About the Ensemble

The 7 Hills Renaissance Wind Ensemble was formed at the Longy School of Music in 2004, originating as a chamber ensemble under the direction of Daniel Stillman. The name is an allusion to the long European tradition of civic wind bands–a lineage dating back to ancient Rome, which was called “Urbs Septacollis”, or “The City on Seven Hills”. It is also a reference to another city built on seven hills: Somerville, MA, where most of the ensemble members make their homes. The Seven Hills Ensemble is devoted to historically-informed performance of sacred and secular music from the 15th through 17th centuries, played on cornetto, sackbut, shawm, dulcian, and recorder. In the tradition of the Spanish ministriles, Italian piffari, and English waits, they perform a broad variety of Renaissance polyphony in both courtyards and churches, and are nearly always up for a libation or two afterwards.