A professional ensemble dealing with historically informed performance of early music, was founded by Roman Válek, the conductor, in 1998 as a chamber orchestra originally designed for performing Renaissance and Baroque vocal – instrumental works. Today the ensemble consists of four parts: orchestra, choir, soloists and vocal quintet and its scope covers all genres of Renaissance, Baroque and Classicism. The members are professional singers and instrumentalists coming from the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Poland and Germany, presenting authentic period performances.
The leading authority and conductor is Roman Válek. Peter Zajíček and Elen Machová cooperates as the concertmaster and Tereza Válková as the chorus master. The cooperating musicians include e.g. Adam Plachetka, Richard Wiegold, John Holloway, Jean François Lombard, Romain Champion, Vilém Veverka, Krystian Adam, Luise Haug, Barbara Maria Willi, Roman Janál, Jaroslav Březina, Marie Fajtová, László Borsódy, Pavel Šporcl, Gyorgyi Farkas, Joel Frederiksen, Ludmila Peterková, Kateřina Kněžíková and many others. The stage projects are realised thanks to cooperation with directors such as Constance Larrieu, Jana Janěková, Jiří Nekvasil, Daniel Dvořák, Hana Litterová, Michael Tarant, Ladislava Košíková etc.
The ensemble performs a repertoir consisting of orchestral, choral and operatic works from the Baroque and Classical eras, using instruments and performance techniques that reflect the period in which the works were composed. Since 2005 the ensemble has been a resident body for the vibrant and especially nowadays popular Znojmo Music Festival, where it has launched a number of Czech and world premieres of operas, chamber cantatas and orchestral concerts. The ensemble performs annually also within Třebíč Opera Festival and often appears as a guest at other remarkable. Czech Ensemble Baroque regularly opens the subscription series of early music concerts for FOK Prague (the Prague Chamber Philharmonic).
From September 2012 the ensemble realizes its own large subscriber´s cycle of early music BACHA NA MOZARTA! for Brno Philharmonic, which is one of a kind in Moravia. Another important achievement of the ensemble is annual running of The Baroque Music Summer School in Holešov castle, designed for young professional musicians studying and dealing with early music.
The ensemble has been intensively working together with Czech Radio, EBU (European Broadcasting Union), Czech Television, Supraphon, etc. on recording dramaturgically revealing titles, concerts and operas. In last years has cooperated in foreign film productions – Marguerite (2015), Interlude in Prague (2017), Maria Theresia (2017).
Successful CD of „Händel Oratorio Arias“ with a baritone Adam Plachetka, a soloist in Metropolitan Opera New York, had rave reviews in the Czech Republic as well as abroad and the same applies to the tour of Molieri (Mozart and Salieri).
The ensemble set itself a long-term goal of discovering and restoring the music of significant Czech native F. X. Richter. So far we have recorded Requiem Es Dur (as a world´s premiere) for Supraphon recording company, passion oratio Deposizione Dalla Croce, Te Deum and an oboe concert. Our aim is to release a new recording every year.
In 2018/19, the Ensemble will perform a major opera project with Andreas Scholl – Handel: Saul.