Concerto dei Fiati

Wind bands occupied a central part of European life for hundreds of years. Throughout the middle ages, renaissance, and well into the Baroque era groups of wind instruments performed ceremonies for aristocrats and the royalty, concerts to commemorate important religious holidays, popular dances and folk festivals, and even fanfares to signal the time of day. The reason for their widespread use is simple: the instruments possessed a wide palette of colours and dynamics that were capable of fulfilling all of these needs. Today the repertoire from this period spanning hundreds of years and numerous countries is just beginning to be rediscovered.

Concerto dei Fiati is a newly formed ensemble devoted to bringing back to life wind music from the 16^th and 17^th centuries. It has a core of sackbuts, cornetti, and trumpets, but by design and like the ensembles of the time is flexible and can incorporate other period instruments such as dulcians, bombards, shawms, slide trumpets, and various continuo instruments.

Concerto dei Fiati's members hail from four continents and individually have a wealth of knowledge and experience from performing across the globe. They met in the early music community in and around the Schola Cantorum Basiliensis in Basel, Switzerland, which still serves as the group's home base. The listener is invited to partake in the enthusiasm which Concerto dei Fiati aims to explore this under appreciated music.