The Accademia della Selva is a European ensemble founded thanks to the collaboration of musicians from all over the world. Its components have specialised at the Schola Cantorum Basilensis (Switzerland) and have played with the most important ancient music ensembles. The distinctive characteristic of its instrumental and vocal cast is the search for an accurate and flexible sound, that is best suited to the interpretation of music form the 16th, 17th and 18th century and with a particular focus on the Venetian production of the Renaissance and Baroque period.

 

The rediscovery of little known or little performed scores is an important aspect of the work of the ensemble that made its debut in 2000 with the first modern execution of the “Vespero di Pentecoste” by Pier Francesco Cavalli (1602-1675). Since then, the Accademia della Selva has realized a number of concert productions that have always been met with critical and public acclaim. Their repertoire now includes a vast number of compositions, such as the unpublished music of Giovanni Legrenzi (1626-1690), Giovanni Domenico Partenio (1633-1701), Adrian Willaert (ca. 1490-1562) and Cipriano de Rore. The ensemble is conducted by its founder, Luigi Collarile, and has performed at important Ancient Music Festivals such as “Progetto Maqôr” (Trieste), “Festival del Millenario” (Varese), “Académie de Fribourg”, Saxa Timavi (Udine), “I luoghi sacri del suono“ (Modena) etc.

 

The Accademia della Selva has recorded for RadioRAI. Since 2002 they have a contract with the label STRADIVARIUS (Milan, Italy). Their first CD “Mottetti et Ricercari” (Stradivarius-Dischi Milan) features the first modern recording of some of the compositions of Adrian Willaert.  Their second CD “Nel Libro di Laura” a collection of madrigals by Cipriano de Rore for soprano, cornet, viola da gamba, harpsichord and organ, will be published in December 2008. The project is realized in collaboration with the Accademia Filarmonica di Verona.