René Clemencic is a composer, conductor, recorder virtuoso, the founder and leader of the world famous early music ensemble, the Clemencic Consort. He is a musicologist and writer, a graduate philosopher, and a keen collector of emblematic books and sculptures. He was born in Vienna on 27 February 1928, the son of a notary public. He is a true child of the heart of Europe, his ancestry can be traced back to Istria, Slovenia, Moravia and Poland. He received his formal schooling in Vienna, then went on to study philosophy and musicology at the Sorbonne and the College de France in Paris, and the University of Vienna, where he obtained his doctorate in 1956. During the same time he studied music - the recorder, harpsichord and Hindemith's music theory with H. H. Staeps in Vienna; harpsichord with E. Harich-Schneider in Vienna; Collegium Musicum with J. Mertin in Vienna; the recorder with J. Collette in Nijmegen (Holland), L. Hoffer v. Wintersfeld and W. Nitschke in Berlin; formal analysis with E. Ratz in Vienna; theory of music with Arnold Schonberg's friend and pupil J. Polnauer, in Vienna; and J. M. Hauer's Dodecaphonic Theory with J. Schwieger, in Vienna. Ever since the late 1950s he has performed in solo concerts as recorder virtuoso, and with his ensemble, the Clemencic Consort, music ranging from the Middle Ages, the Renaissance, to the baroque and Avant-garde, travelling to concert venues all over Europe, Africa, North and South America, Asia and Australia. For the last 30 years he has had his own series of concerts dedicated to early music at the renowned Musikverein in Vienna uninterruptedly. In this current season, the programme of concerts ranges from the Middle Ages (Owsald von Wolkenstein), over the Renaissance (Jacques Arcadelt; Senfl, Isaac, et al.) to the High Baroque (Giovanni Legrenzi - La Cetra). The yearly series of seasonal pre-Christmas concerts at the Belvedere Palace has become a traditional feature of Vienna concert life. He appears on more than 100 records and CDs, both as soloist as well as conductor of his own ensemble and with other orchestras. Many of these recordings were awarded international prizes, such as Edison, Grand Prix du Disque, Diapason d'Or, Prix Cecilia, etc. Due to his tireless musical research activity, René Clemencic with his ensemble has made many Medieval and Renaissance works accessible to the modern audience for the first time in concerts. These include Carmina Burana, Ludus Danielis, Filius Getronis, Cantigas de Santa Maria, Le Roman de Fauvel; Masses by Dufay, obrecht, Ockeghem, Isaac and Josquin. He has specialized in Baroque music and the Viennese Sepolcro. Stage productions of the Clemencic Consort include Euridice (Peri), Il lutto dell'Universo" (Santorio), Assalone Punito (Ziani), Narciso (Scarlatti), L'Olimpiade (Vivaldi), Testoride Argonauta (de Sousa Carvalho), Dafne in Lauro (Fux) , Croesus (Keiser), La Purpura de la Rosa (Torrejon y Velasco). The last five Baroque operas were the subject of a tour de force performance, all within 10 days, at the Paris Theatre des Champs-Elysees. As a recorder soloist, Rene Clemencic has played works ranging from Medieval to Avant-garde music, presenting them as a rule with his own introductory talk and commentary. In his programme Flauto Maginco he plays more than twenty different flutes and recorders. For several years now, he has devoted his attention to performing the vast literature for the clavischord. He has taught the subjects "The recorder as a virtuoso instrument", "Musical ornamentation", "Musical notation of the Middle Age and Baroque", and "Philosophy of music' at the Vienna Academy of Music, and has conducted many interntional summer courses and seminars all over Europe and the United States.