About

Coupling powerful interpretations with path-breaking scholarship, Contrapunctus presents music by the best known composers as well as unfamiliar masterpieces. The group’s repertoire is drawn from England, the Low Countries, Italy, Spain, Portugal and Germany, particularly in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. The scholarly facet of the group’s work – including the discovery of long-lost music and reconstructions of original performing contexts – allows audiences to experience the first performances of many works in modern times. Since its foundation in 2010, the group has appeared in many of the world’s leading music festivals – the Utrecht Early Music Festival, the AMUZ Festival in Antwerp, the Festival van Vlaanderen in Mechelen, the Eboræ Musica Festival and Setúbal Festival in Portugal, the concert series at De Bijloke in Ghent and at the Fundación Juan March in Madrid, and in Martin Randall Travel festivals in Spain and the UK – and has performed alongside the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment. Contrapunctus is Vocal Consort in Residence at the University of Oxford. Two of the group’s discs – Libera nos: The Cry of the Oppressed and In the Midst of Life – have been shortlisted for the Gramophone Early Music Award. ‘In the Midst of Life’ was also named Album of the Week in The Sunday Times, The Week, and on BBC Radio 3 CD Review. It was Editor's Choice in Gramophone and Choral and Song Choice in BBC Music Magazine. The 2019 recording of music by John Taverner, including his Missa Gloria tibi trinitas was a joint project with the Choir of The Queen’s College, Oxford: on Radio 3’s Record Review Andrew McGregor highlighted the ‘gloriously uplifting sound of the combined forces’ and the ‘beautifully moulded’ counterpoint, and this recording received a Diapason d’or.