The Huelgas Ensemble, a Belgian choir dedicated to polyphone from the Middle Ages and the Renaissance, was founded by conductor and musicologist Paul Van Nevel (born February 4, 1946). Born into a musical family, Paul Van Nevel studied early music in Switzerland at the Schola Cantorum Basiliensis between 1969 and 1971. It was there that he formed the Huelgas Ensemble, which took its name from the Codex Las Huelgas, a polyphonic music manuscript located at the Cistercian monastery near Burgos, Spain. The group is known for performing in a large circle, rotating around the microphone hovering above the center. The Huelgas Ensemble has been featured on more than 70 releases since they made their first recording in the mid-1970s. Their releases include Las Ensaladas (1975), Tears of Lisbon (1996), Monteverdi: The Mirror of Claudio Monteverdi (2016), The Ear of the Huguenots (2017), and La Liberazione di Ruggiero Dall’isola D’Alcina (2018).
