Monica Huggett - Artistic Director

The Portland Baroque Orchestra specializes in performing baroque and classical music on original instruments, or replicas, from the time the music was composed. These instruments, and the techniques used to play them, produce an orchestral texture very different from that of their modern counterparts. The improvisation and wit of historically informed performance practices add freshness, clarity, and vitality to Bach’s music linking us directly to a rich and vital past.  PBO’s artistic excellence places it squarely within the ranks of the best baroque orchestras in North America and Europe. Many consider music director Monica Huggett to be the premier baroque violinist performing today.  This season marks Monica’s 15th as artistic director of Portland Baroque Orchestra and she was recently appointed first artistic director of the Juilliard School’s Historical Performance Program. Her discography is in the hundreds, and among her recent prizes are the 1997 Editor’s Choice award, Gramophone magazine, for J.S. Bach’s Sonatas and Partitas for Solo Violin; the Vantaa Baroque Energy Prize (Finland), 2005; and Gramophone’s Best Instrumental Recording Award, for Heinrich Biber’s Violin Sonatas, 2002.