Accademia Arcadia
Accademia Arcadia plays baroque cantatas and chamber sonatas with one-to-a-part heat: Buxtehude's sacred motets, Handel's Italian dramas full of fire, Corelli through Purcell and Leclair, and improvisatory violin writing that still feels spontaneous.
Formed in Melbourne under harpsichordist Jacqueline Ogeil, the group specialises in sacred and secular cantatas of the Baroque and in trio sonata repertoire. Reviews single out sparkling violin playing, poised florid singing and a pervading sense of enthusiasm and spontaneity. Their Buxtehude programme reveals chamber works of exuberant virtuosity and sensual devotion; the Handel set brings clear bright soprano, confident countertenor and resonant bass to early Italian cantatas still too little known. Instrumental discs range from vigorous Corelli, Purcell and Leclair sonatas to ornament-drenched Italian violin sonatas with guest Davide Monti, including Tartini's Devil's Trill, with continuo on a rare Cristofori piano.
Accademia Arcadia is featured on the following titles
Il Diavolo
Accademia Arcadia, founded by harpsichordist Dr Jacqueline Ogeil, presents Italian baroque violin sonatas with improvising violinist Davide Monti, a regular guest with leading early-music ensembles.
Trio Sonatas
Four of Australia’s foremost early musicians join forces for Baroque trio sonatas by Corelli, Purcell and Leclair, in a programme that spans Italian, English and French styles.
Handel: Italian Cantatas
Melbourne ensemble Arcadia specialises in baroque cantata repertoire. Here they bring fire and passion to five of Handel's Italian cantatas: virtuosic music, beautifully performed.
Buxtehude: Cantatas
This CD is a must for Buxtehude fans, with five works not then available on disc. Arcadia is a new Melbourne ensemble formed to explore early vocal works.
Members of Accademia Arcadia
Michael Leighton Jones
Michael Leighton Jones is a bass whose agile, controlled and expressive voice is heard in baroque cantata repertoire with the Melbourne ensemble Arcadia.
Catherine Shugg
Catherine Shugg is a violinist who specialises in baroque performance. She appears with the Melbourne ensemble Arcadia on recordings of sacred and secular cantatas.
Ross Mitchell
Ross Mitchell is a violinist specialising in early music, heard in sacred repertoire from chant and Renaissance motets through to late-Baroque cantatas.
John Quaine
John Quaine is a violinist and violist who performs early music. His recordings include baroque sacred cantatas and Bach motets.
Ruth Wilkinson
Ruth Wilkinson is a recorder and viol player devoted to music from the twelfth to the eighteenth century. Her performances are praised for their musical integrity, imagination and brilliance.
Jacqueline Ogeil
Jacqueline Ogeil is an Australian harpsichordist, organist and conductor. Known for Baroque performance and for championing new works written for the harpsichord, she founded the Melbourne ensemble Accademia Arcadia.
Miriam Allan
Miriam Allan brings a clear, bright soprano and warm delivery to Handel’s Italian cantatas, with the agility and purity of tone this early baroque repertoire asks for.
Nicole Forsyth
Nicole Forsyth is a violist and baroque violinist heard on Australian chamber and early-music recordings, spanning contemporary song cycles and Handel cantatas.
Samantha Cohen
Samantha Cohen studied classical guitar at the Victorian College of the Arts, where she eventually decided to abandon the guitar in favour of the lute.
Rosanne Hunt
Rosanne Hunt’s eclectic cello life spans contemporary music with Forest Collective, period performance with the Melbourne Baroque Orchestra and the Australian Classical and Romantic Orchestra, and chamber music with the Inventi Ensemble.
Christopher Field
Christopher Field's teachers have included Stephen Grant and Hartley Newnham, and he has appeared in operatic roles with Opera Australia, Stopera and Co*Opera and has performed in concerts and festivals throughout Australia.
Josephine Vains
Josephine Vains is an Australian cellist, chamber musician and educator, with a performance career encompassing modern and historical ‘cello.