The English Concert Residency, Sat 11th May
May 2024
As Spring turns into summer, we are thrilled to present a programme of music that celebrates the Baroque stars of the European stage, the sumptuous fine art and visual delights of the time, and a celebration of the greatest exponents of baroque musical performance in the present day. Including an exclusive residency with The English Concert, this season has plenty to indulge in.
Handel at home: Anastasia Robinson’s Academy at Parson’s Green
Director/harpsichord: Tom Foster
Violin: Anna Curzon, Annie Gard
Cello: Madeleine Bouissou
Mezzo-soprano: Katie Bray
Anna Curzon
Anna Curzon plays with many of the UK’s leading period instrument orchestras including The English Concert, The Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment, Dunedin Consort and The Gabrieli Consort and Players. Recent performances have taken her to Glyndebourne, Garsington Opera, The Royal Opera House, Royal Festival Hall, Carnegie Hall and Wigmore Hall.
She is a leader for The Musical and Amicable Society and The Cedar Consort, and has also performed and recorded with chamber ensembles The Bach Players, Music for a While and Arcangelo. Anna studied Music at Nottingham University before attending the Royal Academy of Music at Masters level.
Anna has also played with The Welsh National Opera, The Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra and Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra. Anna was also a member of the European Union Baroque Orchestra from 2012-2013.
Tom Foster
Praised for his “dazzling virtuosity” (The Spectator), Tom Foster has a busy career as a continuo player on organ and harpsichord and as a harpsichord soloist.
Respected for his sensitive and inventive continuo playing, Tom is the principal keyboard player of the English Concert and is a regular guest with The Academy of Ancient Music, Arcangelo, The Dunedin Consort, Early Opera Company, The Mahler Chamber Orchestra, The Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment, The Scottish Ensemble and The Sixteen. These collaborations have taken him to concert halls throughout Europe, the United States, Australia, Russia and South Korea. He has performed concertos at the Edinburgh International Festival and makes his US solo-debut in recital at the Carnegie Hall in February 2020.
Tom began his musical education as a choirboy at Manchester Cathedral, then as a pianist and harpsichordist at Chetham’s School of Music. He holds a first-class degree in Music (BA) from St. Catherine’s College, Oxford and gained a Distinction in Performance (MA) from the Royal Academy of Music under the tutelage of Trevor Pinnock.
Madeleine Bouissou
Praised for her “total involvement with the inner life of the lowest voice” (New York Concert Review Inc.), cellist Madeleine Bouissou has a vision to influence the attitude of performing on classical instruments among her peers and pupils. When she first heard a historical piano, Madeleine was struck by the variety of colors in sound and the unpredictability of the instrument itself. It inspired her to explore baroque cello where the gut strings, various temperaments, and ornamental improvisations awakened an attitude of openness to explore, react in the moment, and savor her ideas.
In 2020, Madeleine began training to become an Alexander Technique teacher because she wanted to learn to embody that attitude through the use of her whole self. After three years of intensive daily training, Madeleine will be qualifying this July and has already begun to use and share the process of the Alexander Technique in both her cello teaching and her collaboration with various ensembles as a cello player. She aspires to use the Alexander Technique to inspire her colleagues to explore new ways to play and hear music and experience their everyday lives.
Katie Bray
Winner of the Dame Joan Sutherland Audience Prize at Cardiff Singer of the World 2019, British mezzo-soprano Katie Bray has become known for her magnetic stage presence and gleaming, expressive tone.
Roles for Opera North have included Hansel Hansel and Gretel, Rosina Il Barbiere di Siviglia, Varvara Katya Kabanova, Louis XV Chair/Female Cat/Owl L’enfant et les sortilèges, Lola Cavalleria Rusticana, and Nancy Albert Herring.
Katie Bray is particularly noted for baroque repertoire and has appeared with Barokksolistene and Bjarte Eike, Monteverdi Choir and Sir John Eliot Gardiner, La Nuova Musica, Ludus Baroque, London Handel Orchestra and Laurence Cummings, Wroclaw Baroque Orchestra, and Spira Mirabilis. She has also appeared with orchestras including the Britten Sinfonia, Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, the Orchestre Chambre de Paris, and the Aalborg Symphony Orchestra.