The Ensemble

At the end of 2004, Lluís Coll took advantage of his imminent graduation concert at ESMuC to put together the group that had been part of his plans for some time: La Caravaggia, an instrumental ensemble with a clear vocation to raise the profile of less well-known instruments such as the cornet, the dulcian and the sackbutt and their repertoire.

This repertoire does not call for standard ensembles, such as string quartet or wind quintet. Therefore, the number of musicians playing in La Caravaggia varies from programme to programme.

The group's first programme was entitled Delectare, docere et movere. This programme of 17th century Italian instrumental music, created for a mixed wind and string ensemble, won them first prize in the ensemble category at the 2006 Concours International de Cuivres Anciens in Toulouse.

In addition to this early Baroque programme, La Caravaggia also performs two programmes of Renaissance music: In mani dei catalani provides an overview of the links between the Crown of Aragon and the Italian peninsula in the 16th century, while El duque de Lerma is a programme based on one of the rare cancioneros or songbooks written exclusively for the use of ministriles (minstrels). The latter two programmes arose out of the group's interest in making known to the public that typically Hispanic ensemble of wind instruments, the ministriles.

La Caravaggia has performed these programmes at numerous venues throughout Spain. Since winning the prize in Tours, the group has increasingly been invited to perform its own programmes as well as to appear with specialist and non-specialist professional choirs. During 2007, in addition to the aforementioned concert programmes, La Caravaggia will perform a concert of Italian music with the countertenor Xavi Sabata and another concert of religious music for instrumental ensemble and choir from the Andalusian Renaissance.