with the Ricercar record label of Jérôme Lejeune. The founding members were violinist François Fernandez, organist Bernard Foccroulle, and viola da gamba player ...

(Belgium) and many more. Some of the concerts have been broadcast by the

BBC #REDIRECT BBC #REDIRECT BBC #REDIRECT BBC Here i going to introduce about the best teacher of my life b BALAJI sir. He is the precious gift that I got befor 2yrs . How has helped and thought all the concept and made my success in the 10th board ex ...

. {{Cite web, last=, first=, date=2018-09-09, title=Ensemble Inegal in Stockholm, url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m0000bcc, url-status=live, archive-url=, archive-date=, access-date=2020-09-23, website=BBC Radio 3, Early Music Late

Cultural policy work and international profiling

SEMF operates at the cultural policy level and at the forefront of a number of early music actors in Sweden. The aim is to create a national center and stage for early music and dance. The focus for this purpose is Stockholm's oldest concert hall The Musical Palace (Swe: Musikaliska) built in 1878 at Nybrokajen 11. In 2006, SEMF laid the foundations for the Nordic-Baltic Early Music Network (NORDEM) and has chaired its counterpart European Early Music Network (REMA) (Fra: Réseau Européen de Musique Ancienne) during the years 2011–2015. The festival's artistic director Peter Pontvik is also the initiator of European Day of Early Music.

Concert halls

Artists

Cultural policy work and international profiling

References

External links