Trevor Pinnock pioneered performance on historical instruments with his orchestra The English Concert, which he founded in 1972. Since 2003 he has divided his time between conducting, solo, chamber music and educational projects.

He tours regularly with Maria João Pires and the Deutsche Kammerphilharmonie Bremen and with Emmanuel Pahud and Kammerakademie Potsdam. This season he returns to the Koninklijk Concertgebouworkest Amsterdam, Deutsche Kammerphilharmonie andKammerorchester Basel and works with the Orchestre National de France. As Principal Guest Conductor of the RAM Concert Orchestra, he visits Japan to lead them in combined concerts with Tokyo Geidai, University of the Arts Orchestra. His other projects include solo harpsichord recitals and concerts with Matthew Truscott, Sophie Gent and Jonathan Manson.

Recent recordings include two solo recordings, Louis Couperin harpsichord works and a recital ‘Journey - 200 years of harpsichord music’; CPE Bach Flute Concertos with Emmanuel Pahud and the Kammerakademie Potsdam; Mozart’s Gran Partita for winds and Haydn Notturno with the Royal Academy of Music Soloists.

In 2006 Pinnock founded the European Brandenburg Ensemble to celebrate his 60th birthday. Their recording of Bach’s Brandenburg Concertos on the Avie label was awarded a 2008 Gramophone prize.

Trevor Pinnock is President of the Faversham Music Club in Kent, which puts on a number of popular concerts and social events each year.

Honorary doctorates: University of Ottawa (D. University) in 1993, University of Kent (DMus) in 1995, University of Sheffield (DMus) in 2005 and University of London (DMus honoris causa) in 2016.

He was made a Commander of the Order of the British Empire in the Queen's Birthday Honours in 1992 and an Officier of the French Ordre des Arts et des Lettres in 1998.

 

 

Sophie Gent
Sophie Gent was born in Perth, Western Australia and completed her initial training at the University of Western Australia. She subsequently enrolled at the Royal Conservatorium in The Hague to study with Ryo Terakado.

Since then Sophie has worked regularly as an orchestral leader and chamber musician in Europe and abroad, performing, touring and recording with numerous ensembles. She is the leader of the Ricercar Consort (Belgium, Philippe Pierlot), Pygmalion (France, Raphael Pichon), and Cappricio Stravagante (France, Skip Sempe), and has performed in many early music series and festivals such as the Boston Early Music Festival, Montreal Baroque, La Roque d'Antheron, The Utrecht Early Music Festival, The Edinburgh Festival, La Folle Journee, The Bruges Early Music Festival... She also performs as the first violin with Ensemble Masques (Olivier Fortin), Il Gardellino (Marcel Ponseele), The Collegium Vocale Orchestra (Philippe Herreweghe), Il ComplessoBarocco(Alan Curtis), Bach Concentus(Ewald Demeyere), La Petite Bande (SigiswaldKuijken), and Arcangelo (Jonathan Cohen).

Recent recordings include the Opus 1 instrumental music by Romanus Weichlein with Ensemble Masques. Other recordings with this ensemble include discs of works by J.H Schmelzer and J. Rosenmüller.

From 2011-2014 Sophie was the teacher of baroque violin at the Amsterdam Conservatorium. She has also taught at the Jerusalem Early Music Workshop and at the Conservatorium of Antwerp. She is a regular teacher at the Academy for Early Music in Vannes, and in various musical programmes at the Abbey aux Dames in Saintes. Since 2017 Sophie has been teaching at the Conservatory of Boulogne-Billancourt in France.

 

Matthew Truscott
Matthew Truscott is a versatile violinist who shares his time between period instrument and 'modern' performance, appearing with some of the finest musicians in both fields. One of the leaders of the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment since 2007, he has recently been appointed concertmaster of the Mahler Chamber Orchestra, dual roles which he relishes equally. 


In demand as a guest leader, engagements in this capacity have included projects with The English Concert, Le Concert d'Astrée, The King's Consort, Arcangelo, Budapest Festival Orchestra, English National Opera, Dutch National Opera and the Netherlands Chamber Orchestra. He is also leader of St James' Baroque, Classical Opera and the Magdalena Consort.

A keen chamber musician, recent recordings have included a set of Purcell Trio Sonatas with Retrospect Trio, a disc of Bach chamber music with Trevor Pinnock, Emmanuel Pahud and Jonathan Manson, and one of Haydn Piano Trios with Richard Lester and Simon Crawford-Phillips. Matthew teaches baroque violin at the Royal Academy of Music in London.

 

Jonathan Manson
Cellist and viol player Jonathan Manson was born in Edinburgh and received his formative training at the International Cello Centre in Scotland under the direction of Jane Cowan, later going on to study with Steven Doane and Christel Thielmann at the Eastman School of Music in New York. A growing fascination for early music led him to Holland, where he studied viola da gamba with Wieland Kuijken. For ten years he was the principal cellist of the Amsterdam Baroque Orchestra, with whom he performed and recorded more than 150 Bach cantatas and, together with Yo-Yo Ma, Vivaldi’s Concerto for two cellos. Nowadays Jonathan specialises mainly in chamber music, performing repertoire ranging from the Renaissance to the Romantic. He is a founding member of the viol consort Phantasm, which has toured worldwide and made numerous recordings; several of these have won major prizes, including Gramophone Awards in 1997 and 2004. Jonathan is also the cellist of the London Haydn Quartet, whose recording of Haydn’s op.

50 quartets have just been released on the Hyperion label. Highlights of this season have included tours to Australia, Canada and the USA.

 

A long-standing partnership with the harpsichordist Trevor Pinnock has led to critically acclaimed recordings of the Bach sonatas for viola da gamba and harpsichord, and, together with Rachel Podger, Rameau’s Pièces de clavecin en concert. Jonathan frequently appears as a principal and continuo player with the Dunedin Consort, Arcangelo, The English Concert and other leading early music groups. Recent highlights have included recitals with Elizabeth Kenny, Carolyn Sampson and Laurence Cummings, being invited to play the solo viola part in George Benjamin’s opera Written on Skin at the Royal Opera House, and an appearance as viola da gamba soloist with the Vienna Philharmonic. As a concerto soloist, he has appeared at the Wigmore Hall and the South
Bank Centre, as well as further afield, in Hong Kong, Potsdam, the Haydn Festspiele in Eisenstadt and New York’s Carnegie Hall. Jonathan lives in Oxfordshire and is a professor at the Royal Academy of Music.

 

CAROLUS HACQUART: Harmonia Parnassia Sonatorum in D minor Op.2 No. 6
J.J. FROBERGER Suite No.12 in C major for harpsichord FBwv 612 (11')
J.S. BACH Sonata in G major for violin and continuo BWV1021 (8')
J.G. GOLDBERG Sonata in C major for two violins and continuo DürG 13 (11')

- Intermission - 

D. BUXTEHUDE Sonata for violin, viola da gamba and continuo, Op.2, No.3 in G minor (11') BuxVW 261
J.S. BACH Chromatic Fantasy and Fugue BWV 903 (8')
G.F. HANDEL Sonata in B flat major for two violins and continuo, Op.2, No.3 HWV 388 (12')