Accordone
Guido Morini and Marco Beasley founded Accordone in 1984, motivated by a great passion for the music before Bach, for original instruments and for a new musicological approach to problems of interpretation. At the heart of their work is Italian music for voice and basso continuo from the 16th and 17th centuries. The voice of Marco Beasley, immediately recognizable for its beautiful timbre, in perfect stylistic balance with the instruments which accompany him, is the ideal companion for the profound knowledge of instrumental, improvisational and compositional questions cultivated by Guido Morini, and make Accordone a unique ensemble on the European scene.

Inspired by the values, poetics and capabilities of early musicians, Accordone paves a new path in interpretation. With vitality and competence, they present to large audiences pieces once considered enjoyable only for specialists and musicologists. Particular attention is given to the theatrical element: the concert is transformed from a simple container of musical pieces to a musical and dramatic event, based often on a theme or story. Moreover, the group unites the interpretation of music from the past with compositions of new music, giving rise to a new repertoire created expressly for their own concerts, and uniting the cultural legacy of the renaissance and baroque with the present day.

In 1998, thanks to the interest of the Austrian Radio (ORF), Accordone began a series of strictly live recordings. In 2001 they received their first commission by the Nederlands Blazers Ensemble: Una Odissea was the fruit of this collaboration, an opera entirely conceived by Guido Morini (music) and Marco Beasley (libretto).

In 2003, La Bella Noeva was issued by the French label Alpha. This recording was followed by Frottole, Recitar cantando and Settecento napoletano, all three issued by Cypres and dedicated to the repertoires of the sixteenth, seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, respectively. These recordings were joined by Vivifice Spiritus Vitae Vis, the first chapter in a project of sacred music based on Latin texts dedicated to the Trinity, composed by Guido Morini.

From 2007 to 2009, Accordone was a regular guest at the Festival of Pentecost in Salzburg, with three programs dedicated to Naples. These included (in 2009), the new opera by Guido Morini on a libretto by Marco Beasley: Solve et Coagula, dedicated to the figure of Raimondo di Sangro, prince of Sansevero. In that same year, Accordone received a new commission: Una Iliade, which was widely toured in Holland. In June 2010, a new version of Una Odissea was presented at the Schwetzingen Festspiele. At the end of the year, the recording label Arcana released the new CD, Frà Diavolo, dedicated to folk music in Southern Italy - a testimony to the eclecticism and enthusiasm which shows no sign of diminishing with the passing years.

Accordone regularly appears in concert at the most prestigious musical institutions: the Concertgebouw and Muziekgebouw (Amsterdam), Wiener Konzerthaus, Auditorio Nacional (Madrid), Accademia di S.Cecilia (Rome), Mozarteum (Salzburg), Bozar (Brussels), Tokyo Summer Festival, Israel Festival, Festival van Vlaanderen, Utrecht Oude Muziek, Bruges, Innsbruck, de Bijloke (Gand), deSingel and Amuz (Antwerpen).