The well-known players François Fernandez, Enrico Gatti, Emilio Moreno, and Fabio Bondi were part of the first generation of early music pioneers to work with Chiara Banchini in the ensemble. Twenty years later, the group and its founder, along with a new team - Odile Edouard,Olivia Centurioni, David Plantier and Stéphanie Phister, all of whom studied at the Scola Cantorum in Basel, where Banchini teaches - continue to discover fresh repertoire and to pass on their knowledge.

The Ensemble 415 recently created a sensation at the Folles Journées de Nantes 2003 with a history-making performance of Corelli’s three Opus 6 concerti. Seventy-five musicians, including members of Concerto Köln and the Akademie für Alte Musik Berlin, participated in the concert, which was broadcast on the Arte channel. The more than fifteen recordings the group made for Harmonia Mundi, which include Corelli’s Opus 6 concerti for large orchestra, Vivaldi’s Stabat Mater with Andreas Scholl and Georg Muffat’s Armonico Tributo, have made lasting contributions in developing knowledge and performance of seventeenth and eighteenth-century music.

Their recent rediscovery of the music of Giuseppe Valentini in a recording for Zig-Zag Territoires, along with the current recording of Bononcini’s La nemica d’amore fatta amante, are proof of the group’s tireless search for stylistic integrity and for the discovery of new repertoire. Soloists who have collaborated with the Ensemble 415’s productions include Christophe Coin, Roel Dieltiens, Christiane Jaccottet, René Jacobs, Maria-Cristina Kiehr, Agnès Mellon, Guy de Mey, Luciano Sgrizzi, Conrad Steinmann, Geoffrey Lancaster, Andreas Scholl, Giuliano Carmignola, Lars Ulrich Mortensen, Juliette Galstian, Bart Kuijken, Gilles Thomé, Martin Oro, Adriana Fernandez, Furio Zanasi and Gaetano Nasillo. The Franche-Comté region of France has had the honor of underwriting the Ensemble 415.