The Euridice Barockorchester was founded by Michi Gaigg and Carin van Heerden at the Anton Bruckner Private University in 2013. Five years later Elisabeth Wiesbauer became artistic director.
Already since the days of the Bruckner Conservatoire, i.e. before 2004, Historical Performance Practice was a growing field in the curricula. The students were regularly offered projects dealing with Baroque orchestral repertoire. Euridice’s structure is a novelty as far as L’Orfeo’s involvement is concerned: principal players from L’Orfeo coach the students at rehearsals and lend their support at concerts. This is of great benefit for the students as they actually have the opportunity to have a taste of the “real” world outside. The L’Orfeo players on the other hand experience working with the students as refreshing and valuable.
Euridice has dealt with repertoire from the Baroque and pre-Classical era, also including work with soloists such as Anne Marie Dragosits, Claire Genewein and Carin van Heerden. It performed at the Brucknerhaus Linz twice now.
The first opera production was in 2016 at the donauFESTWOCHEN im Strudengau with performances of Reinhard Keiser’s Der geliebte Adonis, conducted by Erich Traxler. 2021 promises to be a prolific year for Euridice: a joint project with the Baroque orchestra of the Viennese University (MUK) of Haydn’s Creation and a second project for the Gesellschaft der Musikfreunde Passau with Bach’s Mass in b minor (the first project here was already in 2017 with Bach’s St Matthew’s Passion) are scheduled. Euridice is looking forward to another opera production in 2022 at the donauFESTWOCHEN im Strudengau with Alessandro Stradella’s opera Moro per amore.