The English Cornett and Sackbut Ensemble was formed in 1993 by the leading young specialists on early brass instruments from London’s music colleges, with a shared aim to take the performance of music on cornetts and sackbuts to the highest level.
The group has since played at many major music festivals in the UK including Bath, Spitalfields, W...
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The English Cornett and Sackbut Ensemble was formed in 1993 by the leading young specialists on early brass instruments from London’s music colleges, with a shared aim to take the performance of music on cornetts and sackbuts to the highest level.
The group has since played at many major music festivals in the UK including Bath, Spitalfields, Warwick & Leamington and York. Appearances have also been given in the Wigmore Hall, St. John’s Smith Square and the Purcell Room in London. They have also given concerts in France, Israel (twice with the assistance of the British Council) and Canada as well as being featured on BBC Radio 3 and 4 and BBC Scotland.
Following the success of their first CD, Accendo, released in 2001 with three 5 star awards, ECSE have been a part of some exciting and diverse recordings, including a live BBC Radio 3 broadcast from St. James’s Palace with His Majesty’s Chapel Royal Choir and a world premiere recording with Emma Kirkby and the Armonico Consort of Francesco Scarlatti’s Miserere. The Madrigal in Venice, a collaborative recording with I Fagiolini of Andrea Gabrieli’s madrigals has also received further 5 star awards. Later this year sees the release of their next CD on the Duex-Elles label of German renaissance music.
Playing instruments that so naturally compliment the human voice, the English Cornett and Sackbut Ensemble have regularly accompanied the country’s leading professional chamber choirs, including I Fagiolini, the Dunedin Consort, Trinity Baroque, His Majesty’s Chapel Royal Choir at St. James’s Palace and the Armonico Consort. They have performed many joint vocal and instrumental programmes with choral societies across Britain, including the magnificent 1610 Vespers of Claudio Monteverdi. This is one of ECSE’s most popular requests for concert programmes and the group already has bookings and enquiries for the year 2010, the 400th anniversary of the work.
In addition to their work with ECSE, the members are also regular performers with leading period instruments groups such as, The Gabrieli Consort, The English Baroque Soloists, The King’s Consort, and Tafelmusik, as well as providing music for the plays at the reconstructed Shakespeare’s Globe on London’s Bankside.
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