CHORUS ANGELICUS CATHEDRAL CHOIR
The choir of the Varaždin Cathedral, Chorus angelicus, operated from 1999 as the Youth Choir of the Varaždin Cathedral. With the time, it grew into a performing corpus who, along with its basic task, lead the liturgical singing at all important festive events in the Varaždin Cathedral, put special accent on the performance of new liturgical compositions. In their activities, they have the support of the Varaždin solo singers and instrumentalists, mostly members of the Varaždin Chamber Orchestra. In the repertoire of the choir there are concert and liturgical of Croatian and world composers. Among them are Faure’s and Durufle’s Requiem, Vivaldi’s Gloria, masses from the period of the Renaissance, Vienna classics and early Romanticism, compositions of Charpentier, Dupré, Bernstein, first performances of Croatian poetic rendition of St. Matthew Passion by H. Schutz, Mendelssohn’s motets and other works. The Choir had a number of appearances at the Varaždin Baroque Evenings and out of tours; the one of the tour to Israel should be specially mentioned. The Choir has recorded several audio carrier media.
Anđelko Igrec, conductor
The founder and leader of the Chorus angelicus is Anđelko Igrec (Heidelberg, 1968), organist of the Varaždin Cathedral, who after completing his education in Croatia went to the University of Music in Vienna where he completed his studies of the organ and improvisation in the class of Hans Haselböck. At the same University, he also studied church composition in the class of Wolfang Sauseng and composition in the class of Klaus P. Satzler. Igrec is member of the Croatian Composers Society and Croatian Society of Church Musicians. He held organ concerts all over Croatia as well as in neighboring countries. For his organ work, he received many acknowledgments and awards. So far, Anđelko Igrec published about 70 works of orchestral, chamber, stage ad film music as well as vocal and vocal-instrumental music. In his composition work, he finds the greatest inspiration in the Bible, i.e. in the biblical motives. He received a range of prestigious awards in Croatia and Austria for his compositions.
CROATIAN BAROQUE ENSEMBLE
The Croatian Baroque Ensemble is the most prominent Croatian ensemble specializing in historically authentic interpretations of music from the baroque and similar periods, performed on original instruments and their quality replicas. The ensemble was founded in 1999 and consists of esteemed musicians from the younger generation – both instrumentalists and vocalists, who are already renowned in performing baroque music. The artistic leader of the Croatian Baroque Ensemble is the renowned violinist Laura Vadjon.
Along with a continuous concert series consisting of seven concerts at the Croatian Music Institute with clear thematic programs, they are also regular guests at numerous national and international festivals.
In their concert programs, the ensemble features prominent international and Croatian soloists and conductors, experts with an authentic approach in performing baroque music. Due to their proficient and stylistically pure interpretations, they are considered a superb Croatian musical group, both by musical critics and audience. The programs of the Croatian Baroque Ensemble present Croatian baroque composers or others who have made artistic contributions in Croatia.