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ENSEMBLE INFO

Ensemble Contact:

Email:

jacobgarsidecello@gmail.com

2025

PROJECT DESCRIPTION

This UK wide tour of concerts presents Dowland’s monument of renaissance music, his Lachrimea, in this the 400th Anniversary year of his death. Interspersed with this will be selections of the dances (‘divers other pavans, galliards and allemands’) that sit alongside the Lachrimea in his 1604 publication. Also featuring both well-loved and rarely-heard songs of his, some accompanied by lute and some in new arrangements for consort accompaniment, as well as some solo lute pieces of his and his contemporaries.

Performance locations are Newcastle University, Bristol University, Croydon Minster, Kino-Teatr (a very fun Kinema Palace!) in Hastings and Heath Street Baptist Church in Hampstead. The first 3 are promoted by their established concert series and the latter 2 are self-promoted concerts with split sharing of ticket income. We are aiming to do these 5 performances in Autumn 26, as close together as possible. With Heath Street being our launch event, where I intend to invite promoters and reviewers.

This planned tour is going to kickstart our social media presence and we are aiming to build a following online, using media we have already as well as new material to add to audience numbers that already exist in these venues. The target audience is to combine the loyal and knowledgeable existing local audiences as well as the loyal audiences of viol consort enthusiasts with a younger audience that we hope to reach online. Our ‘house style’ for online presence will be young, fresh and modern.

The Croydon, Newcastle and Bristol iterations will all include an element of workshopping and education in addition to the performances. At the universities we will be working with composers in the afternoon afterwards and in Croydon the teenage choristers will get a chance to play the viol, as well as singing with us in the evensong.

We have three prior public performances. These were in the form of Evensongs at Hampstead Parish Church as part of the celebrations of Gibbon’s music last year. They were on 26th January, 7th July and 14th September all in 2025.

The 2 videos I have attached are only visually edited. So the audio was all in one take and hasn’t been edited. I hope that’s okay in terms of your required criteria for recently formed ensembles.

The timing is right for me to form this consort or viols, having just finished studying viol in Germany for 2 years and now having the availability and creative time to pursue a project such as this. Having experienced a lot of different musical landscapes in my studies abroad, I want to bring a continental flavour to this English repertoire. I believe there is a market for a slick presenting young viol consort to interpret this repertoire in a fresh way. Bringing together such a fine group of young players, who are all soloists in their own right, gives a fun vitality to the way we play together.

There is huge diversity in what we each bring to the groups musical mood board. Music theatre, opera, singing, orchestral discipline, chamber music communication, which I think can be heard in how we play.

In 5 years time, I would like to see Republic of Viols touring across the UK and in Europe particularly, in a sense exporting this English consort repertoire. Social media, education and outreach is important to us, and I see us following the sort of business model that some of the very successful vocal consorts have taken. Collaborations with singers and other musical partners will be central. As will be the creation of top quality video recordings.