About us
Ensemble Lauda is a medieval‑music ensemble founded in Havana in 2010 and now based in Lugo, Galicia. Formed by Henry Vidal and soprano Irina Bunkova, the group is dedicated to a rigorous yet creative approach to repertoire from the twelfth and thirteenth centuries.
The name Lauda means “praise” and also refers to a devotional sacred genre that flourished in Italy from the twelfth to the sixteenth century. Traditionally sung by lay and monastic confraternities, the lauda belongs to the broader landscape of European popular liturgical traditions.
The ensemble performs on historical reproductions of medieval instruments, modeled on sources such as the Cantigas de Santa María manuscripts and the sculptural program of the Pórtico da Gloria in the Cathedral of Santiago de Compostela. Each performance offers an immersive experience in which music, poetry, and dance intertwine to evoke a vivid sense of the medieval world.
Ensemble Lauda has appeared at international festivals including Les Voix Humaines directed by Leo Brouwer, the Esteban Salas Early Music Festival, and the Festival de Noailles in France. The group also founded Habana Medieval, an event featuring concerts, exhibitions, and lectures on medieval music and literature.
Since 2018, Ensemble Lauda has been part of the catalogue of Cuba’s National Concert Music Center and has collaborated with institutions such as the Xosé Neira Vilas Chair of Galician Culture at the University of Havana, Instituto Camões, and the Eça de Queirós Foundation.
Their discography includes Cantigas de Santuarios, released by Aliud Records, and their work is available on major digital platforms.
Ensemble Lauda continues its mission to bring medieval art to contemporary audiences through concerts, workshops, and cultural collaborations, keeping alive a tradition that still resonates today.
«Ensemble Lauda performs, in its emerging career as interpreters of ancient music, at a good artistic level and above all with the acuity of those who observe the historical past with respect. Its members, and especially its director Henry Vidal, have developed thorough research work on medieval music like few others in our country.»
— Leo Brouwer. Musico
… I feel that those magical years when Habaneros eagerly attended every concert of ancient music at the minor basilica of the convent of San Francisco de Asís will return, in search of a night of poetry and ecstasy for the spirit thirsty for beauty, thirsty for immensity, nostalgic for a past of glory and transcendence from which modernity has expelled us.»
— Gina Picart. Periodista
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Cantigas de Santuarios
Ensemble Lauda
Through this album, the Ensemble Lauda recreates a very particular selection of this lyric: they are eighteen cantigas de amigo which parallel the Galician-Portuguese sanctuary.
