RACHEL PODGER

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 REMA’s Early Music Day 2020. A creative programmer, she is the founder and Artistic Director of Brecon Baroque Festival and her ensemble Brecon Baroque. Rachel is Patron for the Continuo Foundation.

Following an exciting and innovative new collaboration, A Guardian Angel, with the ‘impeccable’ (Gramophone) vocal ensemble VOCES8, Rachel was thrilled to be one of the Artists in Residence at the renowned Wigmore Hall throughout the 2019/2020 season. The series features Rachel in all-Bach performances as a soloist and with Brecon Baroque. Alongside this, Rachel and Christopher Glynn recorded the world premiere of three previously unfinished Mozart sonatas which were completed by Royal Academy of Music Professor Timothy Jones for release in March 2021.

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 also has a relationship with The Juilliard School in New York.

ARTE DEI SUONATORI

Arte dei Suonatori, founded in 1993 by the violinists Ewa Golińska and Aureliusz Goliński, is one of the most interesting Polish orchestras specialising in the performance of baroque and classical music.

From its very beginning, the orchestra has been composed of the best young Polish musicians playing early instruments. During the first years of its existence the group systematically built its artistic image and has become known as one of the most interesting Polish ensembles specialising in the performance of baroque and classical music and according to critics and audiences, Arte dei Suonatori is one of the most interesting phenomena on the European early music stage in recent years.

The Arte dei Suonatori has received Young Art Medals and a TVP Kultura Award, and has been nominated for the Pegasus Cultural Award and a Polityka Passport Award (several times). In 2006 the musicians were honoured with the City of Poznań Artistic Award for outstanding artistic achievement and for making Poznań a European centre of early music.

AMACONSORT

Four young musicians unify their sounds in Amaconsort, inspired by the centuries old tradition of performing great music in a domestic setting, using their chosen instruments in a creative manner. Bringing a variety of instrumentation, they not only provide a fresh take on known repertoire, but also introduce the public to the unknown. The lively spirit of the performance is emblazoned with freedom and spontaneity.

BAROKKBANDIÐ BRÁK

Barokkbandið Brák lead by the renowned icelandic violinist Elfa Rún Kristinsdóttir was founded in 2015 in collaboration with Elfa´s colleagues Guðbjörg Hlín Guðmundsdóttir and Laufey Jensdóttir. The ensemble mainly consists of Icelandic musicians who all share a passion for historically informed performance of Renaissance and Baroque music and seek to bring the music from this period to a wide audience in Iceland and abroad.

Since its founding the group has held numerous concerts in Iceland with great success. Most of Brák’s performances have been recorded and broadcasted by the Icelandic National Radio (RÚV) and a few recordings are now available online. Barokkbandið Brák frequently collaborates with renowned singers, dancers and instrumentalists from all over Europe giving each individual project its own unique sound and concept.

Barokkbandið Brák won Performance of the year award in the classical category at the Icelandic Music Awards in 2020 for their concert Brák & Bach at Harpa Concert Hall. The band has received numerous award nominations and great reviews since its founding.

VLADIMIR WALTHAM

Berlin-based French-born multi-faceted musician Vladimir Waltham is equally at home on Cello, Baroque Cello, and all sizes of da Gamba instruments. Praised for his “soulful and atmospheric” playing by American Record Review, Vladimir is passionate about sharing the broadest possible musical palette, in repertoire spanning from the Middle Ages to collaborations with composers and world premieres as well as everything in between.

Vladimir has performed in concert halls all around the world with his ensembles the Linos Piano Trio and La Serenissima, but also regularly appears as a guest soloist and chamber musician in halls and festivals worldwide, from London’s Wigmore Hall to the Concertgebouw Amsterdam, Harpa in Reykjavik, Melbourne Recital Center, Tokyo’s Similar Triphony Hall, Musiikkitalo Helsinki and NOSPR Hall in Katowice. Vladimir’s recorded offerings have been well received by the press, garnering various prizes and accolades along the way. Gramophone singled out Vladimir’s contribution to La Serenissima’s CD Vivaldi x2 in glowing terms: “[a] soloist to whom I could listen all day, cellist Vladimir Waltham; hear his gently grainy, luminous tone and his sighing trills, and fall in love.”

2015 saw Vladimir take First Prize and the Audience Prize with his Linos Piano Trio at the Melbourne International Chamber Music Competition, and in 2016 he was awarded Third Prize at the International Bach Competition Leipzig on baroque cello.

ELFA RÚN KRISTINSDÓTTIR

Icelandic violinist Elfa Rún Kristinsdóttir has become known for her expressive and musical virtuosity, where she succinctly combines masterful craft and technique with a natural, vital and beautiful tone. Elfa studied in Freiburg with Rainer Kussmaul and in Leipzig with Carolin Widmann. She first came to international prominence in 2006 when she won the Grand Prize, Audience Prize, and Prize for the Youngest Finalist in the International Bach Competition in Leipzig.

Through her varied career, she is equally comfortable with both modern and baroque violin, dividing her time between solo engagements, chamber music and leading larger ensembles. She has performed widely to universal acclaim, both as a concerto soloist and with orchestras such as the Icelandic Symphony Orchestra, Les Siècles and the Hamburger Symphoniker. She has also performed as a soloist and chamber musician at numerous festivals around the world, including the Bachfest Leipzig and the Festival Oude Muziek Utrecht.

HERDÍS ANNA JÓNASDÓTTIR

Herdís Anna Jónasdóttir studied singing in the Ísafjörður Music School, the Iceland Academy of the Arts in Reykjavík and the Hanns Eisler Academy of Music in Berlin. 2012-13 she was a member of the International Opera Studio at the Opera in Zürich, and 2013-18 engaged as a soloist at the Saarland State Theatre in Saarbrücken, Germany. Herdís is now a freelancing artist and lives in Reykjavík.

Herdís has taken part in several opera productions in Iceland, Germany and Switzerland. Her operatic roles include Adina (L’elisir d’amore), Adele (The Bat), Zerlina in Don Giovanni, The Queen of Schemacha (The Golden Cockerel), Maria (West Side Story), Eliza (My Fair Lady), Nannetta (Falstaff), and Oscar (A Masked Ball). In Iceland she has twice performed with the Icelandic Opera; Musetta (La boheme) and Violetta (La traviata). Herdís Anna has also been very active on the concert stage, performing with f.e. the Reykjavík Chamber Orchestra, Caput Ensemble, the Saarland State Orchestra, the Iceland Symphony Orchestra, the Faroe Islands Symphony Orchestra and the Canberra Symphony Orchestra, as well as with smaller ensembles and musicians, in radio and television.

Herdís has received various prizes and acknowledgement for her work; Icelandic Music Awards Singer of the year 2022, Gríman, the Icelandic Performing Arts Award in 2019 and Singer of the year 2016 in Saarbrücken.

Herdís has through her career gained experience performing different genres of music, Lied as well as opera, sacral music and belconto, musicals and modern music. In 2021 Herdís released her first solo album Nýir vængir, where she performs with Bjarni Frímann Bjarnason, pianist, icelandic Songs, old and new.

KAMMERHÓPURINN CONSORTICO

Kammerhópurinn Consortico is an Iceland-based ensemble formed in 2023 by an international group of musicians specialized in historical performance. They are interested in exploring rarely performed European and Latin American repertoire spanning from the sixteenth to the eighteenth century.