The Capricornus Ensemble Stuttgart
is named after the Stuttgart court conductor Samuel Capricornus (1628 - 1665). Under the direction of Stuttgart trombone professor Henning Wiegräbe, the international soloist ensemble has been in existence since 2009 and has set itself the task of presenting musical treasures from the Renaissance and Baroque periods. Since 2014, the ensemble has found a musical home in Stuttgart with its own concert series. Here it can realise a wide variety of exciting concert programmes. One focus is on embedding the music of the Stuttgart court by composers such as Lechner, Capricornus or Boeddecker in an international context. So far, the Capricornus Ensemble has released three CDs on the Coviello Classics label.

The trombonist Henning Wiegräbe is professor in charge of the trombone class at the Musikhochschule Stuttgart. He studied in Hamburg, Karlsruhe and Trossingen with E. Wetz, W. Schrietter and C. Toet. He received important impulses from, among others, B. Slokar (Switzerland), C. Lindberg (Sweden) and B. Dickey (USA/Italy). During his time as solo trombonist with the Deutsche Staatsphilharmonie Rheinland Pfalz, he devoted himself more and more to early music. Since then he has performed with ensembles such as Concerto Palatino, Les Cornets Noirs, Cantus Cölln, Concerto Köln, Musica Fiata Köln, Orchestre des Champs-Elysées, Collegium Vocale Gent, Amsterdam Barock Orchester, Freiburger Barock Orchester, the Taverner Players and the Balthasar Neumann Ensemble and conductors such as Konrad Junghänel, Philippe Herreweghe, Andrew Parrott, Ton Koopman, Pablo Heras-Casado and Thomas Hengelbrock. In Stuttgart he founded the Capricornus Ensemble Stuttgart. In addition to his work as a soloist with orchestras such as the Bundesjugendorchester, the Deutsche Staatsphilharmonie Rheinland-Pfalz, the Dortmund Philharmonic, the Kurpfälzisches Kammerorchester or the Württembergisches Kammerorchester Heilbronn, he is an enthusiastic chamber musician. His partners include the Mandelring Quartet, the Vogler Quartet, the Verdi Quartet, the Peter Lehel Quartet, Daniel Schnyder, Martin Spangenberg, Wolfgang Bauer, Christian Lampert, Radovan Vlatkovic, City Brass Stuttgart and Bach, Blech & Blues. One of Henning Wiegräbe's special concerns is exploring and expanding the repertoire for trombone. This ranges from tracking down and performing as yet unknown works of the Renaissance and Baroque periods to collaborating with contemporary composers and musical border crossers such as Peter Lehel and Daniel Schnyder.