The vocal-instrumental ensemble
Magnificat is one of the few American groups to have emphasized the repertory of the late Renaissance and early Baroque, from Victoria and
Palestrina forward through
Monteverdi and
Schütz. In performance, the group has often focused on the music of women composers.
Also known as the
Magnificat Baroque Ensemble,
Magnificat (not to be confused with the British
vocal ensemble Magnificat) was founded in San Francisco in 1989 by Baroque cellist
Warren Stewart and harpsichordist Susan Harvey;
Stewart has remained the group's musical director. The group has, however, followed a chamber music aesthetic in which all the players are theoretically of equal status.
Magnificat has benefited from the fact that the San Francisco Bay Area has been one of the centers of early music performance in the U.S. In addition to its own concert series,
Magnificat has appeared at the Berkeley Early Music Festival and other events up and down the outdoor music-friendly West Coast. The group has also backed opera, performing in
Stradella's Il trespolo tutore and then, in 2009, in Francesca Caccini's La liberazione di Ruggiero, the first opera written by a woman.
Magnificat has often performed music by women, including Caccini,
Barbara Strozzi, and Isabella Leonarda. At the center of their repertory lie major choral works of the early Baroque:
Monteverdi's Vespro della Beata Vergine 1610, which they have performed repeatedly starting in 1994, and often
Schütz's Musikalische Exequien and other
Schütz works.
Magnificat has collaborated with the historical-performance-oriented Jubilate Orchestra in larger works. In addition to opera,
Magnificat has performed in theatrical incidental music by Marc-Antoine Charpentier, and, more unusually, in puppet operas in both the French and Sicilian tradition. The group has recorded for the Musica Omnia and Koch International labels; their recordings include three releases of music by the extremely the rarely performed composer Chiara Margarita Cozzolani (1602-ca. 1677), as well as works by Carissimi and Emilio de' Cavalieri.