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ROUND ELEVEN GRANT APPLICATIONS
Norwich Baroque
ENSEMBLE INFO
Ensemble Contact:
Kate Bennett Wadsworth
Email:
Ensemble Connect URL
Year of formation:
2006
PROJECT DESCRIPTION
Violin, My Dancing Queen
Concert in the Assembly House, Norwich, 15 November 2026
collaboration with the Neue Hofcapelle Graz, dir. Lucia Froihofer
In celebration of our 20th anniversary, this concert will be Norwich Baroque’s first international collaboration with a group, the Austrian ensemble Neue Hofcapelle Graz. This collaboration builds on a longstanding musical partnership between Lucia Froihofer, director of the Neue Hofcapelle Graz and an expert in both baroque violin and folk fiddle from her native Styria, and one of our core music directors, violinist/violist and folk fiddler Jim O’Toole.
At the core of the programme lies the juxtaposition of Jean-Féry Rebel’s Les caractères de la danse, a whirlwind tour of courtly French dance forms and styles, with Lucia Froihofer’s counter-suite of Styrian folk dances, Charaktere der steirischen Tänze. François Couperin’s Les Nations reflects this syncretism of dance music back into the 18th century project of uniting (or reuniting) the dominant musical styles of France and Italy, exemplified here through Couperin’s admiration for Jean-Baptiste Lully and Arcangelo Corelli. Looking westward, Les Sauvages from Rameau’s Les Indes galante blends courtly French dance forms with the earthy nobility of Native Americans as they existed in the 18th-century French imagination - fueled by an Enlightenment philosophy that saw goodness and dignity at the core of who we are as humans. Jim O’Toole’s charismatic arrangements of folk tunes and early dance music from the British Isles round out the picture, including his wildly popular Lord Kelly’s Catharsis, a mashup of the 18th-century English Lord Kelly’s Reel with Catharsis, a modern Irish-style reel by Vermont-based fiddler, Amy Cann.
The programme plays with the dichotomies of “high” and “low”, “here” and “there”, and “then” and “now”, all of which melt easily away in the overpowering human impulse to dance.
SUPPORTING INFORMATION
PROJECT COSTS
Number of performers:
Instrumentalists:
Vocalists:
Other:
13
Project Income (£):
Ticketing/Fees:
Public Funding:
Other trusts/foundations - confirmed
Other trusts/foundations - pending
Other
Income - Total sources
3807
916
4723
Project Expenses (£):
Artists' fees
Artists' travel/accommodation
Venue - Rehearsal/Concert:
Recording/Filming:
Marketing/Publicity:
Management/Contingency:
3800
1106
960
400
600
Total Project Costs:
6866
Amount (£) of Grant Requested:
2143
Detailed Budget (Download):
IMPACT OF GRANT
This funding would enable us establish ties with a European ensemble that, like us, is dedicated to fostering world-class music-making that is also firmly rooted in local soil. Styrian folk music in particular will be new territory for us, building on our recent collaborations with Morris dancers in connection with the music of John Playford. Both the influence of new musical styles and the new collaborations are crucial to our continued artistic growth as an ensemble, and to the breadth of expe
ADDITIONAL MATERIAL
Video from recently formed ensemble (if provided. If not, the CF 'Happy Holidays' video will appear by default)
PDF of detailed programme notes (if provided):
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