The Collegium Vocale Gent was founded in 1970 by Philippe Herreweghe together with a group of fellow students. It was one of the first ensembles to apply new insights into Baroque performance practice to vocal music. Their authentic, text-oriented and rhetorical approach gave the ensemble the transparent sound for which it would become world famous, with performances at the major concert venues and festivals of Europe, the United States, Russia, South America, Japan, Hong Kong and Australia.

In 2017 the ensemble launched its own summer festival, Collegium Vocale Crete Senesi, in the Tuscan hills. Over the years, the Collegium Vocale Gent has grown organically into an exceptionally flexible ensemble whose broad repertoire spans several musical periods. One of its particular strengths lies in its ability to assemble the ideal formation for each project: Renaissance music, for example, is performed by a small group of soloists, while the works of the German Baroque – especially the vocal music of Johann Sebastian Bach – continue to be a central focus and a signature specialty of the ensemble. In addition, the Collegium Vocale Gent also dedicates itself to the romantic, modern and contemporary oratorio repertoire, performed by a symphonic choir of up to 80 singers.

In addition to its own baroque orchestra, the Collegium Vocale Gent works together with various period instrument ensembles, including the Orchestre des Champs-Elysées, the Freiburg Baroque Orchestra and the Akademie für Alte Musik Berlin. For symphonic projects, the ensemble collaborates with renowned orchestras such as the Antwerp Symphony Orchestra, the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra Amsterdam, the Budapest Festival Orchestra, the Sächsische Staatskapelle Dresden and the Chamber Orchestra of Europe. It has performed under the baton of acclaimed conductors such as Ivor Bolton, Marcus Creed, Reinbert de Leeuw, Iván Fischer, René Jacobs, Yannick Nézet-Séguin, Kaspars Putniņš, Jos van Immerseel, Paul Van Nevel, James Wood and many others.

Under the artistic direction of Philippe Herreweghe, the ensemble has built up an impressive discography of over 100 recordings, most of which have been released by Harmonia Mundi France and Virgin Classics. Herreweghe founded his own label »φ (phi)« together with Outhere Music in 2010, guaranteeing the greatest possible artistic freedom. Since then, they have released around 25 recordings of vocal music by Bach, Beethoven, Brahms, Dvořák, Gesualdo, Haydn and Victoria.