THE MUSICIANS
Adrian France is a founder member and co-director of the English Cornett & Sackbut Ensemble. His career has spanned 25 years and has covered a broad spectrum of trombone playing ranging from Renaissance, Baroque, Classical and Romantic periods through to the modern trombone. He has performed with some of the world’s finest period instrument ensembles such as Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment, Hanover Band, King's Consort, English Concert, Collegium Vocale and Cappella Mediterranea, as well as working with modern symphony orchestras such as the BBC Symphony Orchestra, Scottish Chamber Orchestra, City of London Sinfonia (CLS & Opera Holland Park), The Ulster Orchstra, and the Royal Nothern Sinfonia.
In 2018, Adrian was appointed Professor of bass sackbut at the Guildhall School of Music & Drama (the first such appointment in the UK). In the same year he was invited to become a member of the Austrian period instrument ensemble Musica Antiqua Salzburg. The Concert Trombone Quartette - a new ensemble founded and directed by Adrian - specialises in historically informed performance practice based on a group of the same name founded in London in 1892. Performing on original instruments (or copies of) from over four centuries, the Quartette aims to further the work of its predecessors, and made its debut concert in June 2019.
In 2018, Adrian was appointed Professor of bass sackbut at the Guildhall School of Music & Drama (the first such appointment in the UK). In the same year he was invited to become a member of the Austrian period instrument ensemble Musica Antiqua Salzburg. The Concert Trombone Quartette - a new ensemble founded and directed by Adrian - specialises in historically informed performance practice based on a group of the same name founded in London in 1892. Performing on original instruments (or copies of) from over four centuries, the Quartette aims to further the work of its predecessors, and made its debut concert in June 2019.
Tom Lees studied trombone at the Royal Northern College of Music before becoming the first full-time student of the sackbut at the RCM, winning a Countess of Munster musical scholarship to continue his early music studies. Since then, he has joined with London Brass on a record of Venetian brass music, and has performed and recorded with many of the specialist period instrument ensembles, including The Gabrieli Consort and Players, The English Baroque Soloists, The King's Consort, Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment, Amsterdam Baroque Orchestra and Tafelmusik, with whom he recorded the Mozart Requiem trombone solo.
Tom is also a regular performer with The Musicians of the Globe, a group specially assembled to provide music at the reconstructed Shakespeare's Globe on London's Bankside.
Tom is also a regular performer with The Musicians of the Globe, a group specially assembled to provide music at the reconstructed Shakespeare's Globe on London's Bankside.
Emily White studied sackbut at The Royal Academy of Music with Sue Addison. As well as her work with ECSE, Emily plays with the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment, The Sixteen, Gabrieli Consort and Players and the Academy of Ancient Music.
Emily also plays the baroque violin having studied with Walter Reiter and Rachel Podger. in 2012 she makes use of this doubling in concerts in Germany and Holland with Suonar Cantando and Scorpio Collectief. Emily has played in productions at Shakespeare's Globe since its opening season and is performing in the 2012 production of Twelfth Night.
Emily also plays modern trombone and is a member of Chaconne Brass and Pandora's Box which both explore contemporary music. Emily also freelances with English National Ballet, Orchestra of the Swan and the National Orchestra of Wales, with whom she is playing in the 2012 BBC Proms.
Emily also teaches sackbut at Birmingham Conservatoire and Dartington International Summer School. She has coached and given workshops at Trinity College of Music, The Royal Academy of Music and St Mary's Music School, Edinburgh.
Emily also plays the baroque violin having studied with Walter Reiter and Rachel Podger. in 2012 she makes use of this doubling in concerts in Germany and Holland with Suonar Cantando and Scorpio Collectief. Emily has played in productions at Shakespeare's Globe since its opening season and is performing in the 2012 production of Twelfth Night.
Emily also plays modern trombone and is a member of Chaconne Brass and Pandora's Box which both explore contemporary music. Emily also freelances with English National Ballet, Orchestra of the Swan and the National Orchestra of Wales, with whom she is playing in the 2012 BBC Proms.
Emily also teaches sackbut at Birmingham Conservatoire and Dartington International Summer School. She has coached and given workshops at Trinity College of Music, The Royal Academy of Music and St Mary's Music School, Edinburgh.
Gawain Glenton is a specialist cornetto player whose work as a soloist and an ensemble musician takes him all over the world. Having previously studied with Bruce Dickey at the Schola Cantorum Basiliensis, Gawain performs and records regularly with many leading international groups such as Il Giardino Armonico, Concerto Palatino, Concerto Copenhagen, l'Arpeggiata, The Amsterdam Baroque Orchestra, Les Talens Lyriques, Vox Luminis and the Nederlandse Bachvereniging. In the UK, Gawain also works with ensembles such as Arcangelo, The Illyria Consort, La Nuova Musica, The Taverner Consort, The Dunedin Consort and I Fagiolini.
Gawain directs his own ensemble In Echo, whose debut CD 'Music in a Cold Climate' was released on Delphian in 2018 to widespread acclaim. Gawain is also a member of The City Musick and teaches at the annual Dartington International Summer School. His debut recital CD 'The Myth of Venice' was released in October 2021
Gawain directs his own ensemble In Echo, whose debut CD 'Music in a Cold Climate' was released on Delphian in 2018 to widespread acclaim. Gawain is also a member of The City Musick and teaches at the annual Dartington International Summer School. His debut recital CD 'The Myth of Venice' was released in October 2021
Born and raised in Dublin, Conor Hastings comes from a musical family and was exposed to a wide variety of music from an early age. Having studied recorder and then trumpet at the Royal Irish Academy of Music, he went on to study orchestral trumpet at the Royal Welsh College of Music and Drama in Cardiff. During the course of his studies he stumbled upon the cornett, and swiftly took to historical performance on original instruments. Whilst at the Royal Welsh he studied cornett with Jeremy West (His Majesty’s Sagbutts and Cornetts) and Gawain Glenton (The English Cornett and Sackbut Ensemble), and has since been an active performer in the UK. In 2014 he began his studies at the Schola Cantorum Basiliensis in Switzerland under the tutelage of the legendary Bruce Dickey.
Since completing his studies, Conor has performed all over Europe and America with The English Cornett and Sackbut Ensemble, The King's Consort, The Gabrieli Consort and players, His Majesty's Sagbutts and Cornetts and Sestina to name but a few.
He has performed solo and ensemble recitals in Ireland as part of the Music in Monkstown Festival and The Galway Early Music Festival, and is dedicated to bringing the cornett to a wider audience in Ireland.
Since completing his studies, Conor has performed all over Europe and America with The English Cornett and Sackbut Ensemble, The King's Consort, The Gabrieli Consort and players, His Majesty's Sagbutts and Cornetts and Sestina to name but a few.
He has performed solo and ensemble recitals in Ireland as part of the Music in Monkstown Festival and The Galway Early Music Festival, and is dedicated to bringing the cornett to a wider audience in Ireland.
Andy Harwood-White began his musical training as a chorister at Wells Cathedral and later, as a music scholar, studied bass trombone with Alan Hutt at Wells Cathedral School. Andy continued his training at the Royal College of Music, where he won the Fanny Hughes prize for brass.
Since leaving the RCM Andy has performed with many of the country's leading orchestras including the Philharmonia, Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, London Philharmonic Orchestra, London Festival Orchestra, Welsh National Opera and Bournemouth Sinfonietta. In addition to his work in this country Andy regularly performs with the RTE Concert Orchestra, Orquesta Filarmonica de Gran Canaria and Athens Camerata.
On the bass sackbut Andy has performed and recorded with many period instrument ensembles including the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment, English Baroque Soloists, Gabrieli Consort and Players, Tafelmusik, Academy of Ancient Music, New London Consort, The Sixteen, Amsterdam Baroque Orchestra, King's Consort and at Shakespeare’s Globe Theatre, London.
Since leaving the RCM Andy has performed with many of the country's leading orchestras including the Philharmonia, Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, London Philharmonic Orchestra, London Festival Orchestra, Welsh National Opera and Bournemouth Sinfonietta. In addition to his work in this country Andy regularly performs with the RTE Concert Orchestra, Orquesta Filarmonica de Gran Canaria and Athens Camerata.
On the bass sackbut Andy has performed and recorded with many period instrument ensembles including the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment, English Baroque Soloists, Gabrieli Consort and Players, Tafelmusik, Academy of Ancient Music, New London Consort, The Sixteen, Amsterdam Baroque Orchestra, King's Consort and at Shakespeare’s Globe Theatre, London.
Recognised as a leading early music specialist, Silas Wollston combines performance and academic research in a varied career. He studied the organ with John Scott before taking up an organ scholarship at Trinity College, Cambridge. He then went on to study harpsichord and fortepiano at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama and the Conservatoire Royale in Brussels. A longstanding member of the English Baroque Soloists, he played a major role in John Eliot Gardiner’s Bach Cantata cycle in 2000, performing the organ obbligato of BWV 146 on the Trost organ in Altenburg. He also has much experience as a choral director, working as Director of Music at Queens’ College, Cambridge between 2011 and 2015. He has published research on the string music of Locke and Purcell, and on Handel’s compositional process. He is a member of the Bach Players, the London Handel Players, the English Cornett and Sackbut Ensemble, and In Echo.