About Us

Monteverdi Choir & Orchestras (MCO) consists of three internationally renowned ensembles that lead the field of period performance: the Monteverdi Choir, English Baroque Soloists and Orchestre Révolutionnaire et Romantique. Its world-class musicians specialise in a variety of repertoire ranging from sacred music and chamber works to operas.

The recipient of numerous awards and accolades, MCO is dedicated to bringing fresh perspectives, immediacy and drama to historically-informed musical performances around the world.

Working with a select group of specialist conductors, MCO is forging the future of historically inspired performance, building on its legacy of pioneering work in this area with expanded repertoire and collaborations performed at the most prestigious and iconic venues and festivals.

MCO's 2026 season commences with the Choir and EBS performing Bach’s St John Passion, conducted by Peter Whelan in Barcelona, Budapest and London. In May, Jonathan Sells returns to conduct the Choir and EBS in an immersive production of Purcell’s Dido & Aeneas, directed by Andrew Staples, in the dry dock of Cutty Sark in Greenwich, and on tour at the Bergen International Festival in Norway. In June, the EBS will perform a programme exploring Haydn’s time in London will be conducted by Peter Whelan, joined by cello soloist Christophe Coin. In the autumn, Christophe Rousset will conduct the Choir and EBS in Handel’s Theodora on a tour to South America, and in the UK with concerts in London and Oxford, the latter as part of the inaugural season at the new Sohmen Concert Hall in the Schwarzman Centre, Oxford.

Highlights from MCO's 2025 schedule include Mozart with Marc Minkowski in Vienna and London, Bach with Masaaki Suzuki, two performances at the Edinburgh International Festival, Mozart and Schubert with Pablo Heras-Casado, semi-staged Rossini with Jakob Lehmann, Handel's Messiah with Christophe Rousset and Handel’s Dixit Dominus with Jonathan Sells.

2025 also saw MCO’s own label, Soli Deo Gloria, release its first new recording since before the pandemic with an album of Bruckner and Gesualdo conducted by Choir Director Jonathan Sells. Another album was released in September 2025, a recording of MCO’s deep dive into Charpentier with Christophe Rousset that toured across Europe in December 2024. These performances were universally greeted with praise with Operawire noting “a fresh sense of artistic renewal”.

MCO has wider a discography of over 150 recordings, films and live streams, and also collaborates with other labels including Deutsche Grammophon. Notable recordings include J.S. Bach’s complete set of Cantatas,as part of the Bach Cantata Pilgrimage project in 2000, and film recordings of Monteverdi’s three surviving operas as part of the RPS award-winning Monteverdi 450 project in 2017.

A new strand of collaborative unconducted programming, which began in 2024 with Schubert’s Octet intertwined with lieder sung by Andrew Staples, continued with a dramatised performance of Mozart’s Serenade 'Gran Partita' with actor Tama Matheson.

MCO has a longstanding commitment to music education, further developing its partnership with Trinity Laban, and relaunching its groundbreaking Monteverdi Apprentice Programme that enables outstanding young musicians to train and perform alongside MCO’s world-class ensembles.

Annual report
Please visit our Charity Commission page to view our most recent Annual Report.