Consortium5 (United Kingdom)

Kathryn Corrigan, Recorders; Inga Maria Klaucke, Recorders; Oonagh Lee, Recorders; Gail Macleod, Recorders; Roselyn Maynard, Recorders

Consortium5 are a vibrant and exciting recorder quintet. Formed in 2005, they have established themselves as one of the foremost consorts of their generation and an ensemble of unique appeal to a wide range of audiences.

Winners of the Deutsche Bank Pyramid Award in 2006, finalists at the Early Music Network Young Artists Competition 2007, and current Joan Greenfield Junior Fellows at Trinity College of Music, Consortium5 are resident on the Park Lane Group Young Artists Series and have made their Purcell Room debut in January 2009.
Equally committed to both the concert platform and community music, they have performed in numerous venues across the UK and abroad to critical acclaim. Presenting a wide range of repertoire from medieval to renaissance, baroque and contemporary music on a staggering array of instruments, they also regularly commission and premiere new works. 

To find out more about Consortium5, please visit www.consortium5.com.

Ensemble Diamanté (Japan/United Kindom)

Tomokazu Ujigawa, Recorder; Rie Kimura, violin; Robert Smith, cello/viola da gamba; Aya Fukuma, Harpsichord

Ensemble Diamanté began playing together five years ago during their studies at the Conservatoires of Den Haag and Amsterdam. Despite members now living both in Amsterdam and Tokyo, they still meet and play whenever possible because they enjoy it so much.

The composition of the ensemble makes it particularly suited to music with both two and three solo lines above the basso continuo. Individually, the members possess a wealth of prizes awarded in previous Bruges Festivals, The international Telemann Competition in Magdeburg and the Yamanashi Early Music Competition, Japan.

Gli Affetti Freschi (Finland)

Meelis Orgse, Violin; Antto Vanhala, Violin/viola; Matias Häkkinen, Harpsichord/organ

Gli Affetti Freschi is an early music ensemble based in Helsinki, Finland. It was founded in 2006 and it consists of Meelis Orgse (violin), Antto Vanhala (violin/viola), Matias Häkkinen (harpsichord/organ).

Gli Affetti Freschi plays mostly music from the 17th century and most notably early Italian baroque music. In July 2009 they will be appear in Stockholm Early Music Festival. In 2007 the ensemble  won the first price in International Buxtehude Competition in Tallinn, Estonia.

Hauptfisch Trio (Russia)

Alexandra Nepomnyashchaya, Pianoforte; Anna Burtseva, Cello; Ivan Bushuev, Flute

The Hauptfisch Trio was created in 2008.All members have an extensive personal career in music. The name of the ensemble was chosen shortly before the chamber music competition A Tre in Trossingen (Germany) where the ensemble was awarded with the 3rd prize. All members are students of the Moscow Tchaikovsky Conservatoire and The Hauptfisch Trio has played at various international festivals and master classes throughout Europe.

Helianthus (Belgium)

Mito Shimonishi, Pianoforte; Magali Boyer, Cello; Anne Pustlauk, Flute

Our history is a short history. All of us study at the Koninkljik Conservatorium Brussels. Mito Shimonishi studies with Piet Kuijken, Magali Boyer with Alain Gevreau and Anne Pustlauk with Barthold Kuijken. We met first in october 2008 to play the great Klaviertrios by Joseph Haydn. We enjoied so much playing together that we decided to go on with this combination and build up the ensemble “Helianthus”.

La Ninfea (Germany)

Barbara Heindlmeier, Recorder; Christian Heim, Viola da Gamba/Recorder; Simon Linné, Lute

La Ninfea (it. de waterlelie) specialiseert zich in het uitvoeren van kamermuziek uit de 17de en 18de eeuw. Individueel hebben de leden van het ensemble bij verschillende concours reeds meerdere prijzen en onderscheidingen toegekend gekregen. Zij musiceerden veelvuldig in verschillende ensembles samen, maar de deelname aan het Deutsche Musikwettbewerb in 2009, waarin het ensemble overigens de finale bereikte, was de aanleiding voor het vormen van La Ninfea. Afhankelijk van het ten uitvoering gebrachte repertoire treedt het ensemble op met twee tot vijf musici, waarbij zij blokfluit, viola da gamba, luit en clavicimbel of orgel bespelen.

La Ritirata (Spain)

Josetxu Obregón, Baroque cello; Tamar Lalo, Recorders; Daniel Zapico, Theorbo; Pablo Zapico, Baroque guitar-archlute

La Ritirata performs in prestigious festivals as Musika-Música (Folle Journée) in Bilbao, Festival de Música Antigua 2009 of CNART in Mexico City, Fringe Early Music Festival Utrecht and Internacional Music Festival of Jaca among others. Recently awarded in the renowned Sitges music competition, La Ritirata looks forward to new projects of wider scope. In the words of a recently published press review on Diario de Menorca while their Balearic Islands Tour, "the mastery of its instrumentalists delighted the audience with exquisite sonority, great agility, example of technical control and perfection of the German baroque music"

La Ritirata owes its name to the celebrated quintet by Luigi Boccherini "La ritirata notturna di Madrid", and was founded by Josetxu Obregón, a musician who in the last couple of months visited the stages of New York, Miami, Tokyo and Mexico DF; and focuses on Early Music after playing in ensembles such as Concertgebouw Orchestra and Orchestra of the Age of Enlightment.

Les grâces (United States)

Jennifer Paulino, Voice; Annette Bauer, Recorder; Rebekah Ahrendt, Viola da Gamba; Jonathan Rhodes Lee, Harpsichord

The Baroque ensemble “Les grâces” formed in early 2008 in order to explore 17th- and 18th-century music. The ensemble’s performances are equally inspired by the four young performers’ passionate musicianship, as well as their collective study of historical performance practices at leading conservatories in Europe and the US.

The name “Les grâces” stems from a long literary, artistic, and musical tradition. Daughters of Zeus and Hera, they were representations of beauty, mirth, and good cheer. They are often accompanied by Cupid or Mercury, their male counterparts.

In music, “graces” refers to the ornaments used to decorate or “grace” a piece of music. Improvised graces were an especially important feature of 17th- and 18th-century music. As an ensemble, “Les grâces” specializes in the study and application of appropriate, tasteful, and graceful improvisation in a number of different musical styles.

RicciCapricci (Germany)

Verena Comploj, recorder; Christiane Herr, recorder; Kirsten Christmann, recorder, harpsichord; Sam Chapman, theorbo, baroque guitar; Michael Beilschmidt, perc, b. guitar, viol

RicciCapricci was founded in 2004 by students at the Musikhochschule Karlsruhe. Members of the group have also studied in Trossingen, Mainz, Lyon and Milano and have participated in masterclasses with Dan Laurin, Karel van Steenhoven,  Han Tol and Jesper Christensen. 

Within a repertoire spanning the Middle Ages to the High Baroque, the ensem- bles main interest is focused on the highly affective and virtuoso music of 17th  century Italy which continually inspires the ensemble towards unconventional caprices and escapades in search of new tone colours and effects. With a combination of historical performance practice and the avantgarde, the  ensemble aroused much enthusiasm at the international competition “Blockflöte Kreativ” (September 2005) and was awarded first prize and the special prize of  the jury. As a result, several composers have taken interest in the ensemble and composed new works for this unusual and richly contrasted combination of in- struments.

In August 2007, RicciCapricci has been awarded the prize of the audience at the International Biagio Marini Competition. Recently, the ensemble has been invited to perform in the “Fabulous Fringe” concert series within the Oudemusik Festival in Utrecht (August 2009). 

Tempo Rubato (Japan/Italia)

Antonio Piricone, Pianoforte; Megumi Tanno, Pianoforte

Tempo Rubato is a Piano Duet formation which focuses on the development of the repertoire for keyboard 4 hands between late 18th & the first half of 19th century.
Antonio Piricone and Megumi Tanno have gained their international reputation and experience performing widely through the globe. They are both specialized in early pianos and performance practice being graduated at the Royal Conservatory The Hague under the guidance of Stanley Hoogland and Bart van Oort. The Duo was founded in 2007 and officially made its debut in October 2008 touring in Japan, including appearence  at the reknown Yokohama Minato Mirai Hall and being invited at the prestigious Hokutopia International Early Music Fest. in Tokyo. Tempo Rubato mantains a busy schedule performing in Europe and Japan (tour 2009). Further information on the Duo components can be found at www.antoniopiricone.com and www.megumitanno.net