Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment
Encyclopedia
The Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment (OAE) is a British period instrument orchestra
Orchestra
An orchestra is a sizable instrumental ensemble that contains sections of string, brass, woodwind, and percussion instruments. The term orchestra derives from the Greek ορχήστρα, the name for the area in front of an ancient Greek stage reserved for the Greek chorus...

. The OAE is a resident orchestra of the Southbank Centre, London, associate orchestra at Glyndebourne Festival Opera
Glyndebourne Festival Opera
Glyndebourne Festival Opera is an English opera festival held at Glyndebourne, an English country house near Lewes, in East Sussex, England.-History:...

 and has its headquarters at Kings Place. The leadership is rotated between four musicians, Alison Bury, Matthew Truscott, Kati Debretzeni and Margaret Faultless.

A group of period instrumentalist players formed the OAE as a self-governing ensemble in 1986, and took its name from the historical period in the late 18th century
Age of Enlightenment
The Age of Enlightenment was an elite cultural movement of intellectuals in 18th century Europe that sought to mobilize the power of reason in order to reform society and advance knowledge. It promoted intellectual interchange and opposed intolerance and abuses in church and state...

 where the core of its repertoire is based. The OAE does not have a principal conductor, but chooses conductors individually. Having no permanent music director gives the orchestra flexibility to work with some of the world’s greatest conductors and soloists across a wide range of music. The current Principal Artists are Sir Simon Rattle
Simon Rattle
Sir Simon Denis Rattle, CBE is an English conductor. He rose to international prominence as conductor of the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra and since 2002 has been principal conductor of the Berlin Philharmonic ....

, Vladimir Jurowski
Vladimir Jurowski
Vladimir Mikhailovich Jurowski is a Russian conductor. He is the son of conductor Mikhail Jurowski.Jurowski began his musical studies at the Moscow Conservatory...

 and Iván Fischer
Iván Fischer
Iván Fischer is a Hungarian conductor and composer. Born in Budapest into a Jewish musical family, Fischer initially studied piano, violin, cello and composition in Budapest...

. Emeritus Conductors are Frans Brüggen
Frans Brüggen
Frans Brüggen is a well-known Dutch conductor, recorder player and baroque flautist.-Biography:Brüggen studied recorder and flute at the Amsterdam Muzieklyceum. He also studied musicology at the University of Amsterdam. In 1955, at the age of 21, he was appointed professor at the Royal...

, the late Sir Charles Mackerras
Charles Mackerras
Sir Alan Charles Maclaurin Mackerras, AC, CH, CBE was an Australian conductor. He was an authority on the operas of Janáček and Mozart, and the comic operas of Gilbert and Sullivan...

 and Sir Roger Norrington
Roger Norrington
Sir Roger Arthur Carver Norrington, CBE is a British conductor. He is the son of Sir Arthur Norrington and his brother is Humphrey Thomas Norrington....

. Other conductors to have worked with the OAE at its invitation include Yannick Nezet-Seguin
Yannick Nézet-Séguin
Yannick Nézet-Séguin is a French Canadian conductor. He is Music Director Designate of the Philadelphia Orchestra, and will become Music Director in 2012.-Biography:...

, Edward Gardner
Edward Gardner (conductor)
Edward Gardner is a British conductor.Gardner sang as a chorister at Gloucester Cathedral. As a youth, he played piano, clarinet and organ. He attended the King's School, Gloucester and Eton College. At the University of Cambridge, he continued as a music student, and was a choral scholar in...

, Robin Ticciati
Robin Ticciati
Robin Ticciati is a British conductor of Italian ancestry. His paternal grandfather was a composer and arranger. His father is a barrister, and his mother is a therapist...

, Philippe Herreweghe
Philippe Herreweghe
Philippe Herreweghe is a Flemish conductor.In his school years at the University of Ghent, Herreweghe combined studies in medical science and psychiatry with a musical education at the Ghent Conservatory, where Marcel Gazelle, Yehudi Menuhin's accompanist, was his piano teacher...

, Gustav Leonhardt
Gustav Leonhardt
Gustav Leonhardt is a highly renowned Dutch keyboard player, conductor, musicologist, teacher and editor. Leonhardt has been a leading figure in the movement to perform music on period instruments...

, Mark Elder
Mark Elder
Sir Mark Philip Elder, CBE is a British conductor. He is the music director of the Hallé Orchestra in Manchester, England.-Biography:Elder was born in Hexham, Northumberland, England, the son of a dentist...

, René Jacobs, Harry Bicket
Harry Bicket
Harry Bicket is a British conductor, harpsichordist and organist.Bicket was educated at Radley College, Christ Church, Oxford, where he was organ scholar, and the Royal College of Music...

, Christopher Hogwood
Christopher Hogwood
Christopher Jarvis Haley Hogwood CBE, MA , HonMusD , born 10 September 1941, Nottingham, is an English conductor, harpsichordist, writer and musicologist, well known as the founder of the Academy of Ancient Music.-Biography:...

, Marin Alsop
Marin Alsop
Marin Alsop is an American conductor and violinist. She is the music director of the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra.In 2012, Alsop will replace Yan Pascal Tortelier as principal conductor of the São Paulo State Symphony Orchestra....

, Sigiswald Kuijken
Sigiswald Kuijken
Sigiswald Kuijken is a Belgian violinist, violist, and conductor known for playing on authentic instruments.-Biography:Kuijken was born in Dilbeek, near Brussels. He was a member of the Alarius Ensemble of Brussels between 1964 and 1972 and formed La Petite Bande in 1972...

, Ivor Bolton
Ivor Bolton
Ivor Bolton is an English conductor and harpsichordist. He studied at Clare College and at the Royal College of Music...

, Monica Huggett
Monica Huggett
Monica Huggett is a British conductor and leading baroque violinist.-Biography:At the age of 16, Huggett started studying at the Royal Academy of Music, London, with Manoug Parikian and Kato Havas, baroque violin with Sigiswald Kuijken.She co-founded and served as leader of the Amsterdam Baroque...

, and Bruno Weil
Bruno Weil
Bruno Weil is a symphonic conductor. He is principal guest conductor of Tafelmusik, the period-instrument group based in Toronto, Music Director of the Carmel Bach Festival in California, and artistic director of the period-instrument festival "Klang und Raum" in Irsee, Bavaria...

.

Ethos and beginnings

The Ethos of the Orchestra is based on democracy
Democracy
Democracy is generally defined as a form of government in which all adult citizens have an equal say in the decisions that affect their lives. Ideally, this includes equal participation in the proposal, development and passage of legislation into law...

; with the idea that the players are not simply technicians but also actively guide the artistic direction of the orchestra. When it began anyone who wanted to could become a member of the orchestra, although they wouldn’t necessarily be asked to play. Responsibility for concert planning is given to an Artistic Direction Committee which is elected annually by the members.
An early mission statement stated that the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment was to:

“Avoid the dangers implicit in:
  • playing as a matter of routine,
  • pursuing exclusively commercial creative options,
  • under-rehearsal,
  • undue emphasis as imposed by a single musical director,
  • recording objectives being more important than creative objectives.”


The OAE’s first concerts, in June 1986, were booked at Oxford's Town Hall
Oxford Town Hall
The Oxford Town Hall is located on St Aldate's in the centre of Oxford, England. The site was previously occupied by Oxford Guildhall. It is a meeting place for local government in the city and also houses the Museum of Oxford. In addition, it can be hired for events...

 and London’s Queen Elizabeth Hall
Queen Elizabeth Hall
The Queen Elizabeth Hall is a music venue on the South Bank in London, United Kingdom that hosts daily classical, jazz, and avant-garde music and dance performances. The QEH forms part of Southbank Centre arts complex and stands alongside the Royal Festival Hall, which was built for the Festival...

. Conducted by Sigiswald Kuijken, their first programme consisted of an Overture Suite by Telemann, Rameau’s Suite from Dardanus
Dardanus (opera)
Dardanus is an opera in five acts by Jean-Philippe Rameau. The French libretto was by Charles-Antoine Leclerc de La Bruère.-Performance history:It was first performed at the Académie de musique in Paris on November 19, 1739...

, a symphony by Gossec and Haydn’s Symphony ‘La Poule’.
Symphony No. 83 (Haydn)
The Symphony No. 83 in G minor, Hoboken I/83, is the second of the six so-called Paris Symphonies written by Joseph Haydn in 1785 and it was published by Artaria in Vienna in December 1787....


Since 2000

The OAE's current recurring season at the Southbank Centre in London includes concerts at the Queen Elizabeth Hall
Queen Elizabeth Hall
The Queen Elizabeth Hall is a music venue on the South Bank in London, United Kingdom that hosts daily classical, jazz, and avant-garde music and dance performances. The QEH forms part of Southbank Centre arts complex and stands alongside the Royal Festival Hall, which was built for the Festival...

 and Royal Festival Hall
Royal Festival Hall
The Royal Festival Hall is a 2,900-seat concert, dance and talks venue within Southbank Centre in London. It is situated on the South Bank of the River Thames, not far from Hungerford Bridge. It is a Grade I listed building - the first post-war building to become so protected...

. In May 2006, the OAE started a series of informal late night concerts called "The Night Shift", which has twice been nominated for a Royal Philharmonic Society Award
Royal Philharmonic Society Music Awards
The Royal Philharmonic Society Music Awards are given annually for live classical music-making in the United Kingdom. The awards were first held in 1989 and are independent of any commercial interest....

 for audience development.

The OAE celebrated the 21st anniversary of its founding with a concert at the Royal Festival Hall
Royal Festival Hall
The Royal Festival Hall is a 2,900-seat concert, dance and talks venue within Southbank Centre in London. It is situated on the South Bank of the River Thames, not far from Hungerford Bridge. It is a Grade I listed building - the first post-war building to become so protected...

 on 30 June 2007, conducted by Norrington, Elder, Mackerras and Jurowski respectively.

In 2007 the OAE also won the RPS Ensemble award "for its stunning delivery of a breadth of repertoire, indefatigable advocacy of the interpretation of music played on original instruments and pioneering work in education and through a range of media – not to mention the artistry of its individual members in making each listening experience uniquely creative, engaging and thrilling."

In July 2008 the OAE moved its official headquarters to Kings Place
Kings Place
Kings Place is a building in London’s Kings Cross area, providing music and visual arts venues combined with seven floors of office space, a home for The Guardian newspaper since December 2008 and the headquarters of Network Rail...

 in London
London
London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...

, while continuing its Southbank season and residency.

On 29 January 2010 The Night Shift, (and the OAE) made its first appearance at The Roundhouse
The Roundhouse
The Roundhouse is a Grade II* listed former railway engine shed in Chalk Farm, London, England, which has been converted into a performing arts and concert venue. It was originally built in 1847 as a roundhouse , a circular building containing a railway turntable, but was only used for railway...

 in Camden, North London.

In August 2010 the OAE played at the Royal Albert Hall
Royal Albert Hall
The Royal Albert Hall is a concert hall situated on the northern edge of the South Kensington area, in the City of Westminster, London, England, best known for holding the annual summer Proms concerts since 1941....

 as part of the BBC Proms season, performing Wagner’s Tristan und Isolde
Tristan und Isolde
Tristan und Isolde is an opera, or music drama, in three acts by Richard Wagner to a German libretto by the composer, based largely on the romance by Gottfried von Straßburg. It was composed between 1857 and 1859 and premiered in Munich on 10 June 1865 with Hans von Bülow conducting...

(Act 2) and the Love Scene from Romeo and Juliet by Berlioz. The concert was conducted by Sir Simon Rattle and included soloists Sarah Connolly
Sarah Connolly
Sarah Patricia Connolly CBE is an English mezzo-soprano.Sarah Connolly was educated at Queen Margaret's School, York and then studied piano and singing at the Royal College of Music, of which she is now a Fellow...

, Ben Heppner
Ben Heppner
Ben Heppner, CC is a Canadian tenor, specializing in opera and other classical works for voice.Heppner was born in Murrayville, British Columbia, and lived in Dawson Creek...

 and Violeta Urmana
Violeta Urmana
Violeta Urmana, born Violeta Urmanavičiūtė is a diva who began her career as a mezzo-soprano but has transitioned successfully into soprano roles....

.

The OAE has toured many countries, including South America and the US in 2002, and toured South East Asia for the first time in autumn 2003. The Orchestra's discography covers over fifty recordings in music from Henry Purcell
Henry Purcell
Henry Purcell – 21 November 1695), was an English organist and Baroque composer of secular and sacred music. Although Purcell incorporated Italian and French stylistic elements into his compositions, his legacy was a uniquely English form of Baroque music...

 to Verdi
Giuseppe Verdi
Giuseppe Fortunino Francesco Verdi was an Italian Romantic composer, mainly of opera. He was one of the most influential composers of the 19th century...

 working with guest artists including Lorraine Hunt Lieberson
Lorraine Hunt Lieberson
Lorraine Hunt Lieberson was an American mezzo-soprano, known for the dramatic power of her vocal artistry as well as her commitment to performing infrequently-heard Baroque era and contemporary works...

, Renée Fleming
Renée Fleming
Renée Fleming is an American soprano specializing in opera and lieder. Fleming has a full lyric soprano voice.Fleming has performed coloratura, lyric, and lighter spinto soprano repertoires. She has sung roles in Italian, German, French, Czech, and Russian, aside from her native English. She also...

, Susan Graham
Susan Graham
Susan Graham is an American mezzo-soprano.Raised in Midland, Texas, she is a graduate of Texas Tech University and the Manhattan School of Music. She studied the piano for 13 years...

, Andreas Scholl
Andreas Scholl
Andreas Scholl is a German countertenor, a male classical singer in the alto vocal range. He is noted as a specialist in Baroque music.-Childhood:...

, Ian Bostridge
Ian Bostridge
Ian Bostridge CBE is an English tenor, well known for his performances as an opera singer and as a song recitalist.-Early life and education:...

, Elizabeth Wallfisch
Elizabeth Wallfisch
Elizabeth Wallfisch is an Australian Baroque violinist.Wallfisch debuted as a concert soloist at the age of 12 and took part in such competitions as the ABC Concerto Competition. She studied at the Royal Academy of Music under Frederick Grinke and was awarded, among other prizes, the President's...

, Emanuel Ax
Emanuel Ax
Emanuel Ax is a Grammy-winning American classical pianist. He is currently a teacher on the faculty of the Juilliard School. He is considered one of the best known concert pianists of the 21st century.-Early life:...

, Thomas Hampson, Cecilia Bartoli
Cecilia Bartoli
Cecilia Bartoli is an Italian coloratura mezzo-soprano opera singer and recitalist. She is best-known for her interpretation of the music of Mozart and Rossini, as well as for her performances of lesser-known Baroque and classical music...

, Gerald Finley
Gerald Finley
-Career:He was born in Montreal and received his musical education in St. Matthew's Anglican Church, Ottawa, the University of Ottawa, King's College, Cambridge and the Royal College of Music in London, England...

, Bob van Asperen
Bob van Asperen
Bob van Asperen is a harpsichordist, organist, conductor, clavichordist and early music-specialist.After completing a conventional music course at university, in 1967 he studied under the harpsichord master Gustav Leonhardt. In 1968 he joined the group Quadro Hotteterre, of which he was a member...

, Anner Bylsma
Anner Bylsma
Anner Bylsma is a Dutch cellist who plays on both modern, and period instruments in an historically informed baroque style. He took an interest in music from an early age...

, Viktoria Mullova
Viktoria Mullova
Viktoria Yurievna Mullova is a Russian violinist. She is best known for her performances and recordings of a number of violin concerti, compositions by J.S. Bach, and her innovative interpretations of popular and jazz compositions by Miles Davis, Duke Ellington, The Beatles, and...

, and Michael Chance
Michael Chance
Michael Chance CBE is an English countertenor.Chance was born in Penn, Buckinghamshire, into a musical family. After growing up as a chorister he attended Eton College, Berkshire, and later King's College, Cambridge...

.

The OAE does much work with schools, especially in the area surrounding Kings Place
Kings Place
Kings Place is a building in London’s Kings Cross area, providing music and visual arts venues combined with seven floors of office space, a home for The Guardian newspaper since December 2008 and the headquarters of Network Rail...

, and is very active in performing concerts for local schools, leading projects with young people and teaching children to play musical instruments. Over the spring/summer of 2010, the OAE are running a series of three concerts inspired by Monteverdi’s Vespers for the schools in which they work.

Melgaard OAE young conductor scheme

Launched as part of the OAE Futures programme in June 2007, coinciding with the Orchestra’s 21st birthday celebrations, this scheme selects a young conductor each season to work with the Orchestra, assisting other conductors, taking rehearsals, being involved with education projects and spending a week with the Orchestra’s administrative team. Philipp von Steinaecker was the first Melgaard Young Conductor and has since gone on to has gone on to assist John Eliot Gardiner
John Eliot Gardiner
Sir John Eliot Gardiner CBE FKC is an English conductor. He founded the Monteverdi Choir , the English Baroque Soloists and the Orchestre Révolutionnaire et Romantique...

 at the Opera Comique
Opera Comique
The Opera Comique was a 19th-century theatre constructed in Westminster, London, between Wych Street and Holywell Street with entrances on the East Strand. It opened in 1870 and was demolished in 1902, to make way for the construction of the Aldwych and Kingsway...

 in Paris and Daniel Harding
Daniel Harding
Daniel Harding is a British conductor.Harding studied trumpet at Chetham's School of Music and was a member of the National Youth Orchestra at age 13. At age 17, Harding assembled a group of musicians to perform Pierrot Lunaire of Arnold Schoenberg, and sent a tape of the performance to Simon...

 at the Trondheim Symphony, which he will also be conducting in his own right in the near future.

Eduardo Portal was the selected conductor for 2009–2010, and has future engagements with The Hallé
The Hallé
The Hallé is a symphony orchestra based in Manchester, England. It is the UK's oldest extant symphony orchestra , supports a choir, youth choir and a youth orchestra, and releases its recordings on its own record label, though it has occasionally released recordings on Angel Records and EMI...

 and Northern Sinfonia
Northern Sinfonia
The Northern Sinfonia is a British chamber orchestra, based initially in Newcastle upon Tyne, and currently in Gateshead. For the first 46 years of its history, the orchestra gave the bulk of its concerts at the City Hall, Newcastle upon Tyne. Since 2004, the orchestra has been resident at The...

. It was recently announced that Kevin Griffiths would be the Melgaard Young Conductor for 2010-2011. The scheme is supported by Greg and Gail Melgaard.

Ann and Peter Law OAE Experience for young players

Running alongside the Melgaard Young Conductor Scheme, the Ann and Peter Law OAE Experience scheme is an apprenticeship scheme for young period instrumentalists, and is the only scheme of its type with a period orchestra. Established in 2002, the scheme is consistently over-subscribed and offers its participants the opportunity to be mentored by OAE musicians, play in rehearsals alongside the OAE’s roster of guest conductors and also perform with the OAE, as well as sometimes giving concerts as an ensemble in itself.

External links

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