Tempesta di Mare
performs baroque music on baroque instruments with what the Philadelphia City Paper describes as “zest and virtuosity that transcends style and instrumentation.” Led by co-directors Gwyn Roberts and Richard Stone with concertmaster Emlyn Ngai, Tempesta di Mare's repertoire ranges from staged opera with full orchestra to chamber music.

Tempesta di Mare is named for baroque master Antonio Vivaldi’s concerto meaning “storm at sea,” a title reflecting composers’ belief in the power of their music to evoke drama. Roberts and Stone founded Tempesta in 1996 to pursue their ideal of baroque music as a rhetorical, dramatic art form. The group’s debut CD of recorder sonatas by Veracini, released that year on PGM, received BBC Music Magazine's highest rating, with such praise as “world-class virtuosity” and “breathtaking results.”

Hailed by the Philadelphia Inquirer for its “off-the-grid chic factor,” Tempesta’s Greater Philadelphia Concert Series has enjoyed a rapid rise to prominence since its launch in 2002, with press endorsements from Philadelphia to Paris. With an emphasis on breaking new ground, Tempesta di Mare has brought numerous world, national and regional modern premieres to the area. Tempesta di Mare—the only permanent baroque ensemble in Pennsylvania that consistently performs orchestral repertoire with truly orchestral forces—is one of just three baroque orchestras nationwide to receive the National Endowment for the Arts Artistic Excellence Award in 2007, and again with two more Artistic Excellence awards for 2008.

Tempesta di Mare’s CD Flaming Rose, Handel's German Arias with soprano Julianne Baird, was released in August 2007 on the British label Chandos, the world's largest independent classical record company. In a market dominated by European ensembles, Tempesta di Mare is the first and only American baroque music group on the Chandos roster. Its first Chandos release, the world premiere recording of the complete lute concerti of Silvius Leopold Weiss, was released in June 2004. A third Chandos disc, modern premieres of orchestral music by Johann Friedrich Fasch, recorded live in concert on our Greater Philadelphia Concert Series in 2007, was released in April 2008.

Tempesta has toured from Oregon to Prague, with praise ranging from “the energy of a rock solo and the craft of a classical cadenza” (Washington Post) to “an experience of intimate dialogues” (Lidové Noviny, Prague). National broadcasts of performances include Performance Today, Sunday Baroque and Harmonia. Concerts are carried locally on WHYY-91FM's Showcase and video of recent performances can be seen on WYBE Public Television. WHYY TV12 has also produced three short documentaries about the group.