Musica Florea

was founded in 1992 by the cellist and conductor Marek Štryncl as an ensemble whose ideal is to perform Baroque music the way it was performed in the era when it was composed. Playing on original instruments, supported by study of period sources and aesthetics, has become indispensable and at the same time a characteristic trait of the ensemble. Musica Florea's repertoire extends from the early Baroque through masterpieces from that era's culminating decades to music in the Classical style. It includes instrumental chamber music, vocal-instrumental works both sacred and secular, orchestral concertos, and monumental works in the genres of opera and oratorio.

Over the years Musica Florea has appeared in hundreds of concerts in the Czech Republic and throughout the world ( Germany, France, Italy, Spain, Portugal, Holland, Belgium, Poland, Croatia, Finland, Austria, Estonia, Slovakia, Israel..) , playing for example in important festivals such as Prague Spring, Europalia, Resonanzen Wien, and the Festival van Vlaandren Brugge, Oude Muziek. Besides performing works by composers of such illustrious names as J.S. Bach, G.P. Telemann, J.D. Zelenka, and Antonio Vivaldi, the ensemble has discovered and brought to life many forgotten composers and works in modern premieres.

From the very beginning Musica Florea has collaborated with important soloists like Magdalena Kožená, Nancy Argenta, Flavio Olivier, Francois Bazola, Susanne Rydén, Paul Badura-Skoda and renowned ensembles such as Le Poeme Harmonique Les Musiciens du Paradis, the Orlando Consort, Ensemble Philidor, the New Israeli Vocal Ensemble, Boni Pueri, the Regensburger Domspatzen, and Musica Aeterna. The many prestigious honors received by Musica Florea include for example the highest distinction awarded by the French magazine Diapason for its recording of J.D. Zelenka's Missa Sanctissimae Trinitatis on the Studio Matouš label (1994), the Music Critics' Award for the best performance at the Seventh Central European Festival of Concert Art in Žilina (1997), and the 'Zlatá Harmonie' (Golden Harmony) Award for the best Czech recording of the year 1997, in which Musica Florea accompanies mezzo-soprano Magdalena Kožená in arias by J.S. Bach on the Polygram label. In 2003 the ensemble won a prestigious Cannes Classical Award at the Midem International Music Market for its 2001 recording of J.D. Zelenka's Melodrama de Sancto Wenceslao - Sub olea pacis et palma virtutis on the Supraphon label.

From 1999 to 2002 Musica Florea was part of an international team performing an exceptional production of J.P. Rameau's opera Castor et Pollux mounted by the National Theatre in Prague. It also participated in the modern premiere of J.D. Zelenka's coronation opera-oratorio Sub olea pacis et palma virtutis at the Prague Castle. Musica Florea has made many compact disc recordings for labels both in the Czech Republic and elsewhere in Europe (Polygram, Pure Classics, Jary, K617, cfm, Alpha, Supraphon, Studio Matouš). Regulary cooperates with Centre de Musique Baroque de Versailles and since 2004 plays the international performance Le Bourgeois Gentilhomme by J.B. Lully with the ensemble Le Poeme Harmonique.