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ENSEMBLE INFO

Ensemble Contact:

Email:

hannah.blumsohn@gmail.com

2024

PROJECT DESCRIPTION

Our aim is to examine and celebrate various roles of women in Baroque music. While concerts devoted to female Baroque composers exist, we hope to go further by exploring the composers alongside women as performers and inspirations. Rather than straightforward repertoire performances, we will include discussion and visual presentation, giving insight into how these women navigated the musical world, why they matter, and why they were composing when doing so was remarkable.

Featured composers will include Anna Bon, Elisabetta de Gambarini, Madame Laschanzky, Elisabeth Jacquet de la Guerre, and Isabella Leonarda. Although rarely performed now, these women produced impressive work.

Much exploration of female Baroque composers has focused on vocal repertoire. We plan to focus on instrumental music, written for trio sonata and small ensemble combinations. We will also explore music connected to the Venetian Pietà, where women such as Anna Maria della Pietà collaborated with Vivaldi. Some scores we wish to use are not currently in circulation and hence need purchasing.

We will also include works by contemporary female composers for Baroque instruments. Melinda Maxwell's Ancestral Traces has only been played in a 2019 premiere. We will also collaborate with Molly Arnuk (www.mollyfrancesarnuk.com), a young composer at GSMD, who will write a piece for us inspired by female Baroque repertoire, creating connection between these and female composers nowadays.

Proposed repertoire is attached for initial performances. We anticipate our research will uncover further works and ideas worthy to include.

We will give three performance presentations: North London (St Peter’s Belsize Park), South London (likely All Saints, Tooting) and Chichester (either City Arts Centre or St Johns Chapel pending renovations). These draw on our existing relationships with venues and communities in these areas. The venues have generous capacities and acoustics and, variably, in-house harpsichords. Exact dates to be confirmed once funded but will be over 3 weekends between 3rd Oct and 22nd Nov 2026.

We plan for two rehearsals. The second will involve recordings capturing a selection of pieces. Several pieces have limited available recordings or only in modern instrumentation. This will ensure lasting legacy beyond the concerts. As we own suitable audio equipment, this will not require additional funding. Professional studio recordings might later merit funding in itself, but is not part of this application.

With support, we aim to develop a replicable, sustainable model to allow us to continue and expand this work independently without further funding. These concerts will be performed to new audiences in a range of areas, becoming self-sustaining through ticket income and performance fees. Beyond initial investment, we hope it will serve as a lasting foundation for bringing quality live Baroque music and stories of remarkable women to wider audiences.

Obsidian Baroque was formed in summer 2024, bringing together young professional musicians with similar passions. Despite the challenging landscape for emerging ensembles, we have begun to establish a reputation for quality performances and ability to engage audiences who don’t ordinarily attend Baroque concerts. Our recent concert at St Mary-at-Finchley on 8th of February 2026 attracted an audience of nearly 200, including many young people.

We perform regularly at venues across London, including Heath Street Baptist Church Hampstead, St Anne's Kew, and St Mary-at-Finchley, with upcoming concerts at St Peter's Belsize Park and St Luke's Brighton in 2026. We were one of five ensembles selected to participate in the 2025 & 2026 BBC/NCEM New Generation Baroque Artists Development days at the Royal College of Music.

The women in Baroque music project sits at the heart of our repertoire. All our previous concerts included a piece by a female composer. We are also interested in Baroque dance music and outreach work, something most of our members pursue individually and which we will develop collectively.

Biographical details of members are at https://obsidian.oboehannah.co.uk/pages/about.php. We use an alternate harpsichordist and theorbo player depending on our schedule.

Hannah Blumsohn (oboe) studied at Guildhall and performs with OAE, Florilegium, and English Touring Opera. In 2022 she toured with RCM to Bolivia. As member of Bellot Ensemble, she was a Brighton Early Music featured Young Artists Ensemble for 2023–24.

Hannah Parry (recorder, violin) was RCM's recipient of The Queen Elizabeth the Queen Mother Rose Bowl and McKenna Prize, and was concerto soloist in RCM's 2023 spring concert series. She also studied at Abbaye aux Dames in France.

Erlend Vestby (cello) studied at RCM. He plays with Gabrieli, Florilegium, and Charivari Agreable and at the London Festival of Baroque Music and was an OAE Experience Scheme participant in 2022. He performed the Bach Cello Suite cycle at Dart Music Festival in 2023 & 2024.

Tom Dewey (harpsichord) graduated from RCM with MMus in harpsichord in 2021. He teaches for Buckinghamshire Music and is church Director of Music in Tring.

Stefano Fiacco (lute, theorbo, guitar) studied at Conservatorio Donizetti in Bergamo before moving to London in 2020. He holds an MMus and Artist Diploma from Trinity Laban and is currently a student at Guildhall.

Callum Anderson (alternate harpsichord) has a Master's at RAM and performs with Royal Northern Sinfonia and Manchester Collective. He gives recitals at Canterbury Cathedral and Handel Hendrix House, and is organist and Assistant Director of Music at St Mary's Putney.

James Bramley (alternate theorbo) works with AAM, Netherlands Bach Society, English Touring Opera, and Marian Consort, and has given recitals at the London Festival of Baroque Music, Brecon Baroque, and Brighton Early Music Festival.