I ZEFIRELLI

Luise Catenhusen, flute | María Carrasco Gil, violin | Jakob Kuchenbuch, cello | Tobias Tietze, lute and baroque guitar | Jeroen Finke, percussion and baritone | Tilmann Albrecht, harpsichord

Formed in the German city of Hamburg, the I Zefirelli ensemble is a breath of fresh air in the field of early music. Drawing from their experience in chamber and solo music, and their historically informed practice, I Zefirelli aims to be a vehicle for intuitive, electrifying performances of baroque music.

The ensemble takes its name from Zephyrus, the god of the west wind, also known as the herald of spring. They have performed at the Oude Muziek Utrecht Festival, Musikfestspiele Potsdam Sanssouci, Innsbrucker Festwochen der Alten Musik and WDR3 Alte Musik, among others.

For their Mr. Handel in the Pub concert programme, which bridges baroque and folk music and was performed for the first time in an English pub, the six musicians comprising I Zefirelli won the 2017 Career Center Award at the Hochschule für Musik und Theater in Hamburg. In 2019, they won the Westdeutscher Rundfunk (WDR) radio station’s award in the International H.I.F. Biber Competition. In 2021, they won the Bärenreiter Urtext-Preis at the International Händel Competition in Göttingen. For the competition’s final, they arranged the opera Berenice, Regina di Egitto for the ensemble’s six instruments and completed the work with self-made compositions.

I Zefirelli joined the EEEmerging+ programme in 2022. The ensemble’s members compose, arrange and improvise in their performances. In 2020, they gave a concert with improvisations at the Nikolaisaal in Potsdam and composed two cantatas themselves in 2021.