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ROUND ELEVEN GRANT APPLICATIONS
Academy of Ancient Music
ENSEMBLE INFO
Ensemble Contact:
John McMunn
Email:
Ensemble Connect URL
Year of formation:
1973
PROJECT DESCRIPTION
The Academy of Ancient Music will close its 2025-26 season with a single performance of Handel’s Serse in the Barbican Hall on 19 June 2026.
The performance represents the next step in our mission to bring baroque music to life with immediacy, theatricality, and emotional power, and the continuation of a deliberate policy to innovate with different and complementary forms of art like acting (Art of Fugue) and dance. The performance will be directed by Laurence Cummings and feature a world-class cast, telling this story of love, power, and humanity set in ancient Persia.
When it premiered in 1738, Serse was a revolutionary work. As our Musical Director Laurence Cummings notes, “Handel dared to incorporate comedy, which was a big break from the opera seria form… some audiences were shocked by his experimentation, but others were thrilled by the quick pace and concise action.”
This sense of innovation is at the heart of AAM’s own artistic identity. For Cummings, Serse offers “a challenge for any orchestra, with its virtuosic flourishes and quick-fire changes of form—qualities that play directly to AAM’s strengths.” It also reflects AAM’s broader philosophy: to perform as if “the ink was still wet on the page,” capturing the freshness and immediacy Handel’s audiences would have experienced.
By performing Serse in concert form with movement and staging, we can draw out the opera’s qualities without the expense of a full-scale theatrical production. These theatrical features will serve the overall purpose of the work, with enhanced lighting and the entrance and exit of characters to support the concert experience.
The project will also strengthen AAM’s long-term partnership with the Barbican and demonstrate how a concert staged opera can offer both artistic excellence and broad audience appeal. By combining rigorous musical standards with imaginative presentation, AAM will deliver a production that is true to Handel’s intentions and presents its enduring relevance to 21st-century audiences – proving that great baroque opera can be experienced not as a museum piece, but as living, compelling theatre.
We intend to fill the house to at least 90% capacity and aim to have at least 20% of the audience comprising people who are new to AAM. We offer reduced price tickets for students and under-35’s.
We will evaluate our success through the level and type of attendance and satisfaction with the performance, measured through feedback surveys from participants.
We won’t be recording the performance but will be taking photos to use in future programme and marketing material.
SUPPORTING INFORMATION
PROJECT COSTS
Number of performers:
Instrumentalists:
Vocalists:
Other:
23
7
1
Project Income (£):
Ticketing/Fees:
Public Funding:
Other trusts/foundations - confirmed
Other trusts/foundations - pending
Other
Income - Total sources
37000
0
8000
19000
0
64000
Project Expenses (£):
Artists' fees
Artists' travel/accommodation
Venue - Rehearsal/Concert:
Recording/Filming:
Marketing/Publicity:
Management/Contingency:
39387
2000
26139
0
2300
Total Project Costs:
69826
Amount (£) of Grant Requested:
5826
Detailed Budget (Download):
IMPACT OF GRANT
Your financial commitment allows us to present an ambitious, high-quality production in a cost-effective format. The project provides work for creative professionals, and maintains the country’s reputation for artistic excellence. We can respond to a wider need to present early music to a wider audience. By presenting Serse in concert form with dramatic elements, we can deliver the musical excellence audiences expect from AAM, while creating a more vivid and engaging experience.
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