About us
Ensemble Bastion is an award-winning ensemble based in Basel, described as a “true consort of friends” – an ensemble in which each instrument stands out as a solo voice while contributing to a unified and dynamic sound.
The ensemble is dedicated to a repertoire encompassing solo and trio sonatas, polyphonic works, and theatrical music from the late sixteenth to the mid-eighteenth century.
Founded by alumni of the Schola Cantorum Basiliensis, the name Bastion refers not only to their mission to explore and preserve early music, but also to the ensemble’s artistic home of Basel. It was here that Sebastian Virdung (“Bastian”) published his treatise Musica getutscht, in which early forms of all the instruments performed by the ensemble are described.
Ensemble Bastion has appeared at international festivals and concert series including the York Early Music Festival, the Innsbrucker Festwochen, the Erasmus klingt! Festival Lab in Basel, the SEVIQC, Baroque Rendezvous in Ljubljana, and the Chamber Music Cycle in Maribor.
In 2024, the ensemble was awarded the EUBO Trust Prize at the York Early Music Competition and was selected for the S-EEEMERGING 2026–2027 programme.
The artistic direction is led by Maruša Brezavšček.
Videos
All Videos
All Videos
Ensemble Bastion / Arcangelo Corelli, Sonata Nr. 4, op. 5 / Ornamentation by Johan Helmich Roman
G.Ph. Telemann: Trio Sonata in g-Minor, TWV 42:g9 - Ensemble Bastion
Henry Purcell: Fairest Isle / Ensemble Bastion
F. Couperin - Echos (Second Concert Royal) I Ensemble Bastion
Photo Gallery
Upcoming Concerts
Phantasma:
Zwischen Himmel und Hölle
18.4.2026 at 19:30
Zum Hohen Dolder, Basel, CH
St. Alban-Vorstadt 35, 4052 Basel
Free admission, donations welcome
I'm a paragraph. Click here to add your own text and edit me. It's easy.
Phantasma: Between Heaven and Hell unfolds a sound world full of surprising contrasts: musical moments that invite the listener to dream of heaven stand alongside others that inspire awe with their almost infernal virtuosity.
This free and experimental approach to music developed in the 17th century and became known as the Stylus Phantasticus.
Inspired by this early fantastical sound world, the Vienna-based composer Daniel Serrano wrote a new work for Ensemble Bastion, which will receive its world premiere in this concert. In this piece, the language of early music enters into a dialogue with contemporary extended techniques and the composer’s personal perspectives.
On the programme:
Dario Castello · Giovanni Antonio Pandolfi Mealli · Johann Jakob Froberger · Heinrich Ignaz Franz Biber · Samuel Capricornus · Claudio Monteverdi · Daniel Serrano
We thank the Sulger-Stiftung and the Federal Ministry for Housing, Arts, Culture, Media and Sport of the Republic of Austria for their support.
Musicians
Maruša Brezavšček is a Slovenian recorder player, specializing in early and contemporary music, and is also active as a performer of the baroque bassoon and dulcian. She teaches recorder at the Academy for Music in Ljubljana, Slovenia. Maruša is active as a soloist, as well as a chamber musician, and is a founding member of ensembles Ensemble Bastion and Ensemble Pampinea, the winner of the London International Festival of Early Music competition 2022. As a soloist, she has been the recipient of numerous prestigious accolades, including first prizes at the Tel Aviv Recorder Festival 3 and at the European Recorder Players Society Competition in Graz. She has appeared as a soloist with orchestras/ensembles including Capricornus Consort Basel, Jerusalem Baroque Orchestra, Musica Cubicularis, and the Chamber Ensemble of the Slovenska Filharmonija. Maruša has appeared on recordings produced by Slovenian National RTV, on several CDs, and has premiered new works by distinguished Slovene and international composers.
Martin Jantzen is equally at home as a performer on the viola da gamba, the violoncello, and the rare arpeggione, which is reflected in his busy concert schedule and numerous international prizes and scholarships. He is fascinated by the various forms of communication that can be discovered in every musical style. Finding the balance between the abstract and immediate emotionality in music, experimenting with it, and conveying it are at the heart of his performances. He completed his studies at the Schola Cantorum in Basel with distinction and passes on his knowledge to the next generation at the Tübingen Music School. He has performed on international stages with ensembles such as the Akademie für Alte Musik Berlin, Bachakademie Stuttgart, El Gran Teatro del Mundo, the viol consort Phantasm, Amaconsort, Flor Galante, Ensemble Bastion, [sic]nals, and Le Grand-Rien, and is a member of the management team at the Musikfest Eichstätt.
A graduate of the University Mozarteum Salzburg and Schola Cantorum Basiliensis, the German lutenist Elias Conrad has an active concert schedule, performing all over Europe on a variety of historical plucked instruments, specializing in a wide repertoire from the 16th to 19th centuries. Repeatedly awarded, he is a laureate and winner of prestigious international competitions and holder of numerous scholarships. Frequently involved in productions and recordings with famous soloists like Andreas Scholl and Amandine Beyer, conductors like René Jacobs, Raphaël Pichon, and Alessandro De Marchi, and orchestras and institutions such as Gli Incogniti, Pygmalion, and I Gemelli, he has performed on renowned stages and festivals like MAfestival Brugges, Oude Muziek Festival Utrecht, and Händelfestspiele Göttingen, and recorded for labels such as Aparté, Arcana/Outhere, and Pan Classics. He is the artistic director of the international prize-winning ensemble Mozaïque.
Mélanie Flores received her first harpsichord lessons in Mexico City at the age of 8. She further pursued her studies at the Schola Cantorum Basiliensis in Basel, Switzerland. Her teachers include Norma Garcia, Jörg-Andreas Bötticher, and Andrea Marcon. Currently, she is studying choir conducting with Martin Wettges at the Musical Academy in Basel, Switzerland. Her musical activities span teaching, conducting, and performing at an international level. She currently teaches basso continuo at the Mexican Baroque Orchestra (AMA-UNAM), an orchestra made up of young students and founded by the National University of Mexico. She is an official accompanist at the Schola Cantorum Basiliensis and conducts the choir of Katholische Universität Gemeinde in Basel, Switzerland. Both as a soloist and as a member of various ensembles, Mélanie has performed in many important international festivals in Switzerland, France, Italy, Slovenia, the Netherlands, Germany, the Czech Republic, and Mexico. In 2022, she was awarded at the Bach International Competition, held in Leipzig, Germany.
