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Lucidarium, founded in 1991 in Basel by Avery Gosfield, is based in Geneva and Milan. It specializes in bringing little-known repertoires from the Renaissance and Middle Ages back to life in an entertaining, engaging way designed for a 21st century public.

Working between historical sources and the oral tradition, Lucidarium is dedicated to a multicultural approach to early music, bringing the voices of the “others”—those who lived in the shadows of the great institutions—back to life in an entertaining and engaging way designed for today’s audiences. The research for the various projects is the responsibility of its director, yet the final product is developed collectively and the result of rehearsals where each musician is fully involved in the creative process. This combination of cutting-edge research, creativity and an energetic, spontaneous performance style has brought popular and critical acclaim to the ensemble. 

Appearances include: the Early Music festivals of Boston, Velez Blanco, Holland, Flanders, Regensburg, Basel and York, AMUZ, Vienna Konzerthaus, Jewish Summer Budapest, Ashkenaz Toronto, Seattle Early Music Guild, Toronto Consort Series, the Santander Festival, the Italian Embassy Washington, Getty Museum, Jewish Music Festival East Bay, Chicago Art Institute, the Museum of Jewish Heritage New York, , Yiddish Summer Weimar, I Concerti di Palazzo Venezia, Les Amis de la Musique Juive Geneva, and universities around the globe.

Lucidarium’s work in the last years has been divided between two different projects: ARS ITALICA, which explores different aspects of Italy’s culture through its music and poetry, and ARS HEBRAICA, dedicated to a reconstruction of the soundscape of the Jews in Renaissance Europe. The dances of the Emilian Apennines, the traces of Renaissance melodies found in Jewish liturgical and folk music, or the declamatory singing style that still flourishes in Central Italy are just a few examples of sources containing precious information as to how historical music and poetry can be interpreted today. 

Innovative programs exploring the links between oral and written transmission, the mechanisms that brought tunes, texts, and dances across Europe and beyond, are one of the group’s hallmark. In 2012, Lucidarium launched a new project: a cross-cultural collaboration with young artists from around the world, with programs BABEL and DĪWĀN, attempting to cut across traditional musical stereotypes—Eastern and Western, old and new, popular and classical, plugged and unplugged—in the search for a new, shared musical experience.

 Lucidarium is currently offering two new exciting programs: “Sounds from Shylock's Venice” and “Macchine: Science and Music from the Time of Leonardo da Vinci.

“Sounds from Shylock’s Venice” conjures the sights and sounds of a day in the life of Shylock, in and out of the Jewish quarter, in the vibrant, colorful world that was Renaissance Venice. 

“Macchine”: in commemoration of the 500-year anniversary of Leonardo da Vinci’s death, Lucidarium has created a program exploring the music of his time, including a reconstruction of the “Festa del Paradiso” that feature sets by the Tuscan genius. The ensemble has also been working in close collaboration with some of Europe’s foremost instrument builders in order to recreate some of Leonardo’s extravagant sound-producing machines, bringing them back to life for the first time in 500 years or, perhaps, for the first time ever.

In addition to a series of award-winning CDs, Lucidarium has made numerous radio recordings, live broadcasts and TV appearances, and has been the subject of several European documentaries.