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New Collegium was founded in 2006 (as Collegium Musicum Den Haag) by some of the top students of the Early Music Department of the Royal Conservatoire The Hague. The musicians also share their experience in historically informed performance with other internationally renowned Baroque ensembles. The four founding members are: Claudio Ribeiro (Harpsichord & artistic leadership), Inês d'Avena (Recorder), Sara DeCorso (Violin), Rebecca Rosen (Cello).
The impact of the collective was already clear in the year it was founded when the renowned Utrecht Early Music Festival invited the full orchestra to perform in the fringe program. The Austrian radio ORF produced the first CD a year later: "L’Europe Réunie". The press praised New Collegium for its "uncomplicated and yet precise playing."
From 2009 to 2016, the city of The Hague got to know the flexibility of the collective in a socio-cultural city tour; New Collegium brought music to distant communities and new audiences. The Dutch Music Center also nominated New Collegium as Dutch representative for the Early Music showcase during the Utrecht Early Music Festival 2010.
With Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach as the central composer, the second recording of New Collegium, released in 2015, showed that the boundaries of the Baroque are not limiting for their eagerness. In the CD "Empfindsam", " the deepest sentiments of C.P.E. Bach’s soul are seemingly laid out for all to feel, and Ribeiro and co. capture all the nuances to perfection.", according to the Early Music Review. On King's Day 2015, New Collegium performed in full power for King Willem-Alexander and Queen Máxima of The Netherlands. The collective returned to the Utrecht Early Music Festival, this time in the main program of the 2015 edition. In 2018, New Collegium was featured in the renowned Bachfest Leipzig. "Chameleon" (2019) was their third CD and was awarded a Diapason d’Or in France; it presents the elements that kept Telemann’s musical style avant-garde throughout his lifetime.
New Collegium was a prize-winner at the prestigious International Van Wassenaer Competition 2016, and gave concerts and master-classes at the 27th International Early Music Festival of Juiz de For a in Brazil as the "ensemble in residence". Invited by Ton Koopman, New Collegium performed in 2014 and 2017 at his "Itinéraire Baroque" in France. "The most beautiful musical satisfaction of the festival" concluded the press, emphasizing "their sense of rhetorical freedom."
New Collegium has been a regular guest at other European concert venues, such as the Utrecht Early Music Festival, Bach Festival Dordrecht, Reincken Festival Deventer, Festival Classique Den Haag, Musica Antica da Camera (The Netherlands), MAfestival Brugge (Belgium), Brunnenthaler Konzertsommer, Italia Mia Vienna, Internationale Barocktage Stift Melk (Austria), Dalheimer Sommer (Germany), Itinéraire Baroque (France) and Opus Amadeus Festival (Turkey). |
