The Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment makes old music new. Far from being an attempt to recreate the past, it instead uses historic information to create something that’s exciting now.

Founded in 1986, the orchestra’s name refers to the common term for the explosion of science, philosophy and culture in Western Europe during the 1600s and 1700s, the Age of Enlightenment. It was the time of Isaac Newton and Voltaire, and a quest for liberty. The period also found its voice in music as composers sought more freedom in the way they worked  to promote their (often socially subversive) ideas.

In performance, the OAE is a collective that’s about collaboration between brilliant musicians. As the orchestra isn’t led by any one conductor, it gives players the artistic freedom to collectively take on that role. And they do so playing instruments and using techniques from the period in which the music was written. So if they’re performing Bach they do so on the instruments that would have been familiar to the conductor himself.