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MAY UPDATE
- Continuo Foundation
- Jun 6
- 8 min read
IN THIS UPDATE:
2. FUNDRAISING PROGRESS
IMPACT - FEEDBACK AND FIGURES
In May, seven grantee ensembles presented a total of 17 concerts, in 13 different locations across the UK. In addition, recordings were made by The Harmonious Society of Tickle-Fiddle Gentlemen, for a new album Vivaldi in Prague, and the recently-formed Lowe Ensemble recorded their arrangement of Antonio Soler's Fandango, R.146.
We have been delighted to see our emerging ensemble grantees gaining recognition. Just this week, the Bellot Ensemble, whose debut recording, Cupid's Ground Bass, was funded by Continuo, have been selected as Britten-Pears Young Artists for 2025-26! Don't miss the opportunity to hear them perform this programme live at our Oxford Early Music Day on 12 July (details below).
It was also very rewarding to read this feedback from Música d'Outrora, another emerging group, whose debut recording will be released in September:
The recent grant from Continuo Foundation towards our debut recording 'Still Life' has profoundly shaped Música d’Outrora’s artistic trajectory and sustainability. This essential support enabled us to produce a high-quality album that represents our artistic vision, and will significantly enhance our ensemble’s profile and credibility within the Early Music community, opening new avenues for performance and collaboration, laying a strong foundation for the ensemble’s future stability and continued artistic growth.
We deeply appreciate the Continuo Foundation’s invaluable support and thoughtful approach to nurturing the early music ecosystem. The clarity and flexibility of your funding process have significantly contributed to our ensemble’s ability to realise ambitious artistic projects like 'Still Life'. We believe your support actively fosters innovation, artistic excellence, and sustainable growth among Early Music groups. Thank you for playing such a critical role in empowering emerging ensembles to thrive.
Continuo Foundation's impact since inception:
£950,000 awarded to 110 ensembles
1,225 freelance musician beneficiaries
336,000 audience beneficiaries
30 CD recordings released so far
FUNDRAISING PROGRESS
A message from Tina Vadaneaux, Founder and CEO:
As we approach Continuo's fifth year, I am so grateful to everyone who has supported our work since 2020, when I started with a blank sheet of paper, aiming to help address an existential challenge and to seize an opportunity to create a more financially sustainable operating model for the sector. THANK YOU!
Our two Principal Supporters, donating a transformational £480,000 over the next three years, have enabled us to further develop the sustainability of Continuo as an organisation and to put in place the high-calibre team we now have dedicated to our Continuo Connect digital initiative.
Securing the third Principal Supporter, donating £80,000 per year for three years, will complete the solid base of funding that will assure Continuo’s grants programme and other activities in 2025-27 can go ahead as planned.
I would also like to express our profound gratitude to the important Continuo donors at all levels, from £50 to £30,000 annually, whose generosity makes it possible to raise the funding required beyond the core Principal Supporter funding. This additional £120,000 each year is essential to continuing to grow our impact for musicians and audiences.
On 1 July, we are thrilled to be launching our next (10th) grant round - and to passing the £1 million milestone! Demand for funding is stronger than ever, due to arts funding cuts and, on the positive side, a steady flow of emerging talent entering this ecosystem.
Thank you to all who have pledged or donated a total of £87,200 toward Grant Round 10 - I am beyond grateful. Our immediate goal is to close the £12,800 gap to reach our £100,000 target.
If you would like to discuss how you can help us achieve our objectives, I would be delighted to speak with you. Please contact me at tina@continuofoundation.co.uk.
PLAYER SPOTLIGHT
with Jacob Garside
Jacob Garside is a freelance cellist and viola da gamba player based in London. He attended the Royal Academy, studying baroque cello and viol with Jonathan Manson, and the Royal College, where he studied viol with Richard Boothby and Reiko Ichise, supported by the Enlightenment and Hill Scholarships, respectively. He currently studies viola da gamba with Robert Smith on the Konzertexamen course at Hochschule für Musik und Tanz, Köln. He has played for St James Baroque, La Nuova Musica, the Academy of Ancient Music, Instruments of Time & Truth, Oxford Bach Soloists, Gabrieli Consort, Royal Northern Sinfonia and Det Norske Blåseensemble. A keen chamber musician, he has also played with Brecon Baroque, Spiritato, Opera Settecento, Endelienta and the viol consorts Fretwork, Newe Vialles and London Viols. In 2020, Jacob co-founded The Players of the Hampstead Collective.
How has Continuo Foundation impacted your day-to-day life?
Continuo Foundation's support of early music has really revitalised the scene from its post-covid low. I think it has also boosted creativity by giving financial breathing space for more creative and ambitious projects. The grants we have received for The Players of The Hampstead Collective have allowed us to significantly grow the scale of our projects. When we did Schubert’s Trout Quintet it allowed us to rent a top-class fortepiano, and for Handel's Saul it made it possible to significantly enhance our continuo section - and to rehearse more. Exciting to get a real Carillon (a keyboard instrument that creates a sound like chiming bells) in too!
What new doors have opened for you since becoming a grantee?
Our concerts have seen their audiences grow, and being a grantee has given us a platform to make more people aware of the work we are doing. We will be taking one of our programmes on tour next year - 'Aggripina Betrayed’. It was fantastic for Worcestershire Early Music to ask us to play this programme there, and I’m sure being part of Continuo Connect played a part in their being aware of us and the work we do.
What do you love about being a musician?
I love getting to travel all over the place! Recently, I got to go to New York for some concerts and I had such a good time getting to know the place for a week.
Where did you encounter the most receptive audience?
The Royal Vauxhall Tavern. We did a programme of queer baroque music in their Saturday night cabaret slot. You could have heard a pin drop, and we loved performing there! Three people shouted out "theorbo" when we asked if anyone knew what the instrument is, which is pretty good going!
No.1 listening recommendation?
Have a listen to 'Confitemini Domino' on Le Poeme Harmonique’s disc Coppini, Monteverdi & Ruffo: Nova Metamorfosi. The third movement is my favourite!
More about Jacob Garside is available in his Continuo Connect Interview.
MAY PROJECT HIGHLIGHTS
The Telling - Into the Melting Pot
The Telling gave six performances of their concert-play Into the Melting Pot in five locations across the UK in May: In London, Glasgow, Silsden, Llantwit Major and Birmingham. Written by award-winning writer Clare Norburn and directed by BAFTA-nominated director Nicholas Renton, these performances transported the audience back to 15th-century Seville through plaintive Sephardic songs and lively Spanish medieval music telling women's stories of integration, love, the rich cultural heritage of the Spanish peninsula and racial intolerance across the centuries. The group also worked with refugees in Cardiff and Birmingham. Founder of The Telling, Clare Norburn commented: Thank you so much for your continued support of The Telling: you were our largest funder and for such a complex project and so much outreach work, without you we would have struggled to put on this project.
The Harmonious Society of Tickle Fiddle Gentlemen - Vivaldi in Prague
In May, The Harmonious Society of Tickle-Fiddle Gentlemen completed recording sessions for their new album, Vivaldi in Prague. Following an intensive period of rehearsals in London, the ensemble spent three full days recording in the Kent countryside. Founder Robert Rawson said, 'While we are accustomed to the name Vivaldi conjuring imagines of Venice, his relationship to Prague was clearly important, not only to Bohemian musicians, but to Vivaldi himself, who visited around 1730 to oversee the production of his opera Il Farnace.' The album will present newly reconstructed arias in Italian and Czech from Vivaldi pasticcios performed in Prague, along with concertos by Vivaldi's Bohemian pupils and contemporaries.
Lowe Ensemble - Soler Fandango
In May, the Lowe Ensemble held recording sessions as part of their project to create a video of their arrangement of Spanish Baroque composer Antonio Soler's Fandango, R.146. Originally composed for harpsichord, the work was arranged for baroque strings and guitar, harpsichord and percussion. The video material will be filmed in San Lorenzo de El Escorial in Spain, the composer's hometown, where these five talented siblings were raised.
Linarol Consort of Viols - A Mermaid on a Dolphin's Back
In May, the Linarol Consort and soprano Heloïse Bernard presented A Mermaid on a Dolphin's Back in Melrose (Scottish Borders), and in Stratford-upon-Avon, as part of the inaugural Shakespeare in Music Festival. Their programme exploring Continental music in the time of William Shakespeare will tour to Somerset and Dorset in August. In the meantime, you can see the Linarol Consort present a Gibbons programme on 12 July as part of Continuo's Oxford Early Music Day.
NEW ALBUM ALERT
Sounds Baroque & Helen Charlston - If the Fates allow
In May, Sounds Baroque and Helen Charlston released If the Fates allow, this rising star mezzo-soprano's first solo album on BIS records. A selection of songs by the English composer Henry Purcell, some very well-known, others less so, are paired with pieces by contemporary composers including John Blow, John Eccles, Christopher Simpson and Daniel Purcell, Henry's son. The programme focuses on songs that explore the struggle between heart and mind: do we fall in love through reason or because fate destined it to be so? The CD can be purchased here. Read Helen's interview. Listen below!
Fretwork - My Days
The latest album from Fretwork pairs some of the greatest music for viol consort by Orlando Gibbons (1583–1625) with the first recording of Nico Muhly's My Days. Written in 2012 for Fretwork and The Hilliard Ensemble, commissioned by Wigmore Hall, My Days sets the same text as Gibbons' anthem ‘Behold, thou hast made my days’ and frames this with a setting of text from Gibbons' autopsy report from June 1625. Muhly said, 'My Days' is a ritualised memory piece about Orlando Gibbons written for two ensembles whose recordings informed so much of my musical development. The album is available to purchase on Signum Records. Read more about Richard Boothby and Fretwork here.
COMING SOON: OXFORD EARLY MUSIC DAY
Continuo will co-present an Early Music Day with Oxford Festival of the Arts on Saturday 12 July. The afternoon will comprise two concerts by Continuo grantees, and a talk by Sir Nicholas Kenyon. The Linarol Consort of Viols and countertenor William Purefoy will present a lunchtime concert of music by Orlando Gibbons, marking the 400th anniversary of his death. This will be followed by an Emerging Ensemble Showcase with Bellot Ensemble, who will perform a programme recorded in 2024 for their debut album, Cupid's Ground Bass, supported by a Continuo Foundation grant. The day concludes with Sir Nicholas Kenyon reflecting on the early music revival over the past century and its lasting influence. All events take place at the Grove Auditorium, Magdalen College. For more information, please click below - we would love to see you there!
