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ENSEMBLE INFO

Ensemble Contact:

Email:

morleyconsort@gmail.com

2025

PROJECT DESCRIPTION

A five-concert tour of South Devon (including a finale concert in London) features music centred around Sir Francis Drake and the history of the region.

When Francis Drake (Tavistock-born and a longtime MP for Devon) captained the circumnavigation voyage of the Hinde, it is recorded, by Nuna de Silva - a Portuguese navigator whom they captured - that: “they brought four viols, and made lamentations and sang together.” Alongside imagining the sound-worlds that might have been aboard, we have also selected music related to other notable moments in Devon’s history – encompassing King Arthur, Viking raids, civil war and climate change.

We will introduce each work by reading from relevant first-hand accounts of each highlighted time period, and in London - aboard a beautiful recreation of Francis Drake’s famous vessel - these written accounts will be interspersed with more detailed information about Drake’s circumnavigation, using a similar musical setlist.

Venues:
• St. Nicholas Priory (Exeter)
• St. Lawrence Chapel (Ashburton)
• Historic Guildhall (Totnes)
• St. Eustachius’ Church (Tavistock)
• The Golden Hinde (London)

Support for the tour:
We have received generous offers from volunteers in Totnes to cover lodging, food, and travel costs within Devon. We have been able to secure Town Council support with the exceptional donation of the Totnes Guildhall for a free public performance, and to receive assistance from the Field Systems gallery in Ashburton in renting the St. Lawrence Chapel at a reduced rate, using a 70/30 ticket split with the gallery.

Our aim:
There is relatively little early music activity in Devon outside of Exeter and Devon Baroque at present. The presence of these alongside Totnes Early Music Society and Dartington Music Summer School show an engagement with and desire for early music, but with the passing of the latter two organisations, there are many gaps as of yet unfilled by new historical performance enterprises. Performing in a mixture of smaller towns (Tavistock, Ashburton), holiday/tourist hubs (Totnes) and an urban centre (Exeter) will provide greater opportunities for a varied audience base to experience early music and its relationship to our history.

We have found that attendees of our past concerts have come from a wide assortment of backgrounds - ranging in age from 8-80, from connoisseurs to those with no previous experience with early music (or even classical music at large). To further broaden our audience, we are volunteering our time to provide free educational workshops at the Totnes Guildhall (as part of the Totnes Heritage Festival) and at the Field Systems Gallery in Ashburton, exploring the musical relationships between early music and folk genres. We also hope that programming concerts tailored to Devon and its history might prove yet another means of attracting people to our concerts, and that dialogue between place and programme can enrich our own interpretations of this music.

Drawn together by a desire to explore radical historical practices within early music, each member of the Morley Consort brings their individual passion to create a holistic approach to our performances. Our interests include: the experimental reconstruction of sixteenth and seventeenth-century bows and instruments, historical rehearsal practices and music as a medium for sociality, music within its context and underrepresented repertories, and historical pedagogical, performance and notational practices (such as rhetoric, ornamentation, solmisation, and tablature). We enjoy sharing the results of our research into these topics in concert settings, through musical and verbal engagement, using performance as both the catalyst and outcome of scholarly research.

By combining applied research, craftsmanship and a desire to question established historical performance norms, our ensemble aims to be at the cutting edge of the next generation of the historical performance movement, using techniques and practices gleaned from primary sources and academically-rigorous research to bring exciting, hitherto unexplored sound-worlds to life for our audiences.

Comprising Sophia Mücke (violin), Madison Marshall (viola/violin), Tess Roberts (viols), and Jude Chandler (violone), we are an ensemble of students and graduates from the Royal Academy of Music’s Historical Performance programme. Prior to studies at the Academy, our ensemble members earned degrees in performance and ethnomusicology from the Schola Cantorum Basiliensis, Yale University, the Colburn School, and the University of Washington.

Our first concert took place on October 11, 2025 as part of St. Michael’s Highgate’s ‘Saturdays at Six’ concert series, and featured music by Falconieri, Farina, Legrenzi, Moulinié, Purcell, and Rosenmüller. We have since gone on to perform a sold-out concert at Hertford College Chapel, Oxford (January 24, 2026 - https://www.eventbrite.com/e/capriccio-stravagante-tickets-1977836333716 ), and have upcoming concerts scheduled inside and outside of London. We hope that as we continue to grow as an ensemble that we will be able to bring the repertoire and research about which we are deeply passionate to listeners of all backgrounds and to a wide variety of spaces.