About us
The London-based ensemble Melopoetica was formed in 2003 by Bárbara Barros,Iason Ioannou, Erik Dippenaar and Masumi Yamamoto.
Now they are an ensemble in residence in Piešťany, Slovakia and the only chamber ensemble of this formation in historical performance to exist in Slovakia.
The ensemble consists of Bárbara Barros and Blanka Ondrejčáková – baroque violins and continuo guest artists.
Their goals include the deliverance of exciting performances of repertoire from the late sixteenth century to the classical works of Mozart and Haydn, which move and affect the audiences. Melopoetica is an international and diverse ensemble, which helps to bring an extraordinary input to their musical interpretation.
Since their outset, Melopoetica has actively performed at many venues and festivals in England and Europe, including The London Handel and Hexham Abbey Festivals, 2007, Greenwich Early Music Festival / London, 2006, Nybrokajen 11, Stockholm / Sweden, Trigonale Festival / Austria, Athens /Greece. Melopeotica went on a successful and well-received tour to South Africa in 2007.
Melopoetica obtained the “English Concert Junior Fellow” title at Trinity College of Music in 2006.
Bárbara plays on an Amati copy made by Willibrord Crijnen, 2005 and Blanka plays on a Jana Pawlikovského violin, 2004.
Bárbara Barros
Studied violin under Diana Cummings, while reading for her BMus at Trinity College of Music, London. She gained her postgraduate diploma in baroque violin under Richard Gwilt at TCM with high distinction. Barbara also won the TCM Scholarship award, and in 2006 obtained the title of ‘English Concert Junior Fellowship’ at TCM.
She specializes in chamber music and she is a member of the Casa da Música Baroque Orchestra / Porto, Solamente Naturali / Bratislava and Melopoetica Ensemble.
She has worked with many of the leading figures in Baroque music including Andrew Manze, Enrico Onofri, Rachel Podger, Amandine Beyer, Petra Müllejans, Ilya Gringolts, Fabio Biondi, Tom Koopman, Christophe Coin, Andreas Staier, Rinaldo Alessandrini, Ashley Solomon, Riccardo Minasi, Konrad Junghänel, Lars Ulrik Mortensen, and Alfredo Bernardini amongst many others.
She has her own violin studio - HusLove and is starting a few new music projects in Slovakia including bringing music to Special Needs schools, Alzheimer’s center and Senior houses.
Blanka Pavlovičová
Studied violin at the Košice and Bratislava Conversatory. After graduation, she continued her studies at Hochschule für Musik “Carl Maria von Weber“ in Dresden, where, apart from studying to play the violin, she devoted her time playing in string quartet and improvisation. She was a scholarship student of Most - Brücke Stiftung and DAAD foundation.
After her studies in Dresden, she broadened her musical engagement with improvisation at Hochschule für Musik “Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy“ in Leipzig. Here, after finishing her studies on improvisation, she studied historically interpretation on baroque violin.
She attended several international interpretational courses led by John Holloway, Amandine Beyer, Peter Zajíček and others.
Blanka is an active member of baroque ensembles such as Solamente naturali (Slovakia), Capella Fidicina (Germany), Damian ensemble (the Czech republic), Le Jardin des Artes (Germany, Hungary).
Blanka Pavlovičová plays on a baroque violin copy, made by a violin-maker Juraj Vančík in 2008. She plays as well on a baroque bass-viol copy made by the Polish violin-maker Jan Pawlikovsky,2004.
Guest artists
Marek Čermák
Miguel Jalôto
Miloš Valente
Petra Machková
