Helios 18 was founded in 1995 by the young Chilean/German conductor Marie-Louise Oschatz and is concerned mostly with music written between 1730 and 1780.

The numerous concerts presented since the ensemble’s inception have one common thread, constituting a dramaturgical relationship of the works performed, such as “Jospeh Haydn and his perspective of Vienna”, “J.S. Bach and his Sons”, “The Mannheim School”, or “England in the 18th Century”.

Another successful venture by the ensemble was its presentation of W. Gluck’s opera seria Il re pastore, and A. Salieri’s intermezzo Kleine Harlekinade.

The ensemble’s major step towards credibility and acceptance came in the spring of 1999, when it was engaged by the Vienna Chamber Opera to give 18 performances of W. Gluck’s opera comique La Rencontre Imprevue, presenting according to one of the critics, a “most spectacular performance in the orchestra pit”.

Helios 18 perform on period instruments and has most recently participated in two internationally renowned festivals for early music, Verano Musical, in Segovia, Spain and Innsbrucker Festwochen fur Alte Musik in Innsbruck, Austria.

The ensemble performs either as a string quintet with brass, woodwind and harpsichord, or as a full chamber orchestra. Both incarnations perform symphonies and operas.

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Discography