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26 September 2024
The eighth grant round has been directed to some of the best of Britain’s emerging and established period-instrument groups. Thanks to the generosity of Continuo Foundation's donors, £100,000 in grants will enable 27 ensembles to pursue ambitious concert and recording projects, with audience growth and community-building at their heart.
Continuo Foundation’s eighth round of grants, announced today, reflects the remarkable vitality, creativity and dedication of the nation’s early music ensembles. Grants have been awarded for a diverse portfolio of projects enabling hundreds of musicians to bring their compelling plans to life, to places and people often under-served with live performances. Continuo’s fresh injection of funding brings the amount provided for historical performance projects covering 900 years of history, and played on period instruments, to a total of £850,000.
Ten emerging groups, formed since 2020, and 17 established ensembles will perform in 48 different locations, ranging from Cornwall and the Scilly Isles, Hastings and Helensburgh to Belfast and Presteigne, East Anglia to South Devon. Their programmes, whether concert, audio recording or film projects, offer a vibrant perspective on the UK’s infinitely varied, world-class historical performance sector. The broad geographical reach of the funded projects is matched by the list of venues, ranging from purpose-built concert halls to art galleries, churches, community colleges and cafés.
Headline figures signal the importance of Continuo Foundation grants. But they tell only part of the story. The impact of these grants is illustrated by the experience of emerging ensemble Sounds Historical. Recorder player and baroque flautist Heidi Fardell (below) notes that her ensemble has been able to take projects to diverse new audiences and venues thanks to Continuo funding.
“We aim to reach as many communities as possible, to connect with people who are keen to hear live music but often worry about the cost of living,” she observes. “Having the security of a Continuo Foundation grant makes the difference between certain concerts happening or not.”
While most of the group’s concerts so far have taken place in Oxfordshire, Warwickshire and Northamptonshire, Sounds Historical will expand their presence in Yorkshire and the North East of England. Continuo Foundation funding will enable the group to take its ‘600 Years! Hildegard to Haydn’ programme to places rarely if ever touched by professional classical performers, including Little Heyford, Presteigne, Worcester, Stoke Lyne, Sibford, Rugby and Coventry.
Community building is also central to ‘Baroque & Beyond’, an engaging project developed by Manchester-based trio Baroque in the North. Violinist, recorder and musette player Amanda Babington explains the title:
“It takes chamber concerts ‘beyond’ the usual locations, to rural communities in the North West without arts events. The aim is to improve accessibility to live music for rural residents of all ages, and to enhance community spirit by presenting live music events in a venue central to village life, whether it’s a chapel, school or pub. Continuo Foundation grants allows small organisations like ours to develop projects like this, and to keep ticket prices affordable.”
Chelys Consort of Viols has long experience of making bold projects happen, yet founder Alison Kinder says that its Orlando Gibbons weekend next March, commemorating the quatercentenary of the composer’s death, has been wholly transformed by Continuo Foundation’s grant. The funding will enable Chelys to present Gibbon’s sacred music as part of a liturgical service, and also in concert with a professional vocal ensemble. Other highlights include a programme of Gibbons’s secular madrigals with soprano Emily Atkinson, recitals of his consort and keyboard music, talks curated by the Viola da Gamba Society, masterclasses and viewings of original manuscripts in the Christ Church library. Alison explains:
“We might have managed the service and perhaps one concert on our own. But to plan and deliver something on such a scale, giving audiences the chance to experience Gibbons’s majestic music in all its forms, would have been impossible without this award.”
Details of the 27 award recipients and their projects are available by clicking here. To see these performances come to life, please visit our Continuo Connect website, the place to discover a world of music, with the best of historical performance at your fingertips.
Congratulations to all our new grantees, and thank you to all
the generous donors who made these grant awards possible!