Collegium Vocale Ghent
Artistic vision
Collegium Vocale Gent was founded in 1970 on the initiative of Philippe Herreweghe. It was one of the first ensembles to use the then-new ideas about baroque practice in vocal music performances. 
Musicians such as Gustav Leonhardt, Ton Koopman and Nikolaus Harnoncourt immediately took an interest in the Flemish ensemble’s fresh, new approach, which led to intensive collaboration. In the mid-1980s the ensemble acquired international fame and was invited to all the major concert halls and music festivals of Europe, Israel, the United States, Russian, South America, Japan, Hong Kong and Australia.
Repertoire
The repertoire of Collegium Vocale Ghent is not limited to one particular stylistic period. The ensemble’s greatest strength is that it can put together the ideal combination of voices for performing Renaissance polyphony, Classical and Romantic oratorios or contemporary music. Baroque music, and in particular the works of J.S. Bach and G.F. Händel, is the mainstay of the ensemble’s concert schedule.
Discography
The ensemble has built up an extensive discography of over 65 recordings under the direction of Philippe Herreweghe, both singing a cappella and accompanied by the baroque orchestra of Collegium Vocale Ghent or the Orchestre des Champs Elysées, primarily with the Harmonia Mundi France and Virgin Classics labels. Recent CDs include the masterful Psalmi Davidis Poenitentialis (Penitential Psalms) by Orlandus Lassus (HMC901831.32) and Heinrich Schütz’s Opus Ultimum ‘Schwanengesang’ (HMC 901895.96) and J.S.Bach cantatas Christus, der ist mein Leben (HMC 901969).
International collaboration
Collegium Vocale Ghent has worked with various baroque orchestras and ensembles such as the Freiburger Barockorchester and Ricercar Consort as well as with traditional symphony orchestras including the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra, Vienna Philharmonic and the Royal Flemish Philharmonic. Besides Philippe Herreweghe the ensemble has been conducted by leading conductors such as Sigiswald Kuijken, René Jacobs, Daniel Reuss, Philippe Pierlot, Paul Van Nevel, Bernard Haitink, Ivan Fischer, Marcus Creed, James Wood and Peter Phillips.
Government backing
Collegium Vocale Ghent is sponsored by the Flemish Community, the Province of Eastern Flanders and the city of Ghent.
Philippe Herreweghe
Artistic vision and ensembles
Philippe Herreweghe was born in Ghent, and combined university studies in medicine and psychiatry with a musical training at the conservatory, where he studied piano with Marcel Gazelle. In the same period he also started conducting and in 1970 he founded the ensemble Collegium Vocale Ghent. Nikolaus Harnoncourt and Gustav Leonhardt soon noticed his exceptional approach and invited him to work on their project recording the complete Bach cantatas.
Herreweghe’s lively, authentic and rhetorical way with the music of the baroque quickly received critical acclaim. In 1977 he formed the ensemble La Chapelle Royale in Paris, with which he performed music of the French Golden Age. Since then he has founded other ensembles, which he uses separately or in combination to arrive at an appropriate and comprehensive reading of a repertoire spanning from the Renaissance to contemporary music. These include the Ensemble Vocal Européen, specialised in Renaissance polyphony, and the Orchestre des Champs Elysées, founded in 1991 with the aim of re-creating the brilliance of the Romantic and pre-Romantic repertoire on original instruments.
Discography
Over the years, Philippe Herreweghe has produced a broad and enormously varied range of recordings with all these different ensembles. Highlights include the recordings of Bach's vocal masterpieces (such as the St Mathew and St John Passions, the Mass in B-minor and the Christmas Oratorio), famous French motets by Rameau, Lully and Charpentier, requiems by Mozart, Fauré and Brahms, Mendelssohn's oratorios Elias and Paulus, and Schönberg's Pierrot Lunaire.
Artistic activities
Continually seeking musical challenges, Philippe Herreweghe has been working very actively with the larger symphonic repertoire from Robert Schumann to Gustav Mahler in the last few years. He is also a frequent guest conductor for orchestras such as Amsterdam’s Concertgebouw Orchestra, the Gewandhaus Orchestra in Leipzig and the Mahler Chamber Orchestra. He has been engaged as music director of deFilharmonie (Royal Flemish Philharmonic) since 1997. Starting in the 2008-2009 season, Philippe Herreweghe will be the permanent guest conductor of the Netherlands’ Radio Chamber Philharmonic.
International recognition
Philippe Herreweghe has been awarded many prizes and titles from various parts of Europe for his consistent artistic vision and tireless engagement with music. In 1990 the European music press named him ‘Musical Personality of the Year’. In 1993 Philippe Herreweghe and Collegium Vocale Ghent were named ‘Cultural Ambassador of Flanders’. The next year he was admitted to the Belgian order of Officier des Arts et Lettres, and in 1997 he was named Doctor honoris causa by Leuven University. In 2003 he was awarded the title of Chevalier de la Légion d’Honneur by the French government.
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