HCThe Basilisk
Medieval & Renaissance · est. MMXIX

The Basilisk

Songs and dances of the late Middle Ages, performed on voice, gittern, recorder and Gothic harp — music made for candlelight and stone.

Upcoming concerts Book the consort
I

The Ensemble

To marry rigorous historical awareness with creative, narrative-driven programming — crafting concerts that interlace music, history, and storytelling.

Formed at the Schola Cantorum Basiliensis, Ensemble Basilisk unites musicians drawn to medieval music and its contemporary resonance. Their work pairs historically informed performance with a spirit of experimentation, exploring instruments such as the bray harp, clavicymbalum, organetto, recorder, bowed vielle and voice.

Their namesake, the mythical Basilisk, captures this duality — a symbol of transformation rooted in the Mundus Inversus, where the sacred meets the grotesque and beauty emerges from contrast. Each project re-hears the past through a living, poetic lens, reimagining early music as a space of curiosity, vitality and presence.

Basel
Schola Cantorum roots
2025
Debut · Musica Divina, PL
II

The Musicians

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Ula Kinder with vielle
i.

Ula Kinder

Vielle & Baroque Violin

A vielle and Baroque violin player performing across the US and Europe — from Boston Early Music Festival to Lucerne, and on Broadway in ‘Farinelli and the King’. A graduate of Juilliard and the Royal Academy of Music, now studying with Baptiste Romain at the Schola Cantorum Basiliensis.

✿
Daniel Scott with recorder
ii.

Daniel Scott

Organetto, Clavicymbalum & Recorder

A recorder and early-keyboard player specialising in medieval, renaissance and contemporary music. First Prize winner at the Royal Overseas League Competition and founding artistic lead of the UK medieval ensemble Rune, currently reading a masters in early keyboards at the Schola Cantorum Basiliensis.

✿
Michela Amici with harp
iii.

Michela Amici

Bray & Medieval Harp

Studied modern and historical harps at the Rossini Conservatory of Pesaro and the Royal Conservatoire of The Hague before a Specialized Master in Historical Harps at the Schola Cantorum Basiliensis. A sought-after continuo player at festivals from the Dutch Harp Festival to Musica Antica Den Haag.

✿
Ivana Sofia Ivanović, voice
iv.

Ivana Sofia Ivanović

Voice & Organetto

A mezzo-soprano trained in Bordeaux, with master’s degrees from the Sorbonne and a Master in Medieval and Renaissance vocal performance from the Schola Cantorum Basiliensis. Based in Basel, she founded the professional vocal ensemble KIMA.

III

Programme

Illuminated medieval manuscript leaf
Illuminated leaf · 14th c.
Debut programme · premiered at Musica Divina, PL

Mundus Inversus

The world turned upside down

The Mundus Inversus is a medieval image of subversion and insight — a mirror held up to society, where hierarchies collapse, folly unmasks reason, and satire brushes against prayer. This programme explores that inversion through works from the 13th to the 15th centuries, from the Codex Buranus to the Roman de Fauvel, from Machaut to Solage and Ciconia.

Devotion and derision, the grotesque and the mystical, intertwine in a journey where the learned order of the Ars Nova gradually unravels under the breath of improvisation, dance and popular song — a theatre of shadows where the sacred meets the grotesque, and beauty emerges from disorder.

16 worksc. 60 minutes13th–15th century

I · Order and its Vanity

  1. 1O cruor sanguinisHildegard von Bingen (1098–1179)3′00
  2. 2Amours me fait désirerGuillaume de Machaut (c. 1300–1377)2′30
  3. 3Contemplar le gran coseFrancesco Landini (c. 1335–1397)3′30
  4. 4Je vivroie liementGuillaume de Machaut3′00
  5. 5O cieco mondoJacopo da Bologna (fl. 1340–1360)4′

II · The World Upside Down

  1. 6Florebat olim studiumCodex Buranus (13th c.) · improvisation3′
  2. 7Mundus a mundiciaAnon., Roman de Fauvel (14th c.)2′
  3. 8Cosa non è ch’a sé tanto mi tiriAnonymous (14th c.)3′30
  4. 9De ce que fol pensePierre des Molins (fl. mid-14th c.)5′
  5. 10Pluseurs gens voySolage (fl. 1350–1403)5′
  6. 11O livoris feritasGuillaume de Machaut3′

III · Towards Light or Madness

  1. 12Es fügt sichOswald von Wolkenstein (c. 1377–1445)7′
  2. 13Una PantheraJohannes Ciconia (c. 1370–1412)5′
  3. 14Kyrie Cunctipotens Genitor DeusAnon., Faenza Codex (15th c.)5′
  4. 15Ad mortem festinamusAnon., Llibre Vermell de Montserrat (14th c.)4′
  5. 16Stella splendens in monteAnon., Llibre Vermell de Montserrat (14th c.)3′
IV

Listen

♪
  • ▶
    Douce dame jolie
    Guillaume de Machaut
    4:12
  • ▶
    Santa María, strela do día
    Cantigas de Santa María, CSM 100
    3:38
  • ▶
    O frondens virga
    Hildegard von Bingen
    5:02
  • ▶
    Edi beo thu, hevene quene
    Anonymous English, 13th c.
    2:54
V

Calendar

14
Jun · 2026

York Early Music Festival

The Garden of Earthly Delight · National Centre for Early Music, York

Tickets
02
Jul · 2026

Vilnius Sacred Music Days

Cantigas de Santa María · St. Casimir’s Church, Vilnius

Tickets
19
Sep · 2026

Utrecht Festival Oude Muziek

Vox Feminae · Pieterskerk, Utrecht

Tickets
21
Mar · 2026

Wigmore Hall

Under the Greenwood · London

Past

Invite the
consort

The Hawthorn Consort is available for concert series, festivals, liturgical music, private events and weddings, with programmes tailored to your space and occasion. We perform as a quartet or in smaller forces.

hello@hawthornconsort.com
ManagementLarkspur Artists
Telephone+44 1234 567 890
Based inOxford & Vilnius
TouringEurope & UK
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