Masques is a Montreal-based early music ensemble founded in 1998, performing music of the 17th and 18th centuries. The name of the ensemble is inspired by the masques of Elizabethan England-mystical performances, which fused poetry, music, dance and drama. Featuring some of Canada’s most talented young musicians, Masques also collaborates regularly with up-and-coming European talents, maintaining close ties with a diversity of musical backgrounds.
During the summer of 2009 Masques performed Purcell’s Dido and Aeneas at Festival Domaine Forget. Throughout the season they appeared in Montreal at the Festival Orgue et Couleurs and several concerts at the Chapelle Notre-Dame-De-Bon-Secours and in Laval.
The ensemble tours North America with stops at the National Gallery of Art, The Frick Collection in New York City, the Renaissance and Baroque Society of Pittsburgh and the University of Vermont’s Lane Series. European appearances include a tour of the Netherlands with concerts in Amsterdam, Utrecht, Westzaan, Venlo, and Vries and concerts in Paris.
The members of Masques regularly concertize as soloists and chamber musicians throughout Canada, the United States and Europe with such ensembles as Capriccio Stravagante, Tafelmusik, La Petite Bande and Les Voix humaines. While maintaining a core ensemble, Masques varies in size according to the demands of the projects it presents.
Masques has risen rapidly to international attention, winning the Grand Prize in the Dorian/Early Music America Competition in 2000, and selected as finalist at the York Early Music Competition in 2001. Following the release of the ensemble’s first recording - devoted to the Consorts of Two Parts by the English composer Matthew Locke - Masques travelled from coast to coast, performing in venues and festivals from Vancouver to New York, where they debuted at the Frick Collection.
The recipient of grants from several levels of government, Masques presents its own concert series in Montréal at the Church of Saint John the Evangelist, where the ensemble is in residence.
Its releases on Analekta include English Fancy – music of Henry Purcell; Baroque Christmas; Mensa Sonora – Biber and his contemporaries; Bach: Concerti and Sonatas and A Baroque Odyssey.
(April 2010. Please discard previously dated materials and contact publicity@colbertartists.com before making any alterations or cuts.)
