About us
The award-winning early music Ensemble Bastion specializes in the 17th and 18th-century musical repertoire. Their name symbolizes their mission of preserving and exploring early music while paying homage to the celebrated composer and musical theorist Sebastian Virdung. Virdung's 1511 treatise, Musica getutscht, published in Basel, describes the instruments used by the ensemble: recorder, viola da gamba, lute, and keyboard instruments. This treatise has a symbolic connection to the ensemble, as Basel serves as their base.
Musicians Maruša Brezavšček, Martin Jantzen, Elias Conrad, and Mélanie Flores, all laureates of international competitions, met during their studies at the renowned Schola Cantorum Basiliensis, an institute for early music. In July 2024, Ensemble Bastion was awarded the EUBO Prize at the York Early Music International Young Artists Competition.
Videos
All Videos
All Videos
Ensemble Bastion / Arcangelo Corelli, Sonata Nr. 4, op. 5 / Ornamentation by Johan Helmich Roman
G.Ph. Telemann: Trio Sonata in g-Minor, TWV 42:g9 - Ensemble Bastion
Henry Purcell: Fairest Isle / Ensemble Bastion
F. Couperin - Echos (Second Concert Royal) I Ensemble Bastion
Photo Gallery
Upcoming Concerts
August 13 Tuesday 19:30
The Musical Pulse of Baroque London /
Glasbeni utrip baročnega Londona
Seviqc Festival
Old Counts' Mansion, Celje, SI
https://www.seviqc.si/concert-bastion-ch.html
August 14 Wednesday 20:00
The Musical Pulse of Baroque London /
Glasbeni utrip baročnega Londona
Šenčurski poletni glasbeni dnevi
Dom krajanov Šenčur, SI
August 16 Friday 13:00
The Musical Pulse of Baroque London /
Der musikalische Puls des barocken Londons
Innsbrucker Festwochen, Lunch concert
Hofgarten Innsbruck, Pavillon, AT
https://www.altemusik.at/de/veranstaltungen/lunchkonzerte-2?date=2024-08-16
Musicians
Maruša Brezavšček is a Slovenian recorder player, specializing in early and contemporary music, and is also active as a performer of the baroque bassoon and dulcian. She teaches recorder at the Academy for Music in Ljubljana, Slovenia. Maruša is active as a soloist, as well as a chamber musician, and is a founding member of ensembles Ensemble Bastion and Ensemble Pampinea, the winner of the London International Festival of Early Music competition 2022. As a soloist, she has been the recipient of numerous prestigious accolades, including first prizes at the Tel Aviv Recorder Festival 3 and at the European Recorder Players Society Competition in Graz. She has appeared as a soloist with orchestras/ensembles including Capricornus Consort Basel, Jerusalem Baroque Orchestra, Musica Cubicularis, and the Chamber Ensemble of the Slovenska Filharmonija. Maruša has appeared on recordings produced by Slovenian National RTV, on several CDs, and has premiered new works by distinguished Slovene and international composers.
Martin Jantzen is equally at home as a performer on the viola da gamba, the violoncello, and the rare arpeggione, which is reflected in his busy concert schedule and numerous international prizes and scholarships. He is fascinated by the various forms of communication that can be discovered in every musical style. Finding the balance between the abstract and immediate emotionality in music, experimenting with it, and conveying it are at the heart of his performances. He completed his studies at the Schola Cantorum in Basel with distinction and passes on his knowledge to the next generation at the Tübingen Music School. He has performed on international stages with ensembles such as the Akademie für Alte Musik Berlin, Bachakademie Stuttgart, El Gran Teatro del Mundo, the viol consort Phantasm, Amaconsort, Flor Galante, Ensemble Bastion, [sic]nals, and Le Grand-Rien, and is a member of the management team at the Musikfest Eichstätt.
A graduate of the University Mozarteum Salzburg and Schola Cantorum Basiliensis, the German lutenist Elias Conrad has an active concert schedule, performing all over Europe on a variety of historical plucked instruments, specializing in a wide repertoire from the 16th to 19th centuries. Repeatedly awarded, he is a laureate and winner of prestigious international competitions and holder of numerous scholarships. Frequently involved in productions and recordings with famous soloists like Andreas Scholl and Amandine Beyer, conductors like René Jacobs, Raphaël Pichon, and Alessandro De Marchi, and orchestras and institutions such as Gli Incogniti, Pygmalion, and I Gemelli, he has performed on renowned stages and festivals like MAfestival Brugges, Oude Muziek Festival Utrecht, and Händelfestspiele Göttingen, and recorded for labels such as Aparté, Arcana/Outhere, and Pan Classics. He is the artistic director of the international prize-winning ensemble Mozaïque.
Mélanie Flores received her first harpsichord lessons in Mexico City at the age of 8. She further pursued her studies at the Schola Cantorum Basiliensis in Basel, Switzerland. Her teachers include Norma Garcia, Jörg-Andreas Bötticher, and Andrea Marcon. Currently, she is studying choir conducting with Martin Wettges at the Musical Academy in Basel, Switzerland. Her musical activities span teaching, conducting, and performing at an international level. She currently teaches basso continuo at the Mexican Baroque Orchestra (AMA-UNAM), an orchestra made up of young students and founded by the National University of Mexico. She is an official accompanist at the Schola Cantorum Basiliensis and conducts the choir of Katholische Universität Gemeinde in Basel, Switzerland. Both as a soloist and as a member of various ensembles, Mélanie has performed in many important international festivals in Switzerland, France, Italy, Slovenia, the Netherlands, Germany, the Czech Republic, and Mexico. In 2022, she was awarded at the Bach International Competition, held in Leipzig, Germany.
