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Musicians of the King's Road (Finnish: Kuninkaantien muusikot, Swedish: Kungsvägens musiker) is a Finnish professional baroque orchestra.
Contents
Orchestra and choir
Musicians of the King's Road is a professional baroque orchestra and choir. The ensemble was founded in autumn 2008 in Turku in Finland. It is specialised in performing musical rarities written by European composers. The orchestra plays on period instruments. Conductor Markus Yli-Jokipii was the artistic director of Musicians of the King's Road from 2009 to 2015.
Several compositions have been performed for the first time in Finland by Musicians of the King's Road. Many of these works have lain forgotten in archives for a long time and have consequently not been performed for centuries, neither in Finland nor elsewhere. In spring 2013, Musicians of the King's Road performed the 400-year-old St Matthew Passion written by the German composer Melchior Vulpius. The performances were given within a liturgical context in four churches in Southwest Finland. On Good Friday 2014, the passion was performed in the Taulumäki Church in Jyväskylä and a year later in the church of Vähäkyrö in Vaasa.
In 2012, Musicians of the King's Road started a series of concerts that presents rare musical instruments for which works were written by many composers of the classical period. In the opening concert William Zeitler played the glass harmonica. The series continued on the Night of the Arts 2013 when Paolo Tognon, who is specialised in historical wind instruments such as bassoons and dulcians, appeared as soloist on baroque bassoon. In January 2014, when Musicians of the King's Road performed the Te Deum by Marc-Antoine Charpentier, the orchestra included a historical serpent. In the same concert, the instrument called Chinese hat was heard probably for the first time ever in Finland. Later in the same year, Sigiswald Kuijken appeared as soloist with Musicians of the King's Road on violoncello da spalla. On the Night of the Arts 2015, the instrument in focus was the lira-chitarra, played by Eleonora Vulpiani from Italy.
Acknowledgements
Musicians of the King's Road was chosen the regionally most significant cultural project in 2010 by the Finnish Cultural Foundation, Varsinais-Suomi regional fund.
The Pro Musica Säätiö foundation that supports performers of classical music in Finland awarded Musicians of the Kin'gs Road a grant in 2012.
Publicity
Musicians of the King's Road gives concerts regularly but has not made any recordings. It mainly performs in concerts that are its own productions and its publicity approach also includes not appearing with videos on YouTube. The Finnish Broadcasting Company Yle has broadcast several of its concerts.