Ray Kershaw offers a guide to the 'almost perfect medieval ensemble' of Bruges.

Kirillovsky District preserves a number of medieval ensembles which are considered among the best monuments of art and architecture in Russia.

But these medieval and Renaissance ensembles for the well-to-do man of war - accessorized by elaborately designed and decorated weapons - would surely have met his standards for personal and artistic luxury.

Crawford Young, "Ensemble P.A.N.", American medieval ensemble in Paris, 1982-1999 (also known as Project Ars Nova)

Guest artists in this year's festival include soprano Barbara Schlick; the New London Consort; the medieval ensemble Sinfonye and a newly established chamber group directed by the acclaimed violinist John Holloway.

It was performed with symphonic orchestra, choir and medieval ensemble, combining traditional symphonism with medieval minstrel-like melodies.

Régine, who was born in Montreal of Haitian parents, was studying jazz singing, playing mandolin in a medieval ensemble and doing compositional experiments with 15th-century music when the two met at McGill University.

In a unique case in Europe, almost the entire medieval ensemble of coronation insignia survived.

"People in medieval ensembles are in the spirit of sharing a wealth of music."

They evolved from the medieval ensembles of trumpets and drums, and in the ensembles of trumpets and timpani, common in mounted bands in the cavalry.