English Baroque Soloists

For over 40 years, the English Baroque Soloists (EBS) has been one of the most innovative period instrument ensembles, consistently challenging the preconceptions of audiences around the world in Renaissance, Baroque and early-Classical music.

Equally at home in chamber, symphonic and operatic repertoire, its distinctively warm and incisive playing is instantly recognisable in music ranging from Monteverdi to Mozart. The orchestra has performed at many of the world’s most prestigious venues, including the Philharmonie in Paris, Milan’s Teatro alla Scala, the Concertgebouw in Amsterdam and the Sydney Opera House.

Originally formed to perform Handel’s Hercules alongside the Monteverdi Choir, the EBS works with a range of specialist conductors. In the coming seasons this will include Monteverdi, Schütz and Gabrieli with Francesco Corti, Mozart and Haydn with Marc Minkowski, and a longterm exploration of Handel oratorio with Christophe Rousset.

The EBS has a long history of combining with the Monteverdi Choir in the music of J.S. Bach, and in February 2027 the choir and orchestra will tour the US performing the St Matthew Passion in the work’s 300th anniversary, conducted by Masaaki Suzuki and culminating in a concert at Carnegie Hall in New York.

In September 2025, the EBS and Monteverdi Choir released an album on Soli Deo Gloria of Charpentier’s Christmas music conducted by Christophe Rousset. The album was subsequently selected by France Musique as the benchmark recording of Charpentier’s Messe de Minuit pour Noël, with the performances praised by The Guardian as ‘joyous and immaculate’ and by The Times as ‘a refined festive celebration’. The orchestra’s latest recording, of Handel’s Messiah, from a European tour of Paris, Rome, Milan and London in December 2025, will be released by SDG and harmonia mundi in October. In November the series will continue with a live recording of Theodora from the new Sohmen Concert Hall at the Schwarzman Centre in Oxford.

Founded in 1978 by Sir John Eliot Gardiner, the EBS were part of the iconic Bach Cantata Pilgrimage in 2000 alongside the Monteverdi Choir, performing all of Bach’s sacred cantatas throughout Europe. They have participated in major opera productions in works by Handel, Purcell and Monteverdi, including appearing on stage in the Royal Ballet & Opera’s production of Gluck’s Orphée, and made the earliest recording of Mozart’s complete piano concertos on period instruments, as well as his greatest operas for Deutsche Grammophon.

"The evening’s real glory was in the orchestral playing...The performance was revelatory"

The Telegraph

"As a reminder of how technical excellence can lift the soul and music commune with the numinous, this cushioned, rapturous performance left criticism redundant."

Bachtrack