The Curious Bards

The early music ensemble The Curious Bards has an unusual specialty: the traditional music of Scotland and Ireland and its intersections with classical traditions. The group has made several recordings for the Harmonia Mundi label. The Curious Bards, none of them of Irish or Scottish origin, were formed in 2014 in Bordeaux, France. The five members all studied in leading early music programs in Paris, Lyon, and Basel, Switzerland, and all were interested in Irish and Scottish traditional music. The main members are Baroque violinist Alix Boivert, a graduate of the Conservatoire de Lyon; viol and viola da gamba player Sarah Van Oudenhove, who studied at the Conservatoire de Perpignan and the Conservatoire de Lyon; cittern player Jean-Christophe Morel, a graduate of the Conservatories of Bordeaux and Lyon who has also played with many Irish traditional groups in Dublin; flutist Bruno Harlé, the holder of an early music diploma from the Conservatoire de Paris; and harpist Louis Capeille, who has studied at the Schola Cantorum in Basel and the Escola Superior de Música de Catalunya in Barcelona. These musicians are joined as needed by others for individual projects, including Colin Heller, who plays the nyckelharpa, the mandolin, the hardingfele, and other traditional instruments, and keyboardist Pierre Gallon. The group members characterize themselves as "the 'bards' of modern times, eager to discover and expand their knowledge." The Curious Bards were named Young Ensemble in Residence at the arts center La Cité de la Voix in Vézelay, France, and the group has been part of the EEEmerging project maintained by the Ambronay Festival. The group offers several established programs, including Extradition, devoted to Gaelic culture of the 17th and 18th centuries; Indiscretion, featuring ballads and dance types such as hornpipes, slip jigs, strathspeyes, and Gaelic-language songs; and Sublimation, devoted to Scandinavian traditions. The Extradition program formed the basis for the group's debut album, Ex-Tradition: Harmonia Nova #1, released on the major Harmonia Mundi label in 2017; the Indiscretion program was expanded into the group's sophomore release of the same name in 2023. In concert, the group drew praise from the Resmusica website for "an earpricking melding of Gaelic and Celtic folk music with Baroque performance practice."
© James Manheim /TiVo