Recorder31 Day 30 | Instagram Takeover with Matija Chlupacek & Ensemble Interchange

We've reached the penultimate day of this year's Recorder31, but we're not slowing down this weekend! Along with our Big Round-Up Sale which runs until the end of tomorrow, today we have handed our Instagram account over to recorder player Matija Chlupacek from Ensemble Interchange, who are taking us with them to their concert in Cologne.

Ensemble Interchange (Photo by Astrid Ackermann)

Today, the ensemble will be performing their programme 'A World Of My Own' at the FEL!X Festival in Cologne – a programme celebrating women in music in the 1600s and 1700s. As the concert description states:

Ensemble Interchange brings the music of female composers of the 17th and 18th centuries into the spotlight and tells the stories of women who, in a variety of ways, created spaces for creative expression—and thus a world of their own. While some of them were admired during their lifetimes, their names are now almost unjustly forgotten.

Head over to our Instagram page to follow along on stories, and check out their music online by following @ensembleinterchange

Click here to view on Instagram!

About the artists

Friederike Vollert (recorder), Matija Chlupacek (recorder), Sara Roque Coroado (baroque cello), Felix Ritter (lute), and Tung-Han Hu (harpsichord) are the founders of Ensemble Interchange. The five musicians, whose roots lie in Germany, Slovenia, Portugal, and Taiwan, are prizewinners of renowned competitions such as Musica Antiqua Bruges, the International Handel Competition Göttingen, and the Johann Sebastian Bach Competition Leipzig, and perform throughout Germany and internationally.

Inspired by Willem de Kooning's expressive painting "Interchange" (1955), Ensemble Interchange competed under this name for the first time at the German Music Competition. The musicians immediately received a scholarship from the German Music Council, along with inclusion in the organization's concert funding program, as well as a special prize from the Ensemble Academy Freiburg. The musicians now perform in regional and international concert series. An invitation from the Goethe Institute in Quito led them on their first tour of Ecuador in April 2025.

With a great enthusiasm for experimentation and vibrant creativity, Ensemble Interchange primarily devotes itself to Renaissance and Baroque music. In their search for contemporary avenues of expression, their colorful programs incorporate contemporary compositions alongside original compositions and their own arrangements. The quintet combines its understanding of historical backgrounds and the rhetorical and linguistic elements of music with emotional depth, thus placing the focus on musical communication and a sensitive and sustained exchange with the audience.

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We're delighted to have expanded our recorder audio samples to include many of the Reconditioned instruments in our range. One of the most distinctive items in the current stock is this excellent-condition alto in boxwood after Bressan by sought-after (and now retired) maker Tom Prescott. Check out the audio clips below or follow this link to find out more about this instrument.