Fanfare magazine recently hailed Tempesta di Mare for its “abundant energy, immaculate ensemble, and undeniable sense of purpose.” Led by directors Gwyn Roberts and Richard Stone with concertmaster Emlyn Ngai, Tempesta performs baroque music on baroque instruments with a repertoire that ranges from staged opera to chamber music. The group performs all orchestral repertoire without a conductor, as was the practice when this music was new.

 

Tempesta’s Philadelphia Concert Series, noted by the Philadelphia Inquirer for its “off-the-grid chic factor,” emphasizes creating a sense of discovery for artists and audience alike. Launched in 2002, the series has included over 35 modern “world premieres” of lost or forgotten baroque masterpieces, leading the Inquirer to describe it as “an old-music group that acts like a new-music group, by pushing the cutting edge back rather than forward.” Its supporters include the Pew Charitable Trusts, the William Penn Foundation, the Presser Foundation and the National Endowment for the Arts.

 

In a marketplace dominated by European ensembles, Tempesta is the only American baroque music group to record for the prestigious British label Chandos. Current releases are Weiss: Lute Concerti (2004), Handel: Flaming Rose (2007), Scarlatti: Cantatas and Chamber Music (2010), Fasch: Orchestral Music, vol. 1 (2008), vol. 2 (2011) and vol. 3 (2012), Bach: Trio Sonatas, BWV 525–530 (2014), Mancini: Sonatas for a Flute, (2014), and Comédie et Tragédie: French baroque orchestral music for the theater, vol. 1 (2015), vol. 2 (2016). 2018 saw two additional discs: Janitsch: Rediscoveries from the Sara Levy Collection, and the first complete recording of Georg Philipp Telemann’s Concerti-en-Suite.

 

National broadcasts of live performances include SymphonyCast, Performance Today, Sunday Baroque and Harmonia. Live concert recordings are distributed worldwide via the European Broadcasting Union, a global alliance of public service media organizations, with members in 56 countries in Europe and beyond.

 

International appearances have included the Prague Spring Festival, the Göttingen Handel Festival, the Mendelssohn-Remise Berlin and the International Fasch Festival in Zerbst. Recent North American appearances have included a return engagement at the Frick Collection and the National Gallery of Art. Other notable presenters have included the Miami Bach Festival, the Oregon Bach Festival, Abbey Bach Festival, Whitman College, Cornell Concerts, the Yale Collection, the Flagler Museum and the Garmany Series, Hartford. In March 2020 Tempesta will be the first non-European ensemble to perform at the renowned International Telemann Festival in Magdeburg, Germany.