About Giardino di Delizie

The GIARDINO DI DELIZIE is a dynamic and creative female Baroque Ensemble that was founded in 2014 in Rome by its artistic director Ewa Anna Augustynowicz. Its members are all specialists in the field of historical performance practice, having studied with eminent international masters such as E. Onofri, E. Gatti, F. Pavan, M. Testori, B. Hoffmann, Ch. Rousset, E. Baiano, E. Mascardi etc. They also play regularly with other early music ensembles known all over the world. The ensemble is based in Rome and since its foundation has pursued its activity in Italy and abroad, playing at many internationally renowned festivals and venues.

The ensemble is based in Rome and since its foundation has pursued its activity in Italy and abroad, playing at many internationally renowned festivals and venues, such as the Almisonis Melos Festival, the Circle of the Armed Forces at the Ministry of Defence (Rome), Rome Polish Institute of Culture, Filarmonica Romana, Festival Sulle Ombre del Cusanino, Vantaa Music Festival (Helsinki) and the Oude Musik Festival (Utrecht), Festival de Música Antigua dels Pirineus (Spain) Pietà de’ Turchini (Italy), Terras sem Sombra (Portugal), Am 13en (Germany). In 2027 it has been invited to perform at the Malta Festival with a renown soprano singer Roberta Mameli, 

It has also taken part in various festivals in Poland, including the Schola Cantorum Early Music Festival, Wilanow Palace Warsaw, Witold Lutosławski Concert Studio of Polish Radio, Barok na Spiszu, Festival Misericordia, Szczecin Baroque Music Festival, Maj z Muzyką Dawną Festival, Muzyczny Festiwal w Łańcucie as well as performing for the etc. In 2018, in collaboration with the Polish Institute of Culture in Rome and Polish Consolate in Milan, Giardino di Delizie performed Polish Baroque music in various prestigious venues all over Italy, celebrating the 100th anniversary of Polish independence (Turin University, Società del Giardino in Milan, Museum of Instruments in Rome). In 2026 Giardino di Delizie will perform at the National Philharmonic of Warsaw and Szczecin Philharmonic.

The Giardino di Delizie musicians believe in the need to “saper ben parlare per ben suonare”. Ewa Anna Augustynowicz, its artistic director and PhD scholar, having had always a multitasking and creative personality, is focused on research in the field of musicology and history of music with regard to the Roman and Polish Baroque repertoire, rediscovering forgotten composers and establishing links between the two countries. This is, in fact, the main characteristic of the ensemble’s activity and its main goal. The intensity and excitement of their performances is also the fruit of their extensive historical research, which has led to the rediscovery of masterpieces by Italian composers centered in Rome, and those of Polish and Italian composers active at the court of the Polish kings.

The ensemble’s first recording (world premiere) featured Lonati’s Sinfonie a tre, released by Brilliant Classics in 2019, which received widespread critical acclaim. The American magazine “Fanfare” wrote: “These are spirited performances, notable not just for their technical polish, but also for their heart and human excitement. I can’t imagine this level of achievement being surpassed anytime soon, if at all.”

The group’s second recording Gems of the Polish Baroque, devoted to 17th century Polish instrumental music, was released in March 2020 by Brilliant Classics. Ruch Muzyczny, a renown Polish Music Magazine described it as “the best recording of the 17th century Polish instrumental music as yet”.

Its third CD featured the first modern recording of the 10 Sinfonie a tre by Lelio Colista, another Roman composer admired in his own time and inexplicably forgotten by posterity. It was also highly praised in specialist publications and the general press and nominated to the prestigious Preis der Deutschen Schallplattenkritik in January 2021.

As Giuseppina La Face wrote in the Italian daily paper Il Fatto Quotidiano “The Ensemble exalts both the serene severity of the counterpoint and the full, gentle sonority of the music with elegant phrasing and clear rhythmic contrasts that are never aggressive. An excellent performance, with the added value of focusing attention on a hitherto neglected composer of quality, thereby enriching our knowledge of music in Rome during the 17th century.”

The fourth CD by Giardino di Delizie, Stradella – Complete Violin Sinfonias published in June 2021 by Brilliant Classics was given 5 stars by the German Music Magazine Pizzicato: „Giardino di Delizie is convincing in its elegant élan, its sense of appropriate tempi and the works’ tonal idiosyncrasies, which transmits all the music’s vibrations and reminds us that the basso continuo is the backbone of this music. This should not prevent us from highlighting the rhetoric of soloist Ewa Anna Augustynowicz”.

In April 2022 the Ensemble released the album, Alla Polacca. Polish influences in Baroque music containing baroque music pieces inspired by Poland and its folklore, published by the Japanese label DaVinci Publishing. It was nominated to the Preis der deutschen Schallplattenkritik in July 2022.

In September 2022 the ensemble released its CD for Brilliant Classics with the complete Trio Sonatas by the Italian female composer Isabella Leonarda and in April 2023 its last CD dedicated to Carlo Mannelli (first world recording) and nominated to the Preis der deutschen Schallplattenkritik.

Its Colista – Cantatas&Arias (first world recording) was nominated for the prestigious ICMA award.

Its last CD is dedicated to the Trio Sonatas op.2 by Carlo Mannelli (first world recording)

Since 2024 the Ensemble has been organizing a new international festival called Sobieska International Music Festival dedicated to women patrons of music in Italy, Poland and Europe.