Camerata Trajectina

Camerata Trajectina is a Utrecht-based early music consort originally founded in 1974 under the name of "Utrecht Music Company." Its key members include leader and lute/cittern player Louis Peter Grijp, recorder player and violist Saskia Coolen, violist and percussionist Erik Beijer, and tenor Nico van der Meel. Among satellite members, some of whom work in the group nearly as frequently as its key constituency, are Baroque violinist Annelies van der Vegt and singers Hieke Meppelink, Sytse Buwalda, and Marcel Moester. The group's main point of departure is the rich heritage of music from the Low Countries from the medieval era until about 1600, or as the musicians put it, "from Hadewych to Huygens" with a special emphasis on Jacob van Eyck. Camerata Trajectina organizes its programs around thematic concepts that relate to figures and events in Dutch history, the works of Dutch poets, and in relating music to Dutch master paintings. While the group mainly performs in the Netherlands, Belgium, and Flanders, Camerata Trajectina has toured throughout Europe and appeared in Indonesia, Ghana, Canada, Mexico, and the United States. Camerata Trajectina have recorded most extensively for the Dutch label Globe, but in its early days recorded for Philips; some of the Philips recordings have also been reissued on Globe.