Mala Punica combines musicological research with bold musical expression: virtuoso solo singing and playing, rich contrapuntal improvisation, and thorough stage presentation.
Founded and directed by Pedro Memelsdorff, Mala Punica (Latin for pomegranates, symbol of fertility) is a vocal-instrumental ensemble devoted to the Ars nova and Ars subtilior—a luxuriant polyphonic repertoire that spread across Europe at the end of the Middle Ages. Mala Punica is the only original inventor of a new musical language: its interpretations, its unique rhetoric lines are easily recognizable.
Mala Punica at Wieliczka (PL), Salt Mine, Paschalia Festival, performing Missa cantilena (Matteo da Perugia, Antonio Zacara da Teramo)
The ensemble’s path-breaking career includes eight recordings and over four-hundred concerts which have completely revolutionized the repertoire, changed accepted views and established new standards in the performance of medieval composers like Johannes Ciconia, as well as reviving neglected ones such as Paolo da Firenze, Matteo da Perugia, Antonello and Filippotto da Caserta or Antonio Zacara da Teramo. Mala Punica's interpretations are unmistakable, fruit of years of independent musicological research and original creative investment. Its breathtaking performances make use of precise and mesmerizing mises en scène: another trademark of Mala Punica.
Mala Punica has performed in many of the most renowned venues, early-music festivals, and classical series throughout Europe and North and South America. This includes the Konzerthaus and Musikverein in Vienna, the Konzerthaus in Berlin, the Queen Elizabeth Hall at Southbank in London, the Théâtre de la Ville and Cité de la Musique in Paris, the Festwochen der Alten Musik in Innsbruck, the December Nights in Moscow, the Auditorium Parco della Musica in Rome, the Lucerne Festival and the Early Music Festivals of St Petersburg, York, Utrecht, Boston, Mexico City, Bogotá, Antwerp, Saintes and New York.
Mala Punica reveals to us a universe of true musical goldsmithing.
Jacques Merlet
Wieliczka (PL), Salt Mine, Paschalia Festival
Mala Punica’s Sidus praeclarum concert in Mexico City: one of the happiest days of my life.
Georgina Derbez
The ensemble has held artistic residencies at the Fondation Royaumont in Paris, the AMUZ Centre in Antwerp, the University of California at Davis, the György Ligeti Festival Milano Musica/Teatro alla Scala in Milan and Harvard University in Cambridge, MA.
Mala Punica’s recordings (Arcana, Erato, Harmonia Mundi, Ambroisie) have received more than forty international awards—such as several Diapason d’Or de l’année, Choc du Monde de la Musique, 10 de Répertoire, Classica, Prix Joker and the Cannes awards in France; the Cæcilia Award in Belgium; the Prix Studio in Poland and Edison Award in The Netherlands; and the Premio Vivaldi in Italy.
They have also inspired avant-garde composers such as the Mexican Georgina Derbez and Argentinian Pablo Ortiz, whose Non più infelice and Alius I-III were premiered in Köln and Basle in 2010 and 2014.
Ad fontes!
Like the first humanists, go directly to the original source — Come i primi umanisti, attingete alla fonte originale: Mala Punica does it better.
Contact Mala Punica: info@malapunica.com