Filling the need for skilled performers on basso continuo instruments, the United Continuo Ensemble has augmented many orchestras and chamber groups in historically informed performances of Renaissance, Baroque, and early Classical music. Formed in 1995 by Jörg Meder, the group specializes in interpreting figured bass (a form of musical shorthand developed in the Baroque era), and playing a wide variety of period instruments such as the cello, violone, theorbo, bassoon, serpent, lute, harpsichord, organ, etc., that were commonly used to supply the harmonies and basslines in much early music. The ensemble has been active in concerts, dance programs, and operatic productions, and it has even found a niche in contemporary crossover performances and experimental music. The United Continuo Ensemble first appeared at music festivals in Germany, and extended its reach with tours in France, Poland, Greece, Lithuania, Mexico, and the United States. The ensemble has collaborated with the Pegasustheater in Waldems, the Freien Tanztheater of Frankfurt, the Cracovia Danza Court Festival in Krakow, and performed in the dance theater piece O Ewigkeit, du Donnerwort at EXPO 2000. In the field of opera, the United Continuo Ensemble performed in the 2008 production of Jean-Philippe Rameau's Les Fêtes d'Hébé at the Margravial Opera House in Bayreuth, and the 2012 revival of Christian Ludwig Boxberg's Sardanapalus at the Ekhof Theatre in Gotha. The United Continuo Ensemble has recorded for Pan Classics. ~ Blair Sanderson