On Monday, June 29 the third and final Concert of the Folkwang Early Music Department in this season is announced! The program is packed with beautiful ensemble music by, among others, Marin Marais, Johann Wilhelm Hertel and Georg Philipp Telemann. The concert is at our usual venue, the splendid chamber music hall of Campus Duisburg, and will start at 19:30 hours.

Timeshift, Vol.1 is announced! On Monday evening 15th of June, my recorder class will participate in a colourful program of exciting contemporary music for and with historical instruments. The concert features compositions of, among others, John Casken (his poetic 'Thymehaze', for recorder and piano), Janpieter Biesemans (the catchy piece 'Chichèn Itzá', for recorder and marimba), Kazimierz Serocki (his classic piece 'Arrangements'), two famous compositions for cembalo solo by György Ligeti, as well as the world-première of „…through the mists of time…“ by Frank Zabel. The concert will take place at our regular venue, the chamber music hall of Folkwang University - Campus Duisburg, and starts at 19:30 hours. We hope to see you all!

On Sunday 19 April, I will participate in a concert of the ensemble Musica Poetica in my home town The Hague. In the beautiful Royal Theater, we will perform an English program around Samuel Pepys and his famous diary. In 1660, Pepys spent some time in the Hague due to bad weather conditions (!), as a member of the fleet of King Charles II, who was returning to England from his exile. I will perform some tunes originally written for the English flageolet, a melancholic ground from court-violinist John Banister and a beautiful suite by Christopher Simpson. Tickets for this special concert are here.

In 2026, there are again lots of exciting concerts, inspiring workshops and insightful lectures about and with Early Music at Folkwang University. Many of these are open for the public! You can learn more about most of the events here. We hope to meet you!

On Tuesday April 7th we will devote our attention to the music composed in the 16th century by the Bassano family for the recorder consort of the English court. We will study 5- and 6-part Fantasias, Pavans, Gagliards and Allmands by Augustine and Jeronimo Bassano, playing on the wonderful set of Consort instruments after Bassano, made by Adrian Brown (s.photo). A better combination simply doesn't exist! This study day opens our Summer semester, and will take place at the Chamber music hall of the Folkwang University - Campus Duisburg, starting at 10 o' clock. Please, contact me in case you would like to participate.

On Thursday, February 5th, the Folkwang Recorder Class will perform a program with a wide variety of recorder music. The concert program features several gems of the rich English consort-tradition of the 16th century, composed by King Henry VIII and John Baldwin, as well as an extensive Ouverture-suite in lavish baroque style, written by the London-based, French composer François Dieupart. To celebrate the birthday of the Sicilian composer Eliodoro Sollima (1926 - 2000), in 2026 exactly one hundred years ago, we will perform his lyrical 'Evoluzione 3a' for recorder and piano. As usual, the venue of the concert is the acoustically splendid chamber music hall of Campus Duisburg. The concert starts at 19:30 hours.

On Monday December 8, already the second concert of the series of the Early Music Department of Folkwang University will take place! Students of all classes will present themselves in chamber music works by Telemann, Vivaldi, Benda and others. This time, the program also features the recently rediscovered keyboard works by Johann Sebastian Bach! The concert will take place at the usual venue of the auditory of Campus Duisburg.

On Sunday December 7th, I will lead Folkwang Baroque in an exciting program of early 17th century Venetian ensemble Sonatas. Adventurous music for strings, recorder and basso continuo, composed by Dario Castello, Giovanni Picchi and Giovanni Valentini. The concert starts at 16:00 hours at the usual venue of the splendid concert hall of the Folkwang University of the Arts - Campus Duisburg. More info about this concert you can find here.

The start of the 2026 cycle of MusicMosaic is announced! The first stage will take place from 6-12 February 2026, in Weimar. MusicMosaic workshops are based on an innovative interdisciplinary concept, which combines ensemble music (Renaissance Consort) with historical dance, theatrical gestures, period architecture and art history. Further stages are again envisaged, and will be announced through the MusicMosaic website. Amazingly, the upcoming February stage of MusicMosaic is offered entirely free of charge!! Please email directly to me for more infos.

After last year's workshop on the six solo sonatas by Giovanni Battista Fontana, we will dedicate ourselves to the study and performance of the very influential sonatas by Dario Castello, who was a musician in service of the Venetian Republic at the time that Claudio Monteverdi headed the Ducal Chapel at St.Mark's Basilica. We will mainly focus on Dario Castello's ensemble sonatas from his second book 'Sonate concertate in stilo moderno', but also take a closer look at the famous 'sonata seconda' for solo violin. If you are curious to find out what exactly is modern in Castello's sonatas: the workshop will take place from 12-14 November 2025, at Folkwang University - Campus Duisburg.

This wintersemester at Folkwang University of the Arts is again packed with many exciting events, organised by our Early Music Department. On Monday November 3, Prof. Christian Rieger kicks off with a lecture about the influence of J.S. Bach on the music of Robert Schumann, followed by several concerts and workshops later in the semester, for instance of our orchestra Folkwang Barock. On Sunday December 7, I will be leading this ensemble in an adventurous program with Venetian early baroque music, by Dario Castello, Giovanni Picchi and Giovanni Valentini. As usual, all events will take place in the wonderful concert hall of Campus Duisburg. Please, check this link for more details about the events.

On Wednesday October 22nd, I will participate in a lecture by Dr. Dina Titan. We will discuss the famous tutor 'Opera intitulata Fontegara', published by Sylvestro Ganassi in 1535. This time, we will approach the treatise from the viewpoint of a researcher, and survey the impact this particular stance has for the performance of the specific musical style that is proposed by Ganassi, as well as the general understanding of instrumental ornamentation in the Renaissance period. The lecture is part of a very diverse series of weekly lectures at Folkwang University, and will take place in Campus Essen (18:15 - 19:45 hours, Room W110)). More about my lifelong fascination for this unique treatise (the first ever printed tutor for my instrument!) you can find elsewhere on this website.