Elizabeth Pallett

Elizabeth Pallett is a lutenist who also plays a variety of lute related instruments including chitarrone, baroque guitar, and English Theorbo. Elizabeth did her undergraduate study at Birmingham Conservatoire (1991-94) and postgraduate study at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama (1994-96).  While at the Guildhall she primarily studied with renowned lutenist Nigel North in both solo repertoire and continuo. She has since gone on to work with a significant number of well-known early music ensembles including the New London Consort, the English Cornett and Sackbut Ensemble, Florilegium, Gabrieli Consort and Players, Ex Cathedra and many more. Through these groups she has performed at all the major concert venues in the UK and toured extensively abroad in Europe, Israel and to far flung vistas such as Singapore, Beijing, Mexico and Japan. 

As a continuo player in early opera Elizabeth has accompanied many internationally recognized singers including Joanne Lunn, Andrew King, Mark Tucker, Catherine Bott and Emma Kirkby. Performing highlights include a world tour of Jonathan Miller’s L’Orfeo by Monteverdi and a production of The Fairy Queen by Henry Purcell, directed by Mauricio Garcìa Lozano.

For many years, Elizabeth has been part of the broken consort group the Musicians of the Globe, (MoG) specializing in imaginative presentations of renaissance music. These include unusual crossover collaborations with artists such as Richard Thompson of Fairport Convention and Carlos Núñez of The Chieftains and the Singapore Chinese Orchestra performing the world premiere of ‘Awaking’ composed by Qu Xiao for the Singapore Arts Festival in 2009.

Recording credits for Elizabeth include “Eliza is the Fayrest Quene" with the QuintEssential Sackbut and Cornett Ensemble. "This World’s Globe” and "Such Sweet Sorrow" with Shakespeare’s Globe Musicians. She is currently planning to record a solo CD, connecting the works of Francesco Canova da Milano and John Dowland, ‘From Italy to England: Two Great Masters.’

Elizabeth is a Visiting Tutor at Birmingham Conservatoire, has recently created the online resource for lutenists www.luteweb.com and is an active member of the Lute Society. She lives in Great Malvern, Worcestershire, with her husband and three young children.