This event is also included in the LIFEM Festival Pass and LIFEM Friday Day Pass.
The Early Music Young Ensemble Competition is presented every two years by the London International Festival of Early Music. Selected finalists will have the opportunity to perform to a panel and live audience, and you are warmly invited to attend the final to support the early music stars of tomorrow.
The 2026 competition will be adjudicated by Erik Bosgraaf (chair), Tomoe Badiarova and Jane Chapman.
Finalists
Quarterino
Quarterino began in the European Union Baroque Orchestra, where six young musicians discovered a shared vision. Trained at the Schola Cantorum Basiliensis, the Royal Conservatoire in The Hague, the Milan Conservatory and Yale, Federica Moi, Tommaso Simonetta Sandri, Sinni Francesco Ricci, Antonio Pellegrino, Giulio Petrella and Agata Sorotokin combine contralto, traverso, violin, cello, lute and harpsichord in a sound of rare cohesion. This season has taken them to Rheinsberg and Göttingen, and they were finalists at York in 2026. Theirs is chamber music as true creative conversation.
Nari Baroque Ensemble
Nari Baroque Ensemble does not simply perform Baroque music. It tells stories with it. Each programme weaves original texts through cantatas, sonatas and opera, bringing every phrase to life on period instruments. Winners of both the main prize and the Music and Space prize at the Göttingen Handel Competition in 2024, and finalists at York in 2026, Nari Baroque have performed from Cologne to Tel Aviv. Kulturbüro Göttingen calls them one of the most promising ensembles in the Baroque music scene.
Les Arcanes Baroques
Les Arcanes Baroques arrive in Blackheath as the reigning champions of the International Handel Competition in Göttingen. Formed in 2024 by four musicians who met as conservatoire students, the ensemble specialises in Baroque trio sonatas and brings the same vitality to Classical string quartets. In two years they have won the Audience Prize in Neuburg, performed at the Philharmonie Köln and appeared twice at the Utrecht Early Music Festival. Kira Dove, Benjamin Lenzmeier, Andreu Gènova and Elias Tulchynsky are four players to watch.
About the Panel
Erik Bosgraaf is generally considered to be one of the world’s leading recorder players, and he is definitely the most adventurous. He improvises, plays jazz, utilises electronics and has a repertoire extending from Vivaldi’s Four Seasons to tomorrow’s music.
Tomoe Badiarova is a versatile Japanese violinist, performing as a soloist, chamber musician and orchestral leader. Her repertoire spans from the early Baroque to the late Romantic, performed on period instruments.
Equally passionate about baroque and contemporary music, Jane Chapman has collaborated with ground-breaking composers, artists and dancers, working with musicians from the worlds of Indian music, jazz, the avant-garde and HIP. She is harpsichord professor at the Royal College of Music.
Every LIFEM ticket-holder receives a FREE copy of our beautiful, full-colour souvenir Festival Programme, packed with artist profiles, programme notes, schedules and everything you need to navigate four days of extraordinary early music.
Photo credit – Anna McCarthy Photography.
