BIO:
Founded by harpsichordist Trevor Pinnock in 1973, The English Concert is among the finest chamber orchestras in the world, with an unsurpassed reputation for inspiring performances of Baroque and Classical music in the concert hall and on CD.
Highlights of recent seasons include a return to the Barbican Hall Great Performers series in London, European and US tours, Handel’s Samson at the 2009 BBC Proms, residencies at the Victoria & Albert and Handel House museums in London, recordings with Ian Bostridge, Elizabeth Watts, Albrecht Mayer and Maurice Steger, and the first English Concert Master Class for young harpsichordist-directors in London.
In 2007 Harry Bicket was appointed Artistic Director and has led the orchestra in tours to Germany, Austria, Spain, France, the USA and the Middle East. Bicket is renowned particularly for his work in opera with the finest singers of the age, and English Concert collaborators include Vesselina Kasarova, Anna Caterina Antonacci, Sara Mingardo, Lucy Crowe, Daniele de Niese, Rosemary Joshua and Sarah Connolly.
The English Concert recently toured Handel’s Messiah in Spain and embarked on an extensive chamber music tour of the Canary Islands. In October 2011 they will return to the United States with Harry Bicket and counter-tenor Andreas Scholl, visiting Los Angeles, Berkeley, Chicago, Boston and New York. From 2013 will present three Handel operas at Carnegie Hall New York in successive seasons, and in 2014 will collaborate with the Theater an der Wien in operas by Gluck.
Among the most recorded of chamber orchestras, The English Concert has to its credit more than 100 recordings with Trevor Pinnock for Deutsche Grammophon and a series of critically acclaimed CDs for Harmonia Mundi with violinist Andrew Manze. Their first two recordings with Harry Bicket – Bach arias with David Daniels and Handel Duets with Rosemary Joshua and Sarah Connolly – have been widely praised. Other recent releases are albums with oboist Albrecht Mayer and recorder virtuoso Maurice Steger, while forthcoming CDs include recitals with sopranos Daniele de Niese and Lucy Crowe.
The English Concert also works with distinguished guest directors, including oboist Alfredo Bernardini, violinist Fabio Biondi and harpsichordists Laurence Cummings and Kenneth Weiss.
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