Magnificat Baroque Ensemble

Warren Stewart, artistic director

For over twenty years Magnificat has explored the emotionally charged music of the 17th Century, each season bringing together an assembly of internationally recognized musicians to present unique and innovative programs that engage the senses and inspire the imagination. Under the artistic direction of Warren Stewart, Magnificat has offered Bay Area audiences the chance to hear many significant works by well-known figures of the 17th Century while also uncovering forgotten masterpieces, including many modern premieres. With dramatic flair and sensitivity to historical context Magnificat imbues each concert with an infectious joy and a delight in musical make-believe. 

Over the past decade Magnificat has taken a special interest in promoting the works of women composers, undertaking a project to record the complete works of Chiara Margarita Cozzolani, devoting entire programs to the music of Barbara Strozzi and Isabella Leonarda and hosting a conference on Women and Music in Seventeenth Century Italy.

In addition to their annual series, Magnificat has appeared six times on the Berkeley Early Music Festival and has been presented numerous times on the San Francisco Early Music Society concert series. In September 2011 they were presented at the Bloomington Early Music Festival in a program of selections from Monteverdi's Madrigals of War & Love. Magnificat has also been presented by Music Before 1800, The Seattle Early Music Guild, The Tropical Baroque Festival, The Carmel Bach Festival, and The Sonoma County Bach Society and by the Society for Seventeenth-Century Music. Magnificat has recorded for Koch International and Musica Omnia.