Formed in October 2024, Ensemble Caldemia specialises in the performance of medieval music and contemporary music inspired by it.
Ensemble Caldemia, which is under the artistic direction of Penelope Turner, is made up of a core of five professional female singers:
- Élisabeth Goethals
- Caroline Sordia
- Penelope Turner
- Laurence Renson
- Anna Nuytten
The group is supplemented by other musicians when necessary. For example, for the concert on March 16, 2025 in the Brussels Cathedral, the core group of singers will be joined by the cellists Harmen Goossens and Christophe Bunzendahl.
Approach
Ensemble Caldemia is a group of professional musicians with a passion for medieval music, and above all the music of Hildegard von Bingen. It’s aim is to find unity in diversity, and each programme is designed to showcase both the solo and ensemble talents of the musicians: a strong, unified group sound is balanced by the individual solo strengths of the group.
In order to demonstrate the continued importance of medieval music, Ensemble Caldemia brings past and present together in a juxtaposition of medieval music and contemporary works that are inspired by it – both musical and from other artistic disciplines.
Hildegard von Bingen – medieval music for the 21st century
In keeping with Caldemia‘s key objective, all the singers of Ensemble Caldemia learn and perform Hildegard’s music from the original 12th century notation.
The potential healing effect of Hildegard’s music is central to the way in which this programme has been created. The objective is to maximise the vibratory power of the music by, for example, exploring the spatial and acoustic possibilities of each individual venue in search of an optimal “staging” that brings the audience into as close as possible contact with the music.
To increase accessibility and introduce Hildegard’s music to a broader public, her monodies are sung not only in their original form, but also enriched by bourdons and/or entirely reworked by Penelope into modern, 21st century polyphonic settings (see Hildegard Revisited).
