From Boccaccio's classic The Decameron interacting with the music of 14th-century Florentine composers to wheeling through Fortuna's decisions with the music of the great master Guillaume de Machaut and his Ars Nova/Ars Subtilior contemporaries, to the accompaniment of Jan van Eyck's paintings with the soundscape of Burgundian chansons—Ensemble Pampinea presents dynamic and vibrant programmes that cross the borders of media and disciplines.
The musicians of Ensemble Pampinea are graduates of the Early Music Institute, Schola Cantorum Basiliensis in Basel, Switzerland. Since the ensemble's establishment in 2022, its successes have been recognized in various competitions and on prestigious stages. In September 2022, Ensemble Pampinea won First Prize at the London Early Music Young Ensemble Competition and was invited to perform at the next edition of the LIFEM festival in England. The ensemble was also chosen as a finalist in the competition of the Musikfestspiele Potsdam Sanssouci in 2023.
Ensemble Pampinea frequently performs across Europe and beyond. In 2024, the ensemble concluded a critically acclaimed tour in the UK, giving five concerts across London, Cornwall, and Devon. The ensemble has also performed in Slovenia and Italy at festivals such as Seviqc Brežice, Musica Cortese, Flores Musicae, Kristalni Abonma Škofja Loka, and Muzej Občine Šenčur. Currently, the ensemble is organizing a Canadian tour for 2026—set to cross the Atlantic with its compelling and playful programmes.
Ensemble Pampinea is directed by early recorder/keyboard player and musicologist Fiona Kizzie Lee. The ensemble’s approach maintains a balance between historically informed performance research and innovative performance arrangements that fulfill the needs of modern audiences. A spectacular range of instruments is featured in the ensemble, including the recorder, organetto, fiddle, pipe and tabor, clavisimbalum, and, last but not least, the voice.
"The young, virtuosic, and studious members of the ensemble breathed life into the music, which is seven centuries distant from us, with a refined sense for personalized, highly expressive interpretations." - Tomaž Gržeta, 2024
The audience is immersed in the repertoire of Ars Nova and Ars Subtilior, featuring works by Guillaume de Machaut and pieces from the Chantilly and Cypriot Codices. The unpredictable nature of Fortuna is presented through a dice roll placed in the audience's hands: the outcome determines the program’s order, and thus the fate of the ensemble on stage. What remains beyond the reach of chance is the medieval worldview – Fortuna is never fixed, always turning.
"LIFEM's young ensemble competition was deservedly won by Basel-based trio Ensemble Pampinea. The judges not only praised their musicianship but applauded their ability to engage with their audience.’’ - Miles Hedley, 2022
