Ensemble Castor, which was founded in 2010 by Austrian international successfully working musicians, is devoted to string chamber music of the period between 1600 and 1750. The main focus is on the Itailan Seicento and Settecento as well as on the pre-classical music in Austria and Germany.
Musical director is the Austrian violinist Petra Samhaber-Eckhardt, who studied with Enrico Onofri and Andrew Manze in Italy and London.
Ensemble Castor has already released two CDs, the last one, ‘Mozart and Haydn – Concertos and Divertimentos’ (SONY deutsche harmonia mundi) on fortepiano got international fantastic reviews.
Castor works closely together with Enrico Onofri, Dorothee Oberlinger, Silvia Frigato, Mireille Lebel , Chistina Gansch and many other famous singers.
Ensemble Castor performs at many international festivals such as ‘Internationale Barocktage Melk’, ‘Carinthischer Sommer’, ‘Festival St.Gallen’, Donaufestwochen Strudengau, ‘Fränkischer Sommer’, ‘Händel Haus Halle’ etc. Future projects will take the musicians to Italy, Germany and England.
A great ambition is also the work with fortepiano on classical music.
In 2015 Castor won the culture prize of the city of Linz. Many excellent concert reviews give evidence of the high quality work: ‘The young ensemble offered fulminant interpretations’, ‘Castor awakes early music to completely new life’.
The name Castor refers to the twin stars Castor and Pollux in the zodiac of Gemini.
