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21 March 2025
A ninth round of grants has been awarded to some of the UK’s best period-instrument groups – both established and emerging ensembles. Thanks to the generous support of Continuo Foundation's donors, £100,000 in grants will empower a record 31 ensembles to embark on ambitious concert tours and recording projects designed to reach wider audiences while supporting artistic excellence and scholarship.
Continuo Foundation has awarded its ninth round of grants. The awards support concerts and recording projects spanning 800 years of music - performed on period instruments - and shine a spotlight on the vibrant creativity of the UK’s early music scene.
Hundreds of musicians will have the opportunity to bring their inspiring ideas to life, reaching communities and venues that are often underserved with live performances. Since the first round of grants awarded in Spring 2021, the latest round takes the total amount of funding raised and distributed by Continuo Foundation to £950,000.
The ninth round of grants will support seven emerging groups – formed since 2020 – and twenty-four established ensembles to undertake a total of 80 performances in 50 locations across the UK. From Bodwin in Cornwall to Melrose in the Scottish Borders, and from Conwy and Llanwit Major in Wales to Brighton, Buxton and Bradford, the funded projects span across a wide array of venues, ranging from purpose-built concert halls to art galleries, churches, and community spaces.
Beyond these headline figures, the individual stories of the award recipients paint a fuller picture of the positive impact of Continuo’s grants. For example, the London-based Serpentine Trio, formed in 2022, is among the emerging awardees. Featuring works by Marais, Forqueray, Couperin, and d'Hervelois, and inspired by ‘Le Grotto de Versailles’, their audiovisual project will have a narrative structure influenced by Homer’s Odyssey, echoing Louis XIV’s love of Greek antiquity, and will aim to reach a wide audience through strategic digital promotion efforts.
“This grant will be transformative for Serpentine Trio, enabling us to bring our artistic vision to life at the highest level.” says viol player Özgür Kaya. “With this support, we can produce a visually and sonically stunning film that reinterprets French Baroque music for a modern audience, bridging the worlds of historical performance and contemporary culture.”
“Most importantly, this grant empowers us as emerging artists, giving us the platform to experiment, innovate, and share our passion for early music in a way that resonates with today’s listeners.” Kaya adds. “We are deeply grateful for this opportunity and for the Foundation’s belief in our project — Continuo’s support is not just funding a film; it is helping shape the future of historically informed performance.”
Another recently formed ensemble becoming a first-time grantee is Rune, specialising in medieval repertoire. Featuring music by Landini, Ciconia, and Machaut, as well as rarely heard English medieval pieces, their project, Decameron Musicale, is a mosaic of musical stories inspired by Boccaccio’s Decameron, exploring themes of fortune, virtue, love, trickery and intelligence. Tenor Daniel Scott views Continuo’s support as vital to keeping the group’s artistic ambitions intact. He explains:
“For Rune, this funding is vital as we plan our first concert tour, educational workshops and recordings – allowing us to share the magic of under-represented medieval repertoire with wider audiences. Many aspects of this project simply would not happen without the generous funding of Continuo Foundation.”
The Telling will tour their concert-play, Into the Melting Pot, to six new locations thanks to their Continuo grant. Set in 1492 Spain, and tuning into the voices of a community of Christian, Muslim and Jewish women, their story is told through plaintive songs and lively Spanish medieval music.
The grant will also help The Telling to take their award-winning Songs and Stories outreach project to refugee and migrant communities in Cardiff and Birmingham, helping them to create music and tell their own stories, inspired by Into the Melting Pot.
Clare Norburn, Artistic Director, is deeply concerned that in a climate where many promoters and venues are shutting their doors, “if we don't make this kind of performance happen, there will be places in the UK which always miss out on live music performances. This is where Continuo Foundation's grant is so vital.“
The ever-present financial sensitivity around new projects is a shared concern for longstanding ensembles such as The Mozartists, established in 1997. As part of their MOZART 250 project, their Opera 1775 concert at London’s Cadogan Hall, now receiving a Continuo grant, will feature works by several composers who are unknown to modern audiences. Founding Artistic Director Ian Page has been busy unearthing the manuscripts of these works, and comments:
“It is increasingly hard in the current financial climate to take box-office risks and to present repertoire that will be mostly unfamiliar to most of the audience. We are therefore particularly grateful for Continuo Foundation’s grant, which gives us the confidence and encouragement to programme this fascinating and high-quality repertoire.”
The ninth round of grants is an important milestone for Continuo Foundation. Founder and Chief Executive Tina Vadaneaux comments:
“Since launching in 2020 at the height of the pandemic, Continuo has been dedicated to ensuring that Early and Baroque Music performances flourish in diverse communities, from major cultural centres to underserved regions across the UK. This round has attracted a volume of applications we haven’t seen since 2021, and we are thrilled to be able to support a record number of projects. We are immensely grateful to our donors for making this possible and congratulate all of our new grantees.”
Details of the thirty-one award recipients and their projects can be found on the Our Grantees page. To see these performances come to life over the coming months, please visit our Continuo Connect website.
Congratulations to all our new grantees, and thank you to all
the generous donors who made these grant awards possible!