Concerto Copenhagen - music for our future heritage
For over thirty years, Concerto Copenhagen has embarked on a journey of discovery, exploring music from the Baroque, Viennese Classical, and Early Romantic periods with historical awareness and unwavering commitment. Today, Concerto Copenhagen stands as a leading light in its field, both nationally and internationally. Under the musical direction of Lars Ulrik Mortensen, Concerto Copenhagen combines a methodical approach to historical material with artistic originality and a continual evolution in performance style and delivery. This ensures that the music is brought to life in a process of dynamic renewal and remains relevant to contemporary audiences.
Since its inaugural concerts in 1991, Concerto Copenhagen has released multiple internationally acclaimed albums and participated in hundreds of concerts, opera productions, as well as soundtrack and video productions around the world. With a repertoire that combines more familiar European music with lesser-known works of Scandinavian origin and new music, the orchestra celebrated its 30-year anniversary in 2021 and was subsequently nominated for P2 Artist of the Year 2022.
Lars Ulrik Mortensen - Artistic Director of Concerto Copenhagen, conductor, and harpsichordist
Mortensen has been active as a conductor for 25 years, and for almost twenty years he has worked exclusively with period instruments and original performance practice. He has toured most of the world and played with some of the most prominent international Early Music ensembles, including Holland Baroque Society, Irish Baroque Orchestra, Nederlandse Bachvereniging, and Collegium 1704. He has participated in many iconic recordings - released by DGG-Archiv, ECM, EMI, Naxos, and CPO.
In the early years, Mortensen studied at the Royal Danish Academy of Music and afterwards with Trevor Pinnock in London. Between 1996 and 1999, he was professor of harpsichord and performance practice at the Hochschule für Musik in Munich, and he continues to teach at prestigious institutions around the world, including Mozarteum Salzburg, Sibelius Academy in Helsinki, and Juilliard School of Music in New York.
Mortensen has been the Artistic Director of Concerto Copenhagen since 1999 and is today the epitome of CoCo's artistic, creative, and . In 2007, he received Denmark's most prestigious music award, the Léonie Sonning Music Award, and since then he has continued to further develop and refine his artistic work.In 2022 Lars Ulrik Mortensen was DR P2 Artist of the Year.