RBC Spring Recorder Festival 2024: Concerts

Saturday 13 April

The English Wind Consort – ‘Renaissance in Europe’
1pm, Recital Hall, £5

Kate Allsop recorder, cornett
Eleanor Carr dulcian, shawm, recorder
Liam Fleet dulcian, shawm, recorder, voice
Lewis Jones keyboard continuo
Tristan Lambert dulcian, shawm
Kira Thomas recorder, dulcian, shawm, voice
Mark Wilson dulcian, voice, recorder

The English Wind Consort will explore the musical and cultural exchanges between four important cultural centres in renaissance Europe – England, Spain, Germany and Italy, interspersing sacred and secular music, played on a fascinating and kaleidoscopic range of wind instruments from the period.

The English Wind Consort was established in 2022 after its founders met on the Historical Music course at Dartington Summer School. United by their love of early music and consort playing, they formed EWC with the goal of exploring and enlarging the consort repertoire. The core of the ensemble are all multi-instrumentalists and often play two, three or more different instruments per performance, exploring the timbral variety these families of instruments, in their various sizes, can offer.

The ensemble is underpinned by organ, played by continuo player Lewis Jones. Lewis is a specialist in Italian and Spanish sacred music of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, and has in the course of his doctoral research transcribed hundreds of obscure pieces of repertoire. EWC has been able to explore this 'new' repertoire by giving modern premieres of pieces that have often not been performed for several centuries.

EWC have enjoyed a well-received first year of concerts, and 2024 plans include performances as part of the 400^th anniversary of Pembroke College, Oxford University and a summer tour to the Rhineland, Germany.

All About the Bass
7pm, Recital Hall, £10

Annabel Knight (bass recorders and flute) with Reiko Ichise (viola da gamba) and Robin Bigwood (keyboards)

A journey into the sonorous world of all things Bass, featuring a kaleidoscopic range of music from the past five hundred years. Virtuosic Italian and English Renaissance divisions brush shoulders with sensuous French viol music and eighteenth-century ‘galanterie’, alongside adventurous new works in the exciting field of amplified and square bass recorders.

Music by Bassano, Purcell, Marais, Alice Chance, Jessica Wells and Göran Månsson

Sunday 14 April

Festival Jamboree Concert
4pm Recital Hall, £5, Under 18s free.

Conductor Chris Orton

The concluding concert in the RBC Spring Recorder Festival, dedicated to RBC’s former Head of Recorder Ross Winters (1951- 2021).

This concert features a brand-new work for massed recorders by RBC composer-recorder player Riko Suzuki, showcasing talent from Birmingham schools and across the UK. The concert will also feature performances from former students and colleagues of Ross Winters, as well as contributions from some of the UK’s brightest young recorder talents.

• Book Participant Place Now
• Audience admission fee £5, under 18s free. Book Now.
• Some places may still be available if you contact Annabel Knight directly.
  Email annabel.knight@bcu.ac.uk