SCHOLA GREGORIANA PRAGENSIS
The Schola Gregoriana Pragensis was established in the year 1987. Its founder and present art director, David Eben, graduated from Paris conservatory (Conservatoire Nationale Superieur de Musique de Paris), the program Conducting Gregorian Chant. For several years he also worked as a conductor of the Ensemble „Choeur gregorien de Paris“, one the best groups in Europe. During first two years of its existence the ensemble was allowed to sing only in the liturgy. This limitation ceased after 1989 and since then it has been intensively giving concerts all over Europe, but also Israel and Japan. The CDs of the ensemble arise exclusively in co-operation with the major Czech musical publisher, “Supraphon” company, and have received a number of awards (Choc du Monde de le Musique, 10 de Repertoire, “Zlata Harmonie” – Golden Harmony Award for the best Czech recording of the year). The ensemble records for the Czech Radio, too. “Schola Gregoriana Pragensis” belongs to foremost world interpreters of medieval sacral music. It has been focusing its work both on the semiological interpretation of Gregoriant chant according to the earliest neumatic sources from the 10th to 11th century, and on presentation of the original Bohemian plainchant tradition, including early polyphony. Thanks to ensemble’s intensive study of medieval sources, its programmes also include a number of unique, newly discovered compositions dating from the 13th to 15th centuries. The large amount of repertoire offers also contemporary music (see eg. the CD Antica e moderna) – some compositions of young Czech composer generation have been written rightly for the Schola and were premiered in its interpretation. The repertoire of the ensemble amounts over 300 compositions. Regarding the records and concert projects, the audience as well as expert reviews appreciate chiefly their dramaturgical imaginativeness and musical interpretation, with which the ensemble brings alive the repertoire originating from the very roots of European musical culture.
