Ensemble d'Atlántico is a music ensemble based in Ghent, Belgium. At the centre of our ensemble is the Belgian/Bolivian soprano Anna Pardo who was born in Cochabamba and now lives here in Ghent. We specialise in Spanish and Latin-American music, performing both classical composers such as Rodrigo, Montsalvatge, Obradors and Villa-Lobos, as well as song writers such as Ramirez (Alfonsina y el Mar), Claure (Cantarina) and Guastavino (La Rosa y el Sauce). We recently recorded our first CD and expect to release this for distribution in the course of the coming months.

You can find many examples of our work on our YouTube channel and on our SoundCloud collection. We would in particular like to draw your attention to two recordings of our versions of the Bolivian melodies collected by Eduardo Caba and published under the title Cantares Indios Canciones. These two recordings of Kollavina and Flor de Bronce reflect our ambition to present sophisticated versions of these simple folk melodies. We are inspired by the work of Maurice Ravel in, for instance, his Cinq Mélodies Populaires Grecques, and perhaps even more so by Joseph Canteloube's extensive collection of Songs from the Auvergne (Chants d'Auvergne). His piano accompaniments and later his orchestrations of this huge collection of authentic melodies have elevated this relatively simple music to the status of classical hits, sung by sopranos all over the world and recorded notably by Kiri te Kanawa and Dawn Upshaw.

Inspired by Cantaloube's magnificent work, we at Ensemble d'Atlántico aspire to do something similar for Caba's collection Cantares Indios Canciones. Starting from small-scale arrangements of the accompaniments for flute, piano and percussion, we would like to develop these into versions for small chamber orchestra and soprano soloist.

Please get in touch if you would like to support us!

 

Our current projects are the release of our new CD Cruzando Océanos, planned for January 2025, with CD release concerts in Gent, Bruges, Antwerp and Ronse. Read about our project Cantares Populares here.