One of the most exciting new groups to emerge in the early music world, the Toronto-based Aradia Ensemble specialises in presenting an eclectic blend of orchestral, operatic and chamber music played on original instruments. The group records for Naxos and has made more than 30 recordings. They have made two music videos, one film soundtrack, have collaborated with Isadora Duncan and Baroque dancers, have co-produced opera and worked with Balinese Gamelan. While focusing heavily on the repertoire of seventeenth-century France and England, Aradia also performs works by the Italian and German masters of the baroque, as well as contemporary pieces commissioned by the group. In July 2000 Aradia was the featured ensemble in residence at the New Zealand Chamber Music Festival and in July 2003 performed at Musica nel Chiostro in Tuscany. According to Robert Graves, Aradia was the daughter of Apollo’s twin sisters. She was sent by the gods to teach mankind to order the music of the natural world into song.