Austrian Baroque music takes centre stage in the repertoire of this unusual Baroque ensemble. The music performed at the imperial court in Vienna at this time was initially heavily influenced by the music of Italy, later by that of France; Spanish court ceremonial also had important artistic effects in Vienna. The typical Austrian sound of this era was characterised by the impact of its many royal domains. The political and societal boundaries of Baroque Austria stretched much further than nowadays. Elements of Slavic, Hungarian and Alpine folk music styles had lasting effects on art music, making up its specific sound. But the Austrian sound also reflects the temperament and the character of the people of the time: placed within the melting pot of many diverse cultures, amalgamating Mediterranean zest for life, Slavic melancholy, French formalism, Spanish royal ceremony and the original Alpine elements of the German-speaking region. This mixture of court music and folk music with a dance-like character outlines the typically Austrian sound.
Alongside many concert performances, the early years of the ensemble Ars Antiqua Austria were dedicated to musicological research of Austrian Baroque composers. The abundance of rediscovered works led to several successful premiere recordings: albums featuring the works of R. Weichlein, H.I.F. Biber, F. Conti, G.B. Viviani, G.A.P. Mealli, G. Arnold, A. Caldara, B.A. Aufschnaiter, J.J. Vilsmayr, J.P. Vejvanovsky, J. Schmelzer, G. Muffat, W.L. Radolt, C. Mouthon, J.B. Hochreither, F.J. Aumann and J.S. Bach were met with enthusiastic approbation from the international music press.
Ars Antiqua Austria have been designing their own concert series at the Vienna Konzerthaus since 2002, and at the Brucknerhaus Linz since 2008. The ensemble is leading a cycle of performances arranged over several years entitled “Klang der Kulturen – Kultur des Klanges” (“Sound of the Cultures – Culture of Sound”), consisting of ninety concerts set to be performed in Vienna, Prague, Budapest, Bratislava, Krakow, Venice, Ljubljana, Mechelen and Lübeck.
Recent performances include concerts at the Festival de Musique Ancienne de Ribeauvillé, Berliner Tage für Alte Musik, Festival Printemps des Arts de Nantes, Mozartfest Würzburg (an opera production), Tage Alter Musik Herne, Festival de Musique de Clisson et de Loire Atlantique, Folles Journées de Nantes and Tokyo, Musée d’Unterlinden Colmar, Printemps Baroque du Sablon, Festival van Vlaanderen, Festival Bach de Lausanne, MAfestival Brugge, Bologna Festival, Vendsyssel Festival, Concerti della Normale di Pisa, Resonanzen Wien, Klangbogen Wien, Monteverdi Festival Cremona, Bayerische Staatsoper and the Salzburger Festspiele. The ensemble has also been welcomed in the USA and in Japan.
The CD recording with mezzo-soprano Bernarda Fink (four cantatas by Francesco Conti) was awarded a Diapason d’or only one week after being issued. Gunar Letzbor and his ensemble Ars Antiqua Austria were presented with the Cannes Classical Award 2002 for their recording of the Capricci Armonici by G.B. Viviani.

Gunar Letzbor studied composition, conducting and violin at Linz, Salzburg and Cologne. His encounters with Nicolaus Harnoncourt and Reinhard Goebel ignited a deep passion for period instruments and performance practice, leading him to perform extensively with Musica Antiqua Köln, the Clemencic Consort, La Follia Salzburg, Armonico Tributo and the Wiener Akademie.

In 1995, Gunar Letzbor founded his own ensemble, Ars Antiqua Austria, an instrumental ensemble of varying size dedicated in particular to the exploration of the rich, but neglected, baroque repertoire of his native country and its neighbours. His voyage of re-discovery has resulted not only in the unexpected finds of musical masterpieces otherwise destined to languish in obscurity, but also in the articulation of a unique instrumental sound characteristic for Central Europe and its often deeply spiritual inspiration.

As a baroque violin soloist and with Ars Antiqua Austria, Letzbor has made numerous recordings (including several world premieres), featuring works by Mozart, Bach, Biber, Muffat, Aufschnaiter, Viviani, Schmelzer, Weichlein, Vejvanovsky, Vilsmayr and Conti. Many of these CDs received major record awards, including the Cannes Classical Award and Amadeus’ Disco dell’Anno. His recordings of works for violin solo: Vilsmayr’s and Westhoff’s partitas (both world premiere), Telemann’s fantasias and J.S. Bach’s sonatas belong to his most remarkable accomplishments.

Letzbor has performed at most of the major baroque music festival in Europe. He has taught at the Musikhochschule in Lübeck (Germany) and Vienna (Austria); he is a widely respected teacher, giving summer courses across Europe.

“Amongst the year’s finest issues we must mention Gunar Letzbor’s interpretation of Biber’s Rosary Sonatas. His intonation is impeccable, the sound is warm and generous, whilst his utter technical security and above all musicality is in evidence both in the devilish rapid passages and in those of heart-rending cantabile.” CD Classica

“Letzbor contributes dazzling violin playing in performances that are appropriately sombre yet pleasantly stylish.” Gramophone

“Biber’s vision could not find a more sympathetic interpreter than Letzbor, blessed with vivacity, virtuosity and fiery expressiveness, but also capable of making his instrument sing in Biber’s touching melodies.” Amadeus

“Letzbor’s performance is simply exceptional. He has added lustre to a composition that has no equal in the history of western music.” La Stampa

The lyrical tenor Markus Miesenberger received his education as a singer in Vienna with KS Robert Holl, KS Artur Korn and Sebastian Vittucci as well as in the fields violin and baroque viola with Ernst Kovacic and Michi Gaigg in Salzburg, Linz and Vienna.
Appearances as a concert and lied singer, in operas and as a musician led the artist through Austria, to important European music centres in Germany, France, Spain, Italy, the Netherlands, Belgium, Poland, Czech Republic, Slovakia, Switzerland, to Israel, to Mexico and to many more. Thus, it was and is beside regular appearances at the Viennese music association and at the Viennese concert hall to guest with numerous festivals (Instituto Nacional de Bellas Artes Mexico City, Festival Oude Muziek Utrecht, MA Festival Brugge, Salzburger Festspiele, Styriarte, Carinthischer Sommer, Schubertiaden Schwarzenberg and Dürnstein, Brucknerfest Linz, Handel Festival Halle, Internationales Musikfest Hamburg, Musica antiqua of the bavarian broadcast Nürnberg, National forum of music Wroclaw, Settimana Musica Sacra di Monreale, Misteria Paschalia Krakow). He sings under the baton of famous conductors like Christian Thielemann, Pierre Andre Valade, Ralf Weikert, Andrés Orozco-Estrada, Jeffrey Kahane, Gunar Letzbor, Michi Gaigg and Rubén Dubrovsky with Staatskapelle Dresden, Vienna and Hamburg Symphonic Orchestra, Ars Antiqua Austria, L’Orfeo Baroque Orchestra, Bach Consort Vienna, Wroclaw Baroque Orchestra and Slovac Philharmonic Orchestra. There is also a strong artistic connection in the field of lied to his former teacher Robert Holl and the pianists David Lutz und Sir András Schiff.
On the opera stage Markus Miesenberger is to be experienced above all in roles of the Mozart’s and Haydn’s field, with baroque opera, with opera of the 20th century and with contemporary music. Engagements led him to the Neue Oper Wien, to the Theater an der Wien, to the Landestheater Linz, to the municipal theatre Bolzano and to the Tirol festival. He sang Ferrando in Mozart’s Cosi fan tutte at Opernfestspiele Bad Hersfeld, 2018 and 2019 Jack O’Brian in Kurt Weills Aufstieg und Fall der Stadt Mahagonny at Laeiszhalle Hamburg and Balthasar Zorn in Richard Wagners Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg with Staatskapelle Dresden under the baton of Christian Thielemann at Osterfestspiele Salzburg, also released on CD, and 2020 at Semperoper Dresden.
In 2011 he won the Franz Joseph Aumann Prize for new discoveries and innovative interpretation of baroque music at the international H.I.F. Biber competition.
Numerous CD productions and radio broadcasts also form a central focus of his artistic career, currently Arias for Silvio Garghetti with Neue Wiener Hofkapelle, Kriegsgeschichten and Liebesabenteuer with music from G.D. Speer with Ars Antiqua Austria (PANCLASSICS) and Psalms for Sacri Concentus 1681 (Challenge Classics).

Jan Krigovsky is a double-bass player, multi-instrumentalist, musical events organiser, promoter, art director, manager, producer, publisher, dramaturge and poet. He is well known and sought after interpreter of various musical styles. As a soloist Krigovsky expresses himself with noble, temperamental and technically perfect performance. As a soloist and chamber double bass, G-violone and Vienner Violine player Krigovsky collaborates with numerous ensembles specialising in historically – developed/learned interpretation of old music. He also performs in the ensembles for contemporary music like Catalá Ensamble Trio, Alea and Collegium Wartberg. As a concert master of double bass group he performed with several orchestras such as the London Symphony Orchestra, Moderntimes 1800 and Wiener Akademie. As a soloist, he also worked with orchestras under the baton of Yuri Bashmeta, Leoš Svárovský, Martin Haselbock, Jordi Savallla and Ewald Danel.
Jan presented/introduced himself as a soloist, but also as a member of chamber ensembles performing at some of the leading festivals like Bratislava Music Festival, Melos-Étos, Prague Spring International Music Festival, Wiener Fetspiele, Salzburger Festspiele, Festspielwochen Munchen, Dresdener gen Festspiele, Jehudi Menuhin Festival Gstaad, Boston Early Music Festival, Schleswig-Holstein Musik Festival and others.
He has recorded over 150 CD_DVD titles for companies such as Decca, SDBS production, Supraphon, CPO, WDR, NDR, ZDF, Winter&Winter, ORF, Challenge records, Institut fur Tyroler, Musikforschung Innsbruck, Pan Classics, Arcana Records, Symfonia as well as for radio and television. Among his artistic partners were for example Cecilia Bartoli, Sol Gabetta, Riccardo Minasi, Steven Isserlis, Maurice Steger, Nuria Rial, Avi Avital, Gunar Letzbor, Elizabeth Wallfisch, Jürger Essl, Helene Schmidt, Dalibor Karvay, Stano Palúch, Daniel Buranovský, Martin Babjak.
Jan worked as a teacher at the Conservatory in Žilina, the Conservatory of Dezidor Kardos in Topoľčany, the Church Conservatory in Bratislava, the Masaryk University in Brno and the Janacek Academy in Brno. Since 2002 he has been working at the Academy of Arts in Banská Bystrica. He has built wide base/foundation of amazing/outstanding double bass players in Slovakia, including Roman Patkoló, Vlado Žatko, Ján Prievozník, Filip Jaro, Romana Uhlíková and others. Krigovsky regularly teaches master classes in Russia, Poland, the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Austria, Switzerland, Brazil, Argentina, USA, Canada and Mexico.
In 2010, he founded together with his students the Slovak Double Bass Club within which were organised master courses called BassFest Banská Bystrica, International Double Bass Competition of Carl Ditters Von Dittersdorf and hundreds of concerts. In 2013, on his initiative, the double bass quartet named Bass Band was created. In 2012 he founded Musica Perennis Iuventutis, music festival held in Senec and Musica Perennis Sancti Benedecti in Hronský Beňadik. Festivals are dedicated to helping and supporting children in material need and children with disabilities in Slovakia and abroad. At his instigation, dozens of musical works were created for solo double bass and chamber ensembles. In 2012 he established his own ensemble known as Collegium Wartberg.