About the Ensemble

Sin­fo­nia Spir­i­tu­osa is a cham­ber orches­tra ded­i­cat­ed to pre­sent­ing bold, his­tor­i­cal­ly-informed per­for­mances on peri­od instru­ments. Through vibrant, col­le­gial exchange, the ensem­ble aspires to faith­ful­ly bring to life the broad spec­trum of col­or, affect and rhetoric inher­ent in the music of the Baroque era. Their ros­ter of strings, flute, bas­soon, voice, harp­si­chord, organ, arch­lute, the­o­r­bo and baroque gui­tar allows for pro­gram­ing which dis­plays an aston­ish­ing­ly wide vari­ety of nation­al styles and unique instru­ment com­bi­na­tions. The reper­toire, which spans over 100 years of Baroque music, exem­pli­fies the spon­ta­neous, impro­visato­ry char­ac­ter of this peri­od, and show­cas­es the star­tling, cos­mopoli­tan har­mon­ic lan­guage of the late 17th cen­tu­ry, the rich com­plex­i­ty of the Ger­man baroque style, and the sump­tu­ous tex­tures and dra­mat­ic flair of the late French composers.

The mem­bers of Sin­fo­nia Spir­i­tu­osa lead mul­ti-faceted careers as uni­ver­si­ty pro­fes­sors, record­ing artists, soloists, con­duc­tors, cham­ber musi­cians and sym­pho­ny play­ers. They are active as teach­ers and per­form­ers on both peri­od and mod­ern instru­ments, and many are direc­tors of their own ensem­bles spe­cial­iz­ing in ear­ly music, roman­tic music, new music, jazz and hot swing.

A cen­tral tenet of Sin­fo­nia Spir­i­tu­osa’s vision is cel­e­brat­ing the music of the past while inspir­ing young musi­cians of the future. Through immer­sion in a cre­ative rehearsal and per­for­mance envi­ron­ment, the Men­tor­ship Pro­gram aims to stim­u­late and sup­port promis­ing high school, under­grad­u­ate, and grad­u­ate lev­el instru­men­tal­ists and singers who are curi­ous, open-mind­ed, and com­mit­ted to explor­ing orig­i­nal instru­ments and study­ing the musi­cal lan­guage of the Baroque period.

We are Artists-in-Res­i­dence at Trin­i­ty Epis­co­pal Cathe­dral in Sacra­men­to, and reg­u­lar­ly per­form in oth­er cities in North­ern Cal­i­for­nia, includ­ing Berke­ley, Davis, Grass Val­ley, San Fran­cis­co, and Chico. The ensem­ble also tours peri­od­i­cal­ly, and has pre­sent­ed con­certs in Den­ver, CO; Gree­ley, CO; Gold­en, CO; and San Anto­nio, TX.