Hailed as “one of the world’s top Baroque orchestras” by Gramophone magazine, TAFELMUSIK was founded in 1979. Under the inspired leadership of Music Director and concertmaster Jeanne Lamon since 1981, Tafelmusik has achieved international recognition for its concerts and recordings. The ensemble has 17 core members and is expanded as the need arises.

Tafelmusik’s success has taken it around the world, with regular tours across North America, Europe, and Asia. The 2007/08 season’s touring schedule has included appearances at summer festivals in Aspen, Ravinia, and Dartmouth, a residency at the Klang und Raum Festival in Germany, and a fall tour to Asia, with stops in Macau, Hong Kong, Beijing, Shanghai, and Seoul. The current tour includes stops in Oneonta, Wolf Trap, Puerto Rico, and at Walt Disney Concert Hall. The orchestra will also undertake tours of northern and central Ontario.

Tafelmusik performs over 50 concerts each season at its home base, the historic Trinity-St. Paul’s Centre in downtown Toronto. It also presents a three-concert series at the George Weston Recital Hall, and presents community concerts in various Toronto venues, notably the Royal Ontario Museum. The Tafelmusik Orchestra and Chamber Choir have a long-standing partnership with Toronto’s Baroque opera company, Opera Atelier.

Tafelmusik is the Baroque Orchestra-in-Residence at the Faculty of Music of the University of Toronto. In collaboration with the university, it offers a one-year certificate program for graduate students in Baroque performance, and in 2008 will introduce a Master of Music in Performance on period instruments. The Faculty of Music is also home to the annual Tafelmusik Baroque Summer Institute, an intensive 2-week training program for senior students, pre-professional, and professional musicians.

Tafelmusik has released 76 CDs on the Analekta, Sony Classical, CBC Records, BMG Classics, Hyperion, and Collegium labels, and has been awarded numerous international recording prizes, including nine Junos. Its newest CD is Vivaldi’s L’estro armonico, with violinist Elizabeth Wallfisch, which was released in Canada by Analekta and in Europe and Asia by Sony BMG on the Deutsche Harmonia Mundi label. The CD includes a bonus DVD: The Four Seasons Mosaic, which is an internationally acclaimed documentary from Media Headquarters featuring the Tafelmusik Baroque Orchestra. It takes viewers on a world tour of European, Inuit, Chinese, and South Asian music traditions through the reinvention of Vivald’s Four Seaons. Future recordings include Beethoven’s Seventh and Eighth Symphonies with conductor Bruno Weil, to be released in the fall of 2008. Several of Tafelmusik’s recordings are available for download from iTunes.

For more information about Tafelmusik, visit www.tafelmusik.org or www.myspace.com/mytafelmusik.