“Widely regarded as North America’s masters of music for Renaissance wind band” (St. Paul Pioneer Press), Piffaro has delighted audiences throughout the United States, Europe, Canada and South America since its founding by Joan Kimball and Bob Wiemken in 1980. Under the direction of Priscilla Herreid, Piffaro recreates the rustic music of the peasantry and the elegant sounds of the official wind bands of the late Medieval and Renaissance periods. Its ever-expanding instrumentarium includes over 40 shawms, dulcians, sackbuts, recorders, krumhorns, bagpipes, lutes, guitars, harps, and a variety of percussion — all careful reconstructions of instruments from the period.

Through Piffaro’s many recordings on Newport Classics, Deutsche Grammophon Arkiv Produktion, Dorian Recordings, PARMA/Navona, and its own house label, and through radio and internet broadcasts, its music has reached listeners worldwide, as far away as Siberia. Piffaro’s National Recorder Competition for Young Players attracts talented competitors from around the country to Philadelphia every two years.

Piffaro has been honored with Early Music America’s “Early Music Brings History Alive,” Laurette Goldberg “Lifetime Achievement in Early Music Outreach,” and Howard Mayer Brown “Lifetime Achievement in the Field of Early Music” awards and the American Recorder Society’s “Distinguished Artist Award.”