In 1970, at the initiative of Philippe Herreweghe, a group of student friends founded the Collegium Vocale Gent. The ensemble’s aim was to apply the most recent knowledge of Baroque performance practice to vocal music and, through an authentic and text-directed approach, to create a transparent sound. The group soon began to make guest appearances at all the important concert halls and music festivals in Europe, the USA, South Korea, Japan, Hong Kong and Australia. In addition, since 2017 it has organized its own summer festival in Italy under the artistic direction of Philippe Herreweghe: the Collegium Vocale Crete Senesi.
The Collegium Vocale Gent has developed organically into a highly flexible vocal ensemble, with a wide repertoire from different stylistic periods. Its flexible approach allows it to assemble the ideal performing forces for each project. German Baroque music, especially the vocal works of J. S. Bach, is at the heart of the repertoire of Collegium Vocale Gent, which prefers to perform this music with a small ensemble, in which the singers take both the chorus and the solo parts.
Since 2011 the ensemble has been supported by the EU culture programme. It has thus been enabled to develop into a choir with the capacity to perform in symphonic concerts in which young talented artists from throughout Europe sing alongside experienced colleagues, and to include works from the Romantic, 20th-century and contemporary choral repertoire in its programmes.
The Collegium Vocale Gent works with a variety of historically-informed orchestras such as the Orchestre des Champs-Élysées, the Freiburg Baroque Orchestra and the Akademie für Alte Musik Berlin, along with internationally renowned symphony orchestras including the Antwerp Symphony Orchestra, the Concertgebouw Orchestra in Amsterdam and the Staatskapelle Dresden. It has collaborated closely with conductors such as Ivor Bolton, the late Reinbert de Leeuw, René Jacobs, Yannick Nézet-Séguin and Paul Van Nevel.
Under the direction of Philippe Herreweghe, the Collegium Vocale Gent has made more than 100 recordings, primarily for the harmonia mundi France and Virgin Classics labels. In 2010 Philippe Herreweghe founded his own label φ (phi), which has since released more than twenty recordings of vocal music by Gesualdo, Bach, Haydn, Beethoven, Brahms and Dvořák.
The Collegium Vocale Gent is supported by the Flemish Community, the Province of East Flanders and the City of Ghent. From 2011 to 2013 the ensemble was an ambassador of the European Union.
