Schola Antiqua of Chicago

Founded in 2000, Schola Antiqua of Chicago states that its mission is to provide audiences with the highest standards of research, performance, and education involving many under-served repertories of the European Middle Ages and Renaissance.

[3] Led by scholars in the field of early music, the organization develops programs with works that are not only seldom heard, but often newly transcribed for performance.

Calvin M. Bower, Professor Emeritus of the University of Notre Dame and also a retired researcher from the Bavarian Academy of Sciences and Humanities, was the Artistic Director of Schola Antiqua from its inception until 2008.

The ensemble's second Artistic Director, Michael Alan Anderson, more broadly researches the role of plainchant and polyphony in devotion, ritual, and political cultures of the late Middle Ages and Renaissance.

Responding to the wide range of vocal forces required to sing plainchant and polyphony written before 1600, Schola Antiqua does not employ a set roster of singers for its programs.

The ensemble has recorded music for major art exhibitions and publications, including the accompanying CD for Theodore Karp's monograph Introduction to the Post-Tridentine Mass Proper, 1590-1890 (American Institute of Musicology, 2005).