A Place of Green — Solo in Rosario

I am very excited to return to Belgium to spend a week living, working, and giving a concert with Sophie and Johan in the peaceful Rosario monastery.

I will perform a concert of songs that I have written, paired with songs of the Renaissance for lute and voice. My songs are a mix of old and new, Renaissance and Early Baroque models with contemporary influences. I hope you will come and listen.

Joel Frederiksen — Bass and Renaissance Lutes

Unity in Diversity with Zefiro Torna — A European Lute Song Project

Here is a TEASER from a lovely program I did with Jurgen and his ensemble in Antwerp: Unity in Diversity.

Musica Transalpina – Vocal music of the renaissance from Italy to England

‘versum vocale

Joel Frederiksen, Direction

Spem in alium

Vox Luminis
Artistic direction: Lionel Meunier

Spem in alium

Vox Luminis
Artistic direction: Lionel Meunier
In collaboration with Saburo Teshigawara (direction, lighting design, costume design, dance) & KARAS, dance company
World Première

Spem in alium

Vox Luminis
Artistic direction: Lionel Meunier
In collaboration with Saburo Teshigawara (direction, lighting design, costume design, dance) & KARAS, dance company
World Première

Aufenthalt – Songs for “one bass voice with pianoforte accompaniment” by Franz Schubert

Concert 3: Aufenthalt, Series XVIII, Season 2025/26 / Four concerts on subscription

Thursday, February 5, 2026 at 8 pm — Bavarian National Museum, Munich
7 pm — Pre-concert lecture with Lukas Sehr
Following their acclaimed performance of Schubert's Winterreise, Joel Frederiksen and Lukas Sehr return with a selection of songs from Schwanengesang. This collection of songs, published posthumously, is considered Schubert's musical legacy – touching, profound, and poetic. The songs will be complemented by four movements from Schubert's last piano sonata in B flat major. A faithful replica of a fortepiano by Gregor Deiß (Munich, around 1815) from the Greifenberger Institute produces a sound that particularly enhances the intimate interplay between voice and piano. A recital full of subtle nuances!

Joel Frederiksen — bass
Lukas Sehr — fortepiano

Spem in alium

Vox Luminis
Artistic direction: Lionel Meunier
In collaboration with Saburo Teshigawara (direction, lighting design, costume design, dance) & KARAS, dance company
World Première

Spem in alium

Vox Luminis
Artistic direction: Lionel Meunier
In collaboration with Saburo Teshigawara (direction, lighting design, costume design, dance) & KARAS, dance company
World Première

Spem in alium

Vox Luminis
Artistic direction: Lionel Meunier

Musica Transalpina – Vocal music of the renaissance from Italy to England

‘versum vocale

Joel Frederiksen, Direction

Musica Transalpina – Vocal music of the renaissance from italy to England

‘versum vocale

Joel Frederiksen, Direction

An Elizabethan tribute to Nick Drake

"Nick was strangely out of step with his time. If he had lived in the 17th century, at the Elizabethan court, alongside composers such as Dowland or William Byrd, he would have fit right in. Nick was elegant, honest, a lost romantic – and at the same time so cool. In short: the perfect Elizabethan." – Rick Kirby

Joel Frederiksen and his Ensemble Phoenix Munich explored this sentiment of a friend of English singer-songwriter Nick Drake, who died in 1974 at the age of only 26, and created the program “Requiem for a Pink Moon.” With their award-winning signature style and sound, the experts in Renaissance and early Baroque music give Drake's songs an “Elizabethan” sound with lute, theorbo, and viola da gamba. Songs by John Dowland and Thomas Campion fit seamlessly into the adaptations, as Drake's lyrics, like those of the Elizabethan poets, revolve around deeply felt, personal moments of human existence.

Performers:

Joel Frederiksen - lute, vocals, concept, and direction

Kieran White - tenor

Axel Wolf - lute, theorbo

Domen Marinčič - viola da gamba

The Midnight Cry: An American Christmas (2025)

Full of joy and delightful discovery, this holiday program revisits Camerata’s most popular Christmas offering. It features songs, hymns, New England anthems, and carols from the early years of the American republic. Drawn from a wide range of early tune books and manuscripts, this magnificent Christmas repertoire, our very own, is performed by an ensemble of superb vocal soloists and instrumentalists, under the direction of Anne Azéma.

“Jubilate Deo“ Festkonzert zum 500. Geburtstag von G. P. da Palestrina

Looking forward to joining my friends again from Josquin Capella.

Josquin Capella (Cologne) - Meinolf Brüser, Director

Concert - Musical Belonings

lautten compagney BERLIN with Joel Frederiksen meets Tansanian Music

Concert - Musical Belonings

lautten compagney BERLIN with Joel Frederiksen meets Tansanian Music

A Place of Green – The First Booke of Songs von Joel Frederiksen, Teil II

Concert 2: A Place of Green, Reihe XVIII: 2025-26 / Series XVIII, Season 2025/26 / Four concerts on subscription

Sunday, November 9 at 2 pm – Bavarian National Museum, Mars-Venus Hall
1 pm — Pre-concert lecture with Dr. Gregory Wang and Joel Frederiksen

With “A Place of Green,” Joel Frederiksen strikes a quiet, personal tone – a song about youth, longing, and the desire for reconciliation. With the second part of his “First Booke of Songs,” he completes an exceptional project: new songs in the spirit of the Renaissance, inspired by masters such as John Dowland and Thomas Campion, but interwoven with contemporary language and emotion. Following the successful first part in May 2024, Frederiksen continues his intimate musical dialogue with the past – touching, timeless, and intimate. A concert that carries the echo of old songs into the present.

Emma-Lisa Roux — soprano, lute
Hille Perl — viola da gamba
Lucine Mesaelian — soprano, viola da gamba
Colin Balzer — tenor
Murat Coskun — percussion
Joel Frederiksen — bass, lute, direction, songs

2nd concert of the XVIII concert series “Between Mars and Venus”

With the kind support of the Bavarian State Ministry of Science and the Arts and the District of Upper Bavaria.

A concert with Concenti musicali and Peter Adler, Director

An Elizabethan tribute to Nick Drake

"Nick was strangely out of step with his time. If he had lived in the 17th century, at the Elizabethan court, alongside composers such as Dowland or William Byrd, he would have fit right in. Nick was elegant, honest, a lost romantic – and at the same time so cool. In short: the perfect Elizabethan." – Rick Kirby

Joel Frederiksen and his ensemble Phoenix Munich explored this sentiment of a friend of English singer-songwriter Nick Drake, who died in 1974 at the age of only 26, and created the program “Requiem for a Pink Moon.” With their award-winning signature style and sound, the experts in Renaissance and early Baroque music give Drake's songs an “Elizabethan” sound with lute, theorbo, and viola da gamba in their Musikfest debut. Songs by John Dowland and Thomas Campion fit seamlessly into the adaptations, as Drake's lyrics, like those of the Elizabethan poets, revolve around deeply felt, personal moments of human existence.

Performers:

Joel Frederiksen - lute, vocals, concept, and direction

Colin Balzer - tenor

Axel Wolf - lute, theorbo

Domen Marinčič - viola da gamba

regno d'Amore – Music by Giovanni Felice Sances in solo, dialog and trio

Concert 1: Between Mars and Venus, Series XVIII, Season 2025/26 / Four concerts by subscription

Sunday, October 5, 2025 at 2 pm — Bavarian National Museum, Mars-Venus Hall
1 pm — Pre-concert lecture

Giovanni Felice Sances (1600-1679) was one of the most colorful figures of the early 17th century – a singer, composer, and musical bridge builder between Rome and Vienna. In his “Cantade – Libro Secondo” from 1633, we encounter early Italian secular cantatas in all their expressive power. Sances combined virtuoso vocal artistry with subtle poetry and brought this style to the imperial court in Vienna, where he created a diverse body of work – from operas to sacred compositions. This concert presents a selection of his most impressive vocal works, artfully accompanied by theorbo, archlute, baroque guitar, harpsichord, and organ—a sonorous portrait of a Baroque pioneer—rounded off by instrumental compositions of his Viennese contemporaries.

Bryony Lang - soprano
Ivo Haun – tenor, lute
Axel Wolf – theorbo, baroque guitar
Michael Eberth – harpsichord, organ
Joel Frederiksen – bass, archlute, conductor

1st concert of the XVIII concert series “Between Mars and Venus”

With the kind support of the Bavarian State Ministry of Science and the Arts and the District of Upper Bavaria.

On September 20, 2025, AUXantiqua will celebrate the 500th birthday of Giovanni Pierluigi da Palestrina with a special musical tribute: Starting at 3:25 p.m., 500 minutes of music will be performed—a sound marathon that brings the oeuvre of this great Renaissance master to life.

Immerse yourself in a night of polyphonic splendor and spiritual profundity – presented by AUXantiqua and guests.

Sept. 20, 2025, 3:25 p.m. – Sept. 21, 2025, 12:00 a.m.

Augsburg, Frauentorstraße 1, 86152 Augsburg, Germany

Songs to the moon

A fascinating journey through the world of music from the Renaissance to the beginning of the Baroque period. This program brings the mythical Greek figure of Orpheus to life. Orpheus, a gifted singer and lyre player, enchants and transforms through the power of his singing. Joel Frederiksen, singer and lute player, revives the ideals of the Renaissance and draws on Greek influences, striving to win the hearts of his audience and touch their souls in concerts of unique intensity. He embodies the character and aesthetics of the myth of Orpheus and accompanies himself in a way that highlights the sensitive declamation of the texts in conjunction with the power of rhetorical principles.

This program is a mixture of old and new. From Frederiksen's Echo Award-winning CD program “Requiem for a Pink Moon” (2014) come songs by Nick Drake, arranged alongside and with English Renaissance compositions by John Dowland and Thomas Campion. Frederiksen's “The day love died” is inspired by Robert Johnson's “Orpheus, I am” about love and loss. The folk melody “The Woods So Wild” is presented in an arrangement by William Byrd. Dowland cleverly incorporates the melody into the last part of his song “Can She Excuse.” Inspired by Dowland, Frederiksen has woven the popular Renaissance ballad “Go from My Window” into his own love song “I Wanna Run Right After You.” The Renaissance poet and composer Thomas Campion is a great inspiration for Joel Frederiksen's work. This program includes a tribute to Campion, “A Woman's Heart,” as well as two compositions by the composer himself.

The program ends with a series of pieces from the early Italian Baroque period, composed expressly for the bass voice. Expressive and virtuosic, they introduce the new musical style that was popular at the end of the 16th century: “Le nuove musiche.”

The “pink moon” that Nick sings about is the moon of the lunar eclipse. Its appearance is eerie and strange, as Nick says: “Pink moon is gonna get you all...” Dowland writes “Say love if ever thou didst find” and mentions the moon in connection with Queen Elizabeth, who is also very changeable and unpredictable. Our full moon illuminates the night and shows us the way!

Joel Frederiksen - Bass, Lute, Direction, Compositions

Domen Marinčič- Viola da Gamba

Jacopo Sabina - Lute, Theorbo

50th Music in Old Cracow Festival

Collegium Zieleński

Joel Frederiksen – basso profondo

Stanisław Krawczyński – conductor

C. Monteverdi, H. Purcell, J.S. Bach, M. Zieleński.

August 15, Friday, 7:30 p.m.

Church of St. Catherine of Alexandria, 7 Augustiańska Street

SPOTIFY LINK to the CD with Emma Kirkby, Joel Frederiksen, et al

Monteverdi & Schütz – Italienische Madrigale

We are the Munich ensemble 'versum vocale under the direction of the singer and lutenist Joel Frederiksen. Our focus is on a cappella pieces from the Renaissance period. Our repertoire includes madrigals, motets and chansons from the 16th century, which we interpret with great enthusiasm. With our music, we want to bring the beauty and richness of this era to life

27. Juli 2025, 18 Uhr
St. Barbara,  Infanteriestraße 15, 80797 München

Sopran Malin Eiband, Bryony Preynat
Mezzosopran Sarah Park
Alt Linda Oppermann, Katharina Starzer
Tenor Friedrich Esch, Thomas Padel
Bass Florian Eggers, Robert Schmidt

Tero Saarinen Company 
Boston Camerata

Since its world premiere in 2004, Borrowed Light has fascinated more than 50,000 people worldwide with its hypnotic fusion of movement, music and lighting. 21 years later the signature piece of the Tero Saarinen Company celebrates its Austrian premiere.

For Borrowed Light, choreographer Tero Saarinen found inspiration in the traditional songs and dances of the Shaker, a free church that was founded in the 18th century in the US and is known for its ecstatic Shaker dances and its strong work ethic. But the piece itself is more about universal topics such as community and devotion, than the Shaker movement itself. 

Tero Saarinen Company 
Boston Camerata

Since its world premiere in 2004, Borrowed Light has fascinated more than 50,000 people worldwide with its hypnotic fusion of movement, music and lighting. 21 years later the signature piece of the Tero Saarinen Company celebrates its Austrian premiere.

For Borrowed Light, choreographer Tero Saarinen found inspiration in the traditional songs and dances of the Shaker, a free church that was founded in the 18th century in the US and is known for its ecstatic Shaker dances and its strong work ethic. But the piece itself is more about universal topics such as community and devotion, than the Shaker movement itself. 

With the Tero Saarinen Company and the Boston camerata

In collaboration with the Tero Saarinen Company (TSC), Borrowed Light captures the ritualistic essence of dance and the profound strength of community. Inspired by the radical Shakers movement of the 1700s and 1800s, the work explores total surrender and devotion to a community. The live performance of original Shaker hymns by The Boston Camerata fills the space with ethereal harmonies that echo through the repetitive rituals of the movement. Collective identity can carry towards something greater, but at what point do its rigid values push the individual to the very limits of their devotion?

This TSC classic returns to the stage 20 years after its premiere!

American Spirituals, 1770-1870

The Boston Camerata’s pioneering programs of early American music have brought pleasure to thousands of music lovers, and have helped to clarify and define our country’s rich and diverse cultural identity. It traces migratory currents and flows of early American song, largely spiritual but also secular. Among the various communities participating in this rich American mosaic we encounter the Puritans of New England, the Shakers and their visionary monodies, Amish and Mennonites of Pennsylvania, and the newly-freed African-American religious communities. The musical sources of this program are drawn from European and New World oral traditions, hymns, psalms and chants in English, German dialects, early songbooks of Black churches, as well as gems from the still largely unpublished Shaker manuscript archive at Sabbathday Lake, ME.

Boston Camerata
Anne Azéma Soprano, Artistic Director
Camila Parias Soprano
Emily Marvosh Alto
Daniel Hershey Tenor
Colin Balzer Tenor
Joel Frederiksen Bass & Guitar