UPCOMING

2024

4 - 9 June 2024

Stockholm Early Music Festival

3 - 5 June 2024

REMA Conference

6 September 2024

REMA Conference

PROJECTS

EARLY MUSIC SWEDEN
STOCKHOLM EARLY MUSIC FESTIVAL

Founder and Artistic director since 2002

Stockholm Early Music Festival, established in 2002, is the largest festival for medieval, renaissance and baroque music in the Nordic countries. Held annually in historical venues of the Old Town during the first week of June and enjoying the patronage of H M Queen Silvia of Sweden, the event programs an array of international and Swedish artists, drawing a worldwide audience. After two decades of visionary work projection EARLY MUSIC SWEDEN - National Stage for Early Music was created and launched by 2022 at the Musikaliska Concert House in Stockholm, including a series of international year-round concerts.

Play Video

ENSEMBLE VILLANCICO

Founder, conductor and Artistic director since 1995

Formed in 1995, Ensemble Villancico stands out for its specialisation in Latin American baroque, “early world music”, as well as in Nordic repertoire from the XVI century. The ensemble’s work encompasses a path that goes from musicological research through transcriptions, arrangements, into performances and recordings. Renowned for its liveful and authentic performances, Ensemble Villancico has gained worldwide reputation, performing on festivals and stages across Europe and Latin America, merging the quality of Swedish voices and instrumentalists with the colorful intensity of the Latin American baroque sound.

EARLY MUSIC DAY

Creator of the celebration, 21 March 2013

Created and initiated by Peter Pontvik in 2013, while president of REMA (European Early Music Network), the Early Music Day connects Johann Sebastian Bach's birthday and the beginning of spring to this Europe-wide event, celebrated today every 21 March, under the patronage of the European Commission. The Early Music Day aims to highlight our shared historical musical heritage and is marked by a variety and an increasing number of international concerts as well as conferences, nowadays even followed in America and Asia.

NORDEM
NORDIC EARLY MUSIC NETWORK

Founder and chair since 2006

Peter is deeply committed to the advocacy and promotion of Early Music. He has been the president of REMA (European Early Music Network) 2011-2015 and is today a member of its Board of Directors. In 2006 he founds NORDEM, an inter-Nordic network for early music, representing 20 festivals, institutions and promoters in 7 of the Nordic and Baltic countries.​ Its goal is to strengthen the position of early music in the musical life of the region as well as to stimulate educational initiatives. Every two years NORDEM arranges EAR-ly, a competition for young Nordic and Baltic musicians in the field. Furthermore, member conferences are organised annually.

COMPOSING

Freelance composer since 1994

After studies in composition with Sven-David Sandström and Daniel Börtz at the Royal College of Music of Stockholm and Wolfgang Rihm, at the Staatliche Hochschule für Musik, Karlsruhe, Germany, Peter Pontvik is active as a freelance composer. Having been commissioned compositions by the Swedish Radio Choir, Konstnärshuset, Festival d’Haut-Jura, and Artnok Quartet among others, Pontvik’s opus include choir works as Sagitra and Amen (1st Prize at the Choir Composition Competition in Tolosa, Spain), the song cycle Norr om Himlen, with which he created the concept of “nutida konstvisa” (contemporary art song), the Missa Brevis for choir and brass ensemble, Lux Borealis för soprano and carillon, as well as Candombe for wind orchestra. Pontvik has also transcribed and arranged a large number of works from the Latin American baroque music repertoire.
For audio samples, score infos etc please click here

NEWS

2024

Episode #46 of the ‘Early Music Stories’ podcast on Giornale della Musica spotlights Ensemble Villancico’s celebration of Ibero-American musical heritage through their interpretation of the historic Latin American Baroque genre.

CONTACT

You can contact me at info[at]semf.se. I speak Swedish, Spanish, German, English, French and Italian and am happy to hear from you in any of them!