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WHO WE ARE
MARY
MARY BEVAN MBE
Soprano
Praised by Opera for her “dramatic wit and vocal control”, British soprano Mary Bevan is internationally renowned in baroque, classical and contemporary repertoire, and appears regularly with leading conductors, orchestras and ensembles around the world. She is a winner of the Royal Philharmonic Society’s Young Artist award and UK Critics’ Circle Award for Exceptional Young Talent in music and was awarded a MBE in the Queen’s birthday honours list in 2019.
Mary enjoys fruitful artistic relationships with the many orchestras with whom she regularly performs, including the OAE, AAM, The English Concert, La Nuova Musica, Concerto Copenhagen, Gabrieli Consort, CBSO, RPO, BBC Philharmonic, BBCSSO, amongst others. She has performed at the ROH, ENO (Harewood Artist), Royal Danish Theatre, Teatro Real Madrid, Carnegie Hall, RAH, Concertgebouw, Elbphilharmonie, Theater an der Wien, and performs regularly as a recitalist at Wigmore Hall and other concert and operatic venues worldwide. Photo credit: Andrew Staples
DAME EMMA KIRKBY
Soprano
Dame Emma Kirkby has dedicated her career to Early Music, as an artist and mentor for several generations of musicians. She is still at the forefront of early music performance as a soprano and is recognised worldwide for her elegant and intelligent musicianship. To date, Dame Emma has made well over a hundred recordings of all kinds, from sequences of Hildegarde of Bingen to madrigals of the Italian and English Renaissance, cantatas and oratorios of the Baroque era, and works of Mozart, Haydn and J. C. Bach. In 1999 Dame Emma was voted Artist of the Year by Classic FM Radio listeners; in 2000 she received the Order of the British Empire, and 2007 saw her appointed a Dame Commander of the Order of the British Empire. She was delighted in June 2008 to return to her alma mater, Oxford University, and receive an Honorary Doctorate of Music. In 2011, Dame Emma was awarded the Queens Medal for Music.
RACHEL PODGER
Violinist
Rachel Podger, “the unsurpassed British glory of the baroque violin” (The Times), has established herself as a leading interpreter of the Baroque and Classical music periods. She was the first woman to be awarded the prestigious Royal Academy of Music/Kohn Foundation Bach Prize in October 2015, Gramophone Artist of the Year 2018, and Ambassador for the REMA Early Music Day 2020. A creative programmer, she is the founder and Artistic Director of the Brecon Baroque Festival and her ensemble Brecon Baroque. Rachel was thrilled to be one of the Artists in Residence at the renowned Wigmore Hall throughout the 2019/2020 season. As a director and soloist, Rachel has enjoyed countless collaborations including with Robert Levin, Jordi Savall, Masaaki Suzuki, Kristian Bezuidenhout, Christopher Glynn, VOCES8, Robert Hollingworth & I Fagiolini, Armonico Consort, European Union Baroque Orchestra, English Concert, Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment, Academy of Ancient Music, Holland Baroque Society, Tafelmusik, the Handel and Haydn Society, Berkeley Early Music, and Philharmonia Baroque. Rachel is a dedicated educator and holds an honorary position at both the Royal Academy of Music and the Royal Welsh College of Music and Drama. She is also a Historical Performance Artist in Residence at The Juilliard School in New York. Rachel is managed worldwide by Percius. Photo credit: Theresa Pewal
ASHLEY SOLOMON
Baroque flautist; Director of Florilegium;
Head of Historical Performance, Royal College of Music
Ashley Solomon enjoys a successful career as a soloist, chamber musician and guest director in the UK, across Europe as well as the Americas, Far East and Australia. He is the director of Florilegium, the baroque ensemble he co-founded in 1991. He has made close to 40 recordings with them, many of which have garnered international awards. Since 2003 Ashley has been training vocalists and instrumentalists in Bolivia, working on the remarkable collection of music held in archives by the Moxos and Chiquitos indigenous people. He formed Arakaendar Bolivia Choir in 2005 and Arakaendar Baroque Orchestra in 2007 and has directed them in concerts at major international festivals. In 2008 he was one of the first Europeans to receive the prestigious Bolivian Hans Roth Prize. Combining a successful career across both teaching and practice, Ashley is also Head of Historical Performance at London’s Royal College of Music, having been appointed a professor in 1994 and awarded a Personal Chair In 2014. In July 2017 he was elected a Fellow of the Royal Academy of Music (FRAM) and in 2019 he became a Fellow of the Royal College of Music (FRCM). Since 2014 he has been working closely with the Royal Collection Trust to curate musical performances in their Royal venues. Photo credit: Chris Christodoulou
Roger
Rachel P
EMMA
Ashley
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