REMA Early Music Day
Every year on 21 March - on Johann Sebastian Bach's birthday and the first day of spring - a variety of events are offered by participants across the globe, all celebrating the many faces of Early Music. Concerts, masterclasses, videos... anyone can add their own contribution, making Early Music Day a meeting place for audiences and professionals!
A global, participative celebration of Early Music
The goal of early music day is to create a living event for the early music community in the broadest sense: performance, education, research, experiences... Each year, hundreds of early music lovers take part in the celebration by organising concerts, events, and happenings, taking place simultaneously all over the world.
An online event
Early Music Day is an important online event as well, with countless online contributions and concerts being live streamed, reaching audiences worldwide.
Partnership and media
A strong partnership with the media is essential to the impact and visibility of Early Music Day. The European Broadcasting Union (EBU) has been a partner of the event since its first edition in 2013. Partnerships between REMA members/other organisers involved in the project and local, regional and national media in each country complement the European aspect.
The goal of early music day is to create a living event for the early music community in the broadest sense: performance, education, research, experiences... Each year, hundreds of early music lovers take part in the celebration by organising concerts, events, and happenings, taking place simultaneously all over the world.
An online event
Early Music Day is an important online event as well, with countless online contributions and concerts being live streamed, reaching audiences worldwide.
Partnership and media
A strong partnership with the media is essential to the impact and visibility of Early Music Day. The European Broadcasting Union (EBU) has been a partner of the event since its first edition in 2013. Partnerships between REMA members/other organisers involved in the project and local, regional and national media in each country complement the European aspect.
2027 AMBASSADORS
Bruno de Sá — From one continent to another
Bruno de Sá is a Brazilian sopranist and an exclusive recording artist with Erato/Warner Classics. After beginning his career in São Paulo, he made his European debut in 2019 as Aci in Bononcini’s Polifemo, conducted by Dorothee Oberlinger at the Musikfestspiele Potsdam Sanssouci. He has since become a regular guest at the Bayreuth Baroque Opera Festival.
His operatic roles include Nerone in Handel’s Agrippina at Drottningholm, Abel in Scarlatti’s Il Primo Omicidio under Philippe Jaroussky, and Aci in Handel’s Aci, Galatea e Polifemo at the Opernhaus Zürich. He regularly performs with leading early music ensembles, including il pomo d’oro, Les Accents and Ensemble 1700.
His appearances include a gala evening at the Vienna State Opera alongside Cecilia Bartoli and Max Emanuel Cenčić, as well as Le Concert de Paris on Bastille Day with Benjamin Bernheim, Julie Fuchs and Florian Sempey, accompanied by the Orchestre National de France under Cristian Măcelaru.
His discography includes Roma Travestita (2022), Mille Affetti (2024) and Uyaras (2026). In recognition of his work, he received the OPER! Award in 2020 and the Austrian Music Theatre Prize in 2024.
Jonathan Sells — A multi-talented artist
Jonathan Sells — A multi-talented artist
Jonathan Sells is a British-Swiss bass-baritone, conductor and artistic director based in Bern. His work focuses particularly on seventeenth- and eighteenth-century music, with a special interest in Johann Sebastian Bach. He studied music and musicology at the University of Cambridge before pursuing vocal and operatic studies at the Guildhall School of Music & Drama and joining the International Opera Studio at Zurich Opera House.
In 2008, he founded Solomon’s Knot, a baroque collective renowned for its collaborative approach to performance. The ensemble performs from memory and without a conductor, combining historically informed interpretation with imaginative theatrical presentation. Its repertoire spans Bach’s Passions, Handel’s oratorios, Monteverdi’s 1610 Vespers and lesser-known works of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries.
Since 2023, Solomon’s Knot has been Baroque Ensemble in Residence at Wigmore Hall in London and has appeared at major festivals and venues across Europe and North America, including the BBC Proms, Bachfest Leipzig, Aldeburgh Festival, BOZAR in Brussels and the Händel-Festspiele Halle. Its recordings, released by labels including Sony Classical, Prospero and Linn, explore music by Bach and his family, Telemann, Johann Kuhnau and George Jeffreys.
Alongside his work as a conductor and artistic director, Sells pursues an international singing career, performing at venues such as the Sydney Opera House, Royal Albert Hall, Carnegie Hall, Glyndebourne and Teatro Real in Madrid. His collaborations include William Christie and Les Arts Florissants, John Eliot Gardiner, Ton Koopman and Roger Norrington, as well as ensembles such as the Dunedin Consort, I Fagiolini and Il Gardellino.
His longstanding relationship with the Monteverdi Choir has encompassed both singing and conducting. After performing with the Choir from 2009 to 2018, he made his conducting debut with the Choir and the English Baroque Soloists in 2024 and became Choir Director in 2025. His recent projects include Handel’s Dixit Dominus at the Edinburgh International Festival and a staged production of Purcell’s Dido and Aeneas in London and Bergen.
As a REMA Ambassador, Sells brings together the perspectives of a performer, conductor and artistic leader committed to European collaboration. Through his work, he explores how historically informed performance can connect with contemporary audiences, bringing repertoire to life through collective music-making and innovative presentation.
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