Handel & Hendrix in London is dedicated to nurturing up and coming talent. The New Artist Programme includes Handel House Talent, the Ensemble-in-Residence and Composer-in-Residence Apprentice.

Handel House Talent

Handel House Talent is an exciting scheme to further the career development of promising new professional baroque music performers.

Each year, Handel House select six singers and instrumentalists with a particular interest in performing music from the baroque period to benefit from this free, year-long programme.

About the Programme

This yearlong programme runs from September each year. Participants are offered:

  • At least two opportunities for each participant to perform at one of Handel House’s Thursday Live concerts, including working with staff on planning these concerts
  • An individual open masterclass for each participant, with a leading professional of their instrument. Other participants of the scheme and members of the public will be invited to observe
  • A group tutorial by early music specialist Laurence Cummings focusing on interpreting baroque pieces for performance
  • Two specialist workshops covering practical topics associated with becoming a successful professional musician (devising concert programmes, communicating with audiences, promotion, dealing with agents, managing finances etc). External experts will be invited to lead these workshops and share their experience and advice
  • Opportunities to practice and rehearse at Handel House in their own time
  • A final showcase concert at the end of the year for the six participants, to an invited audience including people with interest and influence in the world of classical music performance. This concert is to be devised, organised and created by the participants as a group

To find out about past and current participants of Handel House Talent click here.

To apply for Handel House Talent 2019-20 click here.

Composer-in-Residence

The aim of the scheme is to bring an understanding of the composition process to a wider audience, meaningfully interpreting the history of the house and its two famous resident composers; George Frideric Handel and Jimi Hendrix. The composer’s role is to magnify the importance of composition to the building and highlight different styles of music.

The Composer-in-Residence scheme was established in 2005 and their responsibilities include:

  • Being a key member of the learning team by delivering learning workshops to school groups
  • Developing and running, with assistance from the learning team, a creative education project in conjunction with the London Handel Festival based on their annual Handel opera
  • To write one commission that connects Handel and/or Hendrix and is a response to the building itself. The premiere of the commission will be given at an external venue using the participants of the Handel House Talent Scheme. The audience will be a mixture of press, talent scouts, donors and the public
  • Programming a series of new music concerts in the September-December concert season

To find out about the current and past Composers-in-Residence, click here.