Parallel to my conducting activity and having acquired a vast and solid repertoire, I founded the Latinitas Nostra ensemble, bringing together musicians who cultivate the characteristic Baroque spirit of freedom and theatricality. “Latinitas Nostra”, meaning “Our own West”, was used along with “Our own East” in order to suggest two complementary expressions of Hellenism. The term refers to the thriving Greek communities of the 17th and 18th centuries in London, Venice, Vienna, Marseille, Munich etc. but also to the «idealised» Greece as it was formulated and exploited by Western culture during the Renaissance and Baroque eras.
Parallel to my conducting activity and having acquired a vast and solid repertoire, I founded the Latinitas Nostra ensemble, bringing together musicians who cultivate the characteristic Baroque spirit of freedom and theatricality. “Latinitas Nostra”, meaning “Our own West”, was used along with “Our own East” in order to suggest two complementary expressions of Hellenism. The term refers to the thriving Greek communities of the 17th and 18th centuries in London, Venice, Vienna, Marseille, Munich etc. but also to the «idealised» Greece as it was formulated and exploited by Western culture during the Renaissance and Baroque eras.
With Latinitas Nostra we made our Athens Megaron debut with the modern premiere of A. Caldara’s opera L’ Olimpiade, pairing our own edited music together with the 1799 translation of the metastasian libretto by the Greek erudite Rigas Fereos. In formations varying from 3 to 20 musicians, Latinitas Nostra has been established as the major baroque music ensemble in Greece.
With Latinitas Nostra we made our Athens Megaron debut with the modern premiere of A. Caldara’s opera L’ Olimpiade, pairing our own edited music together with the 1799 translation of the metastasian libretto by the Greek erudite Rigas Fereos. In formations varying from 3 to 20 musicians, Latinitas Nostra has been established as the major baroque music ensemble in Greece.
While being true to our first love, early music and its standard repertoire, a few years back we decided to embark on a journey that would roam us to the twilight zone of our understanding of Music. Particularly important, the encounter with E. Voulgaris lead to a regular exploration of the Eastern side of our identity, resulting in various noted projects (An English Traveller into the Levant – Athens Festival 2013, Nunc in Pulvere Dormiam – Onassis Foundation 2015, Salome – Athens Festival 2015, Communio – Greek National Opera 2017) and, in the same time, mixed projects involving electronic music (Orfeo – Megaron 2017, Danke – Athens Festival 2020) are the fruit of our meeting with P. Iliopoulos.
An ongoing collaboration with mezzo-soprano Romina Basso has culminated in the – much acclaimed by the press – release of a cd with Italian seventeenth century repertoire (Lamento – Naïve) while our recording with Spanish countertenor Xavier Sabata (Dilettanti – Aparté) has been awarded the Melomano de Oro prize.