The rose ensemble
1996-2022
History
The Rose Ensemble was founded in 1996 by Jordan Sramek, who led the organization as Artistic Director until the final performance in 2020. Over those 24 seasons, The Rose Ensemble achieved an international reputation as a premiere, American early-music ensemble, fulfilling its mission to unite virtuosic vocal artistry with scholarly research, resulting in musical performances and educational programs that connect audiences to compelling stories of human history, culture, and spirituality from around the world.
Each performance illuminated centuries of rarely heard repertoire, bringing to modern audiences research from the world’s manuscript libraries and fresh perspectives on global history, culture, politics and spirituality. With eleven critically acclaimed recordings and a diverse selection of concert programs, the group thrilled audiences across the Americas and Europe, with repertoire spanning 1,000 years and over 25 languages.
The Rose Ensemble’s commercial recordings and live performances can still be enjoyed online, and are featured regularly on classical music stations and in television and film.
The Origin of The Rose Ensemble’s Name
“While choosing a name for the group that would become The Rose Ensemble, I was keen on identifying an elemental or organic image or symbol that bore substantial, historical significance in the worlds of the sacred and secular, and also one that would resonate with our contemporary world. It was a tall order for certain. I started looking through medieval gardening books and first was taken by various herbs and plants, but later on by flowers. I passed by the rose many times until it finally occurred to me that the rose was indeed exactly what I was looking for. The rose (Latin, rosa, in Greek, rhodon) is a symbol that has a rich and ancient history from a number of perspectives:
It is an important and often sacred symbol in many faiths, especially Christianity, Judaism and Islam.
The mystical rose (rosa mystica) has often been described as a portal to celestial worlds.
The rose played a major role in the earthly realm during the medieval, Renaissance and Baroque periods: from courtly love poems of the Troubadours to the Tudor family to Baroque allegorical symbolism of human love, beauty and sweetness.
The rose can also have paradoxical meanings. It is at once a symbol of purity and a symbol of passion; heavenly perfection and earthly passion; virginity and fertility; death and life. The rose is the flower of the goddess Venus but also the blood of Adonis and of Christ. It is a symbol of transmutation – that of taking food from the earth and producing a beautiful fragrant rose. Lastly, throughout history, the rose’s thorns have represented human suffering and the Fall from Paradise, but for centuries the rose garden has been a symbol of resurrection, paradise and the place of the mystic marriage.
Given The Rose Ensemble’s commitment to preserving and performing sacred and secular early music, and especially our programmatic emphasis on exploring spirituality and the human experience through enlightening thought-provoking music and texts, I believe that the rose is a wonderful and very fitting symbol!
Our visual brand features what we internally refer to as ‘the bug,’ although most people call it the ‘Rose logo.’ It was intentionally designed to evoke different images and symbolism for different people. Some people see it as a cross, others view it as a wax seal, some think of it as a celestial portal, and still others call it a shield or our very own coat of arms!”
- Jordan Sramek, Founder/Artistic Director