Thursday 9th - Saturday 11th November 2023
St Michael & All Angels, Pond Road, Blackheath SE3 9JL
Details to be announced.
Free with either an Exhibition ticket or a Festival Pass.
Many of the most outstanding performers in the current generation of Historical Performance specialists studied at the Royal Academy of Music. In addition to a wonderfully vibrant department of first-study students, other performers take up Historical Performance as an additional strand of their professional development, resulting in a substantial community of students who come together for projects, classes and music making.
As well as being leading performers, many of the professors in the Historical Performance Department undertake ground-breaking research which they share in classes and workshops, inspiring lively debate and cultivating an atmosphere of enquiry in the quest for both new repertoire and exciting new ways of performing well-known music.
Students take part in projects with well-known historical performance specialists from all over the world including John Butt, Masaaki Suzuki, Peter Whelan, Philippe Herreweghe and Ton Koopman, as well as collaborating with other institutions such as The Juilliard School. Students perform in regular concerts at Wigmore Hall with Rachel Podger, chamber concerts at the Cobb Collection at Hatchlands and opera productions such as Handel’s Semele with Laurence Cummings and Dido and Aeneas with Elizabeth Kenny. The Bach the European series began in 2019 with a performance of the St Matthew Passion directed by Trevor Pinnock and innovative programmes take place almost every month during term. The HP department is delighted to be performing at LIEMF in Blackheath and today’s recital features all this year’s first study students with some creative programming by the students themselves.
Details to be announced.
Free with either an Exhibition ticket or a Festival Pass.
The Purcell School Baroque Ensemble was formed in 2015 and is a mixture of baroque specialist students and others interested in and intrigued by the more esoteric aspects of musical performance. The core of the group is a small string orchestra, together with recorders, double reeds, harpsichord and percussion, and varies in size from 10-15 players. The group meets weekly and makes use of the school’s harpsichords and baroque bows.
The ensemble performs regularly at the school, often with programmes based on a particular theme, such as the Music of Venice, Elements, or or of the French Court. The 'Baroque Carnival of the Animals' theme is an entirely new one put together specially for this concert. External events have included the St Jude’s Proms, several previous visits to the LIFEM, and occasional music societies.
Coached by Purcell School teachers Sarah Humphrys and David Gordon, the ensemble is characterised by a relaxed, go-for-it approach, tempered with aspects of historical performance, and with a special emphasis on improvisation. The focus is on exposing the students to less familiar corners of baroque repertoire; it is ensemble-led and performs without conductor. Visiting coaches have included violinists Lucy Russell, Chris Garrick and Kati Debretzeni.
Details to be announced.
Free with either an Exhibition ticket or a Festival Pass.
Students and staff from Royal Birmingham Conservatoire take a musical expedition to the turbulent times of 17th century England, with a programme first performed earlier this year in Birmingham’s Jacobean Mansion, Aston Hall. Works by Tomkins, Child and Jenkins, with ballads, catches and dances, are interspersed by poignant readings from Cromwell and Pepys.
Directed by Jude Rees.
Royal Birmingham Conservatoire’s Historical Performance Department was founded in the early 1990s with the aim of bringing early music, period instrument performance and historical style to the wider student cohort. A team of world-renowned specialist tutors and musicologists, under the artistic direction of Jeffrey Skidmore OBE, train students at undergraduate and postgraduate levels, providing opportunities in Baroque orchestra, chamber choir and vocal consorts, oboe band, sackbut and cornet ensemble, opera, recorder consorts, natural trumpet ensemble and Renaissance flute consort. Visit us at the exhibition in the Great Hall or online for more information!
Performance platform by students at Chetham's School of Music.
Free with either an Exhibition ticket or a Festival Pass.
Chetham’s Early Music Ensemble is formed of students from Chetham’s School of Music, Manchester, the UK’s largest specialist music school. They have become regular performers at the London International Festival of Early Music in recent years. This year’s programme has a particular focus upon works featuring the recorder, by Bach, Scherer, Castello and Merula, performed by musicians from across the school. Highlights of the programme include J.S. Bach’s Concerto in D Minor BWV. 1063 arranged for 3 solo recorders, and a performance of the ‘Alice in Wonderland Suite’ by the late Alan Davis, who worked for many years at Chetham’s.
