musicAeterna Orchestra
The musicAeterna Orchestra and the musicAeterna Choir are among the most sought-after Russian ensembles, constantly seeking to extend themselves creatively, whether in terms of their historically informed performances, their new interpretations of 19th- and 20th-century works or their premieres of contemporary compositions. Their members hail from 15 countries.
The Orchestra and Choir were founded in Novosibirsk in 2004 by Teodor Currentzis and from 2011 to 2019 were a part of the Perm Opera and Ballet Theatre, where Currentzis was artistic director. In September 2019 musicAeterna embarked on a new phase of its development as a privately sponsored independent institution. Its headquarters are now Dom Radio in St Petersburg, where musicAeterna has created a multidisciplinary centre, hosting creative and educational programmes along with unique experimental ventures and research projects encompassing multiple areas of contemporary art.
musicAeterna undertakes regular international tours with Currentzis, appearing in prestigious venues such as the Vienna Konzerthaus, the Berlin Philharmonie, the Cologne Philharmonie, the Elbphilharmonie in Hamburg, the Philharmonie im Gasteig in Munich, the Philharmonie de Paris, the Auditorio Nacional de Música in Madrid, the Baden-Baden Festspielhaus and La Scala, Milan.
Among the other conductors with whom the musicAeterna Choir has worked are Andres Mustonen, Paul Hillier, Vincent Dumestre, Raphaël Pichon and Andrea Marcon, while the ensembles with which they have appeared include Le Poème Harmonique and the Mahler Chamber Orchestra.
musicAeterna is a frequent guest at major international festivals, most notably the Ruhrtriennale, the Klarafestival in Brussels, the Festival d’Aix-en-Provence, the Lucerne Festival and the Diaghilev Festival in Perm. The ensemble made its Salzburg Festival debut in 2017, performing Mozart’s Requiem and opening the Festival’s opera programme with La clemenza di Tito, the first Russian ensemble to do so in the Festival’s history. Since then, musicAeterna has regularly returned to Salzburg.
Teodor Currentzis and musicAeterna are exclusive Sony Classical artists. Their critically acclaimed recordings of works by Mozart, Mahler, Beethoven, Tchaikovsky, Rameau and Stravinsky have received numerous international awards, including the ECHO Klassik Award, the Edison Klassiek Award, the Japanese Record Academy Award and the BBC Music Magazine’s Opera Award. In 2018 the Choir was named Choir of the Year at the International Opera Awards.