InAlto
In alto mare, in alta montagna. On the high seas, upon the high mountains.
Founded in Brussels by Lambert Colson in 2012, InAlto has established itself as one of Europe’s most distinctive ensembles dedicated to the exploration of sixteenth- and seventeenth-century vocal and instrumental repertories. Its name evokes both elevation and risk: the willingness to approach early music as a living territory, constantly questioning its sources, contexts, and modes of transmission.
Built around a core group of singers and instrumentalists specializing in historically informed performance, the ensemble has developed an approach in which musicological research, historical reconstruction, and artistic imagination continually nourish one another. Each project is conceived as an investigation: not in order to freeze works within a hypothetical notion of authenticity, but to rediscover the ideas and intellectual frameworks that brought them into being.
InAlto’s recordings have received widespread international critical acclaim. Following Ich will schweigen, devoted to Johann Hermann Schein (Ramée, 2015), the ensemble gained major recognition with Heinrich Schütz and his Legacy (Passacaille, 2016), which was awarded a Diapason d’Or de l’Année, a Choc de Classica, and was selected among the best recordings of 2017 by both Libération and Le Monde, alongside numerous other European distinctions. Un cornetto a Roma, released by Passacaille in autumn 2017, received five Diapasons. Teatro spirituale, released by Ricercar in spring 2019, was awarded five stars by Classica and a Diapason d’Or. The year 2020 saw the release of two recordings: E vidi quattro stelle (Fuga Libera), a contemporary work by Bernard Foccroulle inspired by excerpts from Dante’s Purgatorio, and Cavalieri Imperiali(Ricercar), a portrait of the cornett virtuosi Luigi Zenobi and Giovanni Sansoni, which also received five Diapasons. Released in April 2022, Libro de tientos: Francisco Correa de Arauxo was enthusiastically received by the international press and awarded ResMusica’s Clef d’Or. Passages(November 2022) was selected by the prestigious Preis der Deutschen Schallplattenkritik before receiving a Joker Absolu from Crescendo Magazine. More recently, the ensemble’s recording devoted to Tarquinio Merula was distinguished with a prestigious Gramophone Critic’s Choice, further confirming the significance of InAlto’s artistic and musicological work.
Since its founding, InAlto has appeared in many of Europe’s leading concert halls and festivals, including De Bijloke Ghent, the Venetian Centre for Baroque Music, Festival du Pays d’Auge, Museum Plantin-Moretus Antwerp, AMUZ, Festival Musiq3, Festival de Wallonie, BOZAR Brussels, Concertgebouw Bruges, Classique à Monty, Schloss Gottorf Schleswig, Festival of Regensburg, Festival de Saint-Michel-en-Thiérache, Juillet Musical de Saint-Hubert, Automne Musical de Spa, Société Philharmonique de Namur, Muziekgebouw Amsterdam, TivoliVredenburg Utrecht, Oude Muziek Utrecht, Académie Bach d’Arques-la-Bataille, Musikfest Bremen, Muziekgebouw Eindhoven, Passie van de Stemmen Leuven, Festival de l’Été Mosan, MA Festival Bruges, Beethovenfest Bonn, Musique et Nature en Bauges, Schütz Musikfest Dresden, and Thüringer Bachwochen, among many others.
Recent seasons have marked a new stage in the ensemble’s artistic development. Its reconstruction of Monteverdi’s Vespers of the Blessed Virgin, developed in collaboration with Jeffrey Kurtzman and recorded in the Basilica of Santa Barbara in Mantua, received a particularly enthusiastic reception. InAlto also premiered Memoriamor at the Granada International Festival of Music and Dance, a programme exploring the theme of mourning and remembrance in the Renaissance through works by Créquillon, Monteverdi, and their contemporaries. The programme Bläserbüchlein, devoted to seventeenth-century German instrumental culture, was notably presented at the Pulsations Festival in Bordeaux and in Edinburgh.
The ensemble continues to expand its international profile through tours in Asia in 2025 and 2026, while simultaneously pursuing several large-scale recording and research projects. Among them is an ambitious undertaking devoted to the complete published works of Giovanni Gabrieli, the recording of which will begin shortly.
Supported by the Fédération Wallonie-Bruxelles, InAlto continues its exploration of neglected repertories, bringing together scholarly rigor, artistic freedom, and the collective commitment of its performers.
