Ilze Grudule

The cellist Ilze Grudule was born in Latvia and studied cello at the Latvian Academy of Music. After completing her diploma she decided to study Baroque cello with Philippe Mermoud at the Centre de Musique Ancienne in Geneva. And later, she was accepted into Christophe Coin’s class at the Schola Cantorum Basiliensis.
It was in Basel, her current residence, that Ilze Grudule founded the Kesselberg Ensemble. One of the Ensemble’s prime concerns is to revive the music of the Latvian composer J. G. Müthel, though they are just as committed to performing the newly discovered music of other composers. Thus it is thanks to the Kesselberg Ensemble that the music of C. D. Cossoni, discovered in the library of the Einsiedeln (Switzerland) monastery, is enjoying a renaissance. Ilze Grudule is also a member of the Baroque orchestra Capriccio (Basel) and of La Cetra. She has made recordings for Chandos Records, CPO and Musiques Suisses. Her latest CD is the recording of the Sinfonies op.6 and the Violonconcerto by swiss baroque composer G. Fritz with the Kesselbeg Ensemble.
Since 2005 Ilze Grudule has run the “Baroque MusicDays” in R?zekne in Latvia. In 2014 the Opera-Pasticcio « Ein Zuhause für Müthel », the production of the festival, received the nomination for the Latvian Culture Award of the biggest Latvian newspaper Diena. Since 2008 she has been teaching baroque cello and ornametation at the Latvian Academy of Music in Riga. Her broad spectrum of activities is rounded off by her international master classes at the University of Bogot? and at the Music Academies of Kiev and Riga.