Early Music Ensemble

The Wandering Bard

Directed by Esin Yardimli Alves Pereira and Ricardo Alves Pereira, also behind the Portuguese medieval music festivals CMML and DMMB, The Wandering Bard is an ensemble dedicated to historically informed performance grounded in manuscript sources.

Known for their semi-staged performances that include historical commentaries or fictional narratives, the ensemble combines distinctive arrangements drawn from historical research and bold musical creativity that make rare medieval music relevant for contemporary audiences.

While The Wandering Bard’s albums reach thousands of listeners around the world, the ensemble collaborates on stage with a carefully selected group of renowned guest artists, including Eduardo Paniagua and Fernando Ribeiro (MOONSPELL), as well as emerging singers, instrumentalists and choirs.

Drawing on a changing cast while retaining its unmistakable musical identity, The Wandering Bard creates distinctive experiences that balance novelty with a sense of familiarity.

Solo Artist

Esin Yardimli Alves Pereira

Esin Yardimli Alves Pereira is dedicated to various platforms of independent artistry and musicianship. She performs, composes and produces in styles that expand from early music to heavy metal. She plays most instruments that at least resemble a violin and some more.

She is a researcher of medieval culture and writes historical articles for sharing her passion for things worth seeing under a different light, and fiction works as a practice of escapism. Her translations of medieval Iberian poetry to English is part of a book in the making.

She is the co-founder and the vielle player of the early music formation The Wandering Bard that brings together mythological storytelling and historically informed performances of renaissance and medieval music.

Esin is the producer to all things CordaSonora. She also sound engineers, directs and designs.

Her music is enjoyed by +40K monthly listeners. Her solo albums and other collaborations can be found on all major music streaming platforms under her name. Her latest release KIANIS: Homage to Carmilla, a violin-heavy metal extravaganza is a statement of her striking imagination and stylistic richness.

She is the co-director of the Portugal based medieval music festivals CMML and DMMB.

Solo Artist

Ricardo Alves Pereira

Ricardo Alves Pereira is deeply involved in many aspects of music, both on stage and in the studio. As a performer, recording artist and producer, his work ranges from classical guitar and historical repertoire to experimental and contemporary music. 

As a performer, he works with a wide range of instruments, including classical and electric guitar, Turkish oud, and Iberian Renaissance vihuela. His repertoire extends from medieval and Renaissance music performed on historical instruments to modern works and his own compositions.

Ricardo Alves Pereira leads his audience to imagine stories through his Musical Narratives, a concept he developed over the years as a solo guitarist. During his solo performances and concerts with The Wandering Bard, musical works are presented alongside spoken narratives, guiding the listener through historical context, stories and new interpretations of the music.

He is the co-founder of The Wandering Bard and the founder of the Leyriath Assemblage. For both projects, he creates arrangements of early music and develops musical narratives that combine historical sources with fantasy, myths and legends. His research for the Leyriath Assemblage also includes collecting local myths, legends and historical material from Leiria and its surrounding regions.

While Ricardo is mainly known today for his classical and early music work, his musical journey on stage began with experimental live electronic music performances. His latest album RETROQUEST brings together these different sides of his musical background, combining his early influences with the musical language he developed throughout his career.

Research & Creative

Leyriath Assemblage

Leyriath Assemblage, found by Ricardo Alves Pereira, gathers folkloric, historical, geographical and ancestral lore of Northwest Iberia and merges them to tales of music and magic. The tales can be heard in some The Wandering Bard concerts where the ensemble accompanies the legends with unique arrangements of medieval and renaissance music. The rest can be found and followed through “retold stories” and raw poetry.

VISUALs For Musicians

Musa Design

Design from musicians, for musicians. In the past, Esin Yardimli Alves Pereira and Ricardo Alves Pereira were active designers for countless artists and labels. Today they welcome custom requests.