Founded in 2016, the roots of the ensemble DOMUS ARTIS can be traced back to when some of its members first met at the Schola Cantorum Basiliensis in Basel, Switzerland. Similar interests in both secular and sacred music of the Renaissance have strengthened their bonds of friendship and ensemble singing. Devoting itself principally to the repertoires of the 16th and early 17th centuries, the swiss-based ensemble Domus Artis is made up of musicians from several different countries: Argentina, Brazil, Hungary and Japan. Specialized in the musical culture of the Renaissance, a central aspect of the ensemble’s work is their continual pursuit and application of heretofore rarely explored aspects of the performance practice of that period. These include, for instance, performing from memory, renaissance solmization, improvisation, expanded meantone tuning systems, use of original notation and rhetorical expressivity.
In May 2016, Domus Artis became a fellow ensemble of the Giorgio Cini Foundation in Venice. Under the guidance of the renowned singer and specialist in Renaissance music Dominique Visse and the musicologist Kate van Orden (Harvard University), the ensemble participated in the »Egida Sartori and Laura Alvini Early Music Seminars« (dir. Pedro Memelsdorff) with special emphasis in 16th-century French music tradition and works by Clément Janequin and Elzéar Genet (alias Carpentras). In November 2017 the ensemble won the 2nd prize at the »2nd International Competition of the Journée de musique ancienne« (Paris) and was awarded in 2020 the 2nd prize in the »Biagio Marini Competition of the Summer Academy Neuburg an der Donau«.
In collaboration with Johannes Keller and Studio31, a breakthrough research project of the Hochschule für Musik Basel, Domus Artis develops since 2017 the practical implementation of Nicola Vicentino’s (1511 - 1577) concepts of tonal systems that go far beyond twelve notes per octave. With the staged program »Eine geheime Akademie« (staging: Michael Kleine) Domus Artis performed at the Gare du Nord Basel as well as in the concert series Freunde Alter Musik Basel, presenting madrigal settings by Michelangelo Rossi and Sigismondo D'India alongside with the Arciorgano, an instrument reconstructed after Vicentino’s instructions. This program has been recorded by the label »Glossa« as part of the CD-series of the Schola Cantorum Basiliensis.
Domus Artis received important impulses from the Renaissance music specialist Anne Smith and author of the book The Performance of 16th-Century Music.
In 2017 Domus Artis debuted in the contemporary music scene with the world premiere of »ceremony« by the world-famous composer Georg Friedrich Haas, a four-hours music installation for 36 instruments of various centuries and four vocal parts that was presented at the Kunstmuseum Basel as part of the »ZeitRäume Basel - Biennale für neue Music and Architecture«. Domus Artis also premiered »Three Dreams from Tómas Luis de Victoria« by the Argentine composer Julián Galay, a piece for six voices and six tuning forks specially dedicated to the ensemble and conceived for the scenic program »La encarnación y el sueño« (staging by Michael Kleine).
DOMUS ARTIS
Florencia Menconi | mezzosoprano
Flavio Ferri-Benedetti | countertenor
Akinobu Ono | tenor
Breno Quinderé | baritone
Guilherme Barroso | lute, vihuela, theorbo