The repertoire of Collegium Vocale Gent is not limited to a single style period. The ensemble played an important role in the rediscovery of many polyphonic works from the renaissance. It regularly performs works from the classical and romantic eras, and also contemporary works have their place in its repertoire. The hallmark of Collegium Vocale Gent, however, is the German baroque, and specifically the works of J.S. Bach. It is for this repertoire that the orchestra of the Collegium Vocale was founded in the late 1980s. Because of its close connection to the choir, the orchestra has become an indispensable instrument in the performance of this music.

In 2020 Collegium Vocale Gent celebrated its 50th anniversary, a golden jubelee! The ensemble was founded in 1970 on Philippe Herreweghe’s initiative by a group of friends studying at the University of Ghent,. They were one of the first ensembles to use new ideas about baroque performance practice in vocal music. Their authentic, text-oriented and rhetorical approach gave the ensemble the transparent sound with which it would acquire world fame and perform at the major concert venues and music festivals of Europe, the United States, Russia, South America, Japan, Hong Kong and Australia. Since 2017 the ensemble runs its own summer festival Collegium Vocale Crete Senesi in Tuscany, Italy. In recent years, Collegium Vocale Gent has grown organically into an extremely flexible ensemble whose wide repertoire encompasses a range of different stylistic periods. Its greatest strength is its ability to assemble the ideal performing forces for any project. Music from the Renaissance, for example, is performed by a small group soloists. German Baroque music, particularly J.S. Bach’s vocal works, has been a speciality of the group and is still the jewel in its crown. Collegium Vocale Gent is also specializing in the Romantic, modern and contemporary oratorio repertoires, performed with the symphonic choir up to 80 singers. Besides performing with its own baroque orchestra, Collegium Vocale Gent works with several historically informed instrumental ensembles to perform these projects, including the Orchestre des Champs Elysées, Freiburger Barockorchester and Akademie für Alte Musik Berlin. It also works with prominent symphony orchestras such as the Antwerp Symphony Orchestra, Amsterdam’s Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra, the Budapest Festival Orchestra, the Staatskapelle Dresden or the Chamber Orchestra of Europe. The ensemble has worked with Ivor Bolton, Marcus Creed, Reinbert de Leeuw, Iván Fischer, René Jacobs, Yannick Nézet-Séguin, Kaspars Putnins, Jos van Immerseel, Paul Van Nevel, James Wood and many others leading conductors. Under Philippe Herreweghe’s direction, Collegium Vocale Gent has built up an impressive discography with more than 100 recordings, most of them with the Harmonia Mundi France and Virgin Classics labels. In 2010, Philippe Herreweghe started his own label φ (phi) together with Outhere Music in order to give himself full artistic freedom to build up a rich and varied catalogue. Since then some 20 new recordings with vocal music by Bach, Beethoven, Brahms, Dvorak, Gesualdo, Haydn or Victoria have become available. Recent recordings include Anton Bruckner’s magnificent Te Deum and Second Mass (LPH34), J.S.Bach’s Trauer-Ode (LPH 035) and the Libro quinto di Madrigali by Carlo Gesualdo (LPH036). Meanwhile the ensemble recorded Franz Lizst’s Via crucis with Reinbert de Leeuw on the ά label (ALPHA 390).