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IN THIS UPDATE:
6. NEW ALBUM ALERT
IMPACT - FEEDBACK AND FIGURES
In November, six grantee ensembles gave a total of seven concerts in four locations across the UK, from London to Leicester. In addition, Bellot Ensemble recorded their debut album.
As the post-grant reports from the last round come in, we are enjoying hearing about the successes and challenges of making projects happen. Reading about the impact of our support is one of the best parts of our work! Below are two recent examples:
The grant really put us in a good position to bring our ensemble closer to working sustainably into the future. As much as we practice and rehearse, we need to play to audiences as much as possible. This is the main thing the funding helped with, as well as the Continuo Connect website which helped attract audiences for our concerts. It has been really wonderful to have your support, and we will continue to apply in the future. Thank you so much! - ZAREKTrio
Your support is especially vital in this economic climate when grants to the arts, and musicians in general, are being cut, especially for ensembles based in London. Your grant helped us to present lesser-known orchestral music by Jommelli to an enthusiastic audience, and our corresponding work in creating new performing editions of the repertoire will facilitate future performance of these astonishing works. - The Mozartists
Continuo Foundation's impact since inception:
£850,000 awarded to 102 ensembles
1,110 freelance musician beneficiaries
260,300 audience beneficiaries
24 CD recordings released so far
FUNDRAISING - 2025 GRANTS
A message from Tina Vadaneaux, Founder and CEO:
November was another busy month with further wonderful news.
We have now secured our second Principal Supporter, also committing £80,000 per year for three years, beginning in 2025. One further Principal Supporter to go!
While we work to secure the remaining £80k per year of three-year funding, we are conscious that these commitments will provide only two-thirds of the total funding needed.
Other donations, that are fundamental and necessary to the work we do, continue to come in so overall we are making good progress thanks to so many of you. We are still busy in this area as we work hard to get to a fully-funded position.
Continuo is on track for the 2025 Grants, and we plan to launch Grant Round 9 on 9 January 2025. The immediate funding gap to meet our year end grant funding target is £14,200.
If you are interested in supporting Continuo for the first time, or further, please do contact me. I would be delighted to speak with you.
With thanks and warmest wishes for the holiday season, Tina
CONTINUO CONNECT IS GROWING!
Continuo Connect (CC) has been growing so rapidly - so far in 2024, there have been nearly 500,000 meaningful audience interactions with the site - that we have decided to add to our team, and also to give CC its own Instagram and Facebook accounts. We are also testing out Bluesky, a platform offering refuge to those disillusioned with Twitter. If you are on social media, please do follow these new accounts and watch CC forge its own path! Click on the links below to have a look:
Support the artists on Continuo Connect by encouraging friends to visit the site!
PLAYER SPOTLIGHT
with Carina Drury
Carina Drury has held a lifelong love for music and her playing has been described by BBC Radio 3 as ‘singing across the centuries’. A chamber musician at heart, Carina is a founding member of Ensemble Augelletti, BBC New Generation Baroque Ensemble 2023-2025. She has toured as guest principal cellist with European Baroque Orchestra, Irish Baroque Orchestra, Dunedin Consort and Australian Baroque. With her own ensemble Irlandiani, Carina explores Italian and Irish connections in the 18th century using historical and traditional instruments. Their recordings have been featured on national radio in the UK, Ireland and Germany, and they have toured around the UK and Ireland.
How has Continuo impacted your day-to-day life? A number of the groups that I work with have received Continuo Foundation grants and it’s difficult to imagine what working life would have looked like for myself and most of my colleagues without this support in recent years. The pandemic left our working lives in crisis and it has taken a few years to get projects funded and up and running again. Continuo has been a lifeline in this process.
What new doors have opened for you since becoming a grantee?
Continuo has really helped some of the chamber ensembles I work with to establish ourselves and it has been career-changing. Ensemble Augelletti, of which I am a founding member, have been BBC New Generation Baroque Ensemble since 2023 and we’ve recorded for the Early Music Show on BBC Radio 3. I had to pinch myself last month when I was sitting in the BBC Maida Vale studios with my friends and colleagues, playing the music I love! Continuo's support has also enabled me to bring my own ensemble Irlandiani to my hometown in Worthing which was so special, and I got to make invaluable connections in the local arts scene.
What do you love about being a musician? I love creating music that connects and resonates with people, whether that’s in a live performance, educational workshop or a recording session. Ultimately music is there to help us through the ups and downs of life and things would be empty and joyless without it. I also love the variety that a freelance career brings. No one month is ever the same and I’ve got to see the most incredible places that I would never have thought of visiting as a tourist. I’m currently writing this from Xiamen airport in China where I’m on tour for three weeks! It has been a fascinating experience.
Where did you encounter the most receptive audience? It’s difficult to judge because in some pieces of music, like the slow laments that we play in our Irlandiani programmes, the audience might be sitting completely still but there’s an electricity of concentration in the air and you can just feel that they are reacting and connecting to what you are doing. Conversely, I was playing in Vivaldi’s Four Seasons with Australian Baroque in Western Australia recently and an audience member hollered out ‘it’s those ‘roo shooters!’ during the hunting section of Autumn, which was amazing! I’ve also played in some education projects with the Orchestra of the Age of the Enlightenment where the room is filled with hundreds of school children and the enthusiasm and applause at the end has been so infectiously joyful.
No.1 listening recommendation? This is such a difficult question! I’m going to stay away from music because I think I’d find it impossible to narrow it down to one thing alone. I’d suggest Thom Yorke’s Desert Island Discs interview for BBC Radio4. I just love the way he talks about being a musician and the creative process. It’s so inspiring.
More about Carina Drury is available in her Continuo Connect Interview.
NOVEMBER PROJECT HIGHLIGHTS
Concert Trombone Quartette - Ecce Sacerdos Magnus
The Concert Trombone Quartette presented a unique weekend celebrating the 200th anniversary of Anton Bruckner's birth, and showcased some rare historical brass instruments. The weekend began with a workshop, open to trombonists of all ages and levels of experience, where participants learned about the history of the trombone and were given the chance to try some rare Romantic instruments. This was followed by a concert where the students played alongside the CTQ in two pieces. On the Sunday, the group joined the Senior Girls and Songmen of the Cathedral Choir for a liturgical, Eucharist service in Leicester Cathedral, celebrating with movements of Bruckner's Mass in E Minor, as well as additional instrumental antiphons performed by CTQ. There were nearly 300 participants across this weekend of historical brass in Leicester. One audience member commented, "This was the best concert I've attended in 40 years."
Newe Vialles - Newe Vialles/Old Viols
Newe Vialles launched their debut album, Newe Vialles/Old Viols, and Henrik Persson's solo recording, The Edward Lewis Viol of 1703, at the Swedish Church in London. The launch concert provided a unique opportunity to see and hear two wonderful original English viols, by John Pitts (1675) and Edward Lewis (1703), in a beautifully crafted exploration of 17th-century English music for two bass viols and continuo. A track from the album, available from Barn Cottage Records, can be heard in the video below.
Bellot Ensemble - Cupid's Ground Bass
In November, Bellot Ensemble completed the recording sessions for their debut album, Cupid's Ground Bass. The album will feature 17th century Italian repertoire by Francesco Cavalli, Andrea Falconieri, Barbara Strozzi and Claudio Monteverdi exploring the 'absolute extremities of love'. The ensemble was joined by tenor Kieran White for some gorgeous arias from these inventive composers, and also includes written-out diminutions and arrangements by various members of the ensemble. A track from the album can be heard in the video below.
NEW ALBUM ALERT
Obligato - The Art of Obligato
Obligato released their new album, The Art of Obligato, showcasing the expressive and creative technique of obligato and focusing specifically on the mirroring of vocal and instrumental lines in Bach's cantatas. Davina Clarke is joined by singers Hugh Cutting (alto) and Nick Pritchard (tenor), instrumentalists Tom Foster (keyboards), Sergio Bucheli (theorbo), and Alexander Rolton (cello), as well as violinist Kati Debretzeni. The CD was released on Voces8 Records and is available to buy here, or to stream here. A track from the CD can be viewed below.
Liturina - 1039
November saw the release of Liturina's debut single, featuring '1038', their first commission from jazz musician and composer Jonny Mansfield. The work is based on the Bach trio sonata of the same opus number, and comes from their new album ‘Bach X Mansfield’. This CD showcases Liturina’s innovative approach to historical performance, exploring the creative meeting point between baroque music and jazz. Mansfield’s witty and cerebral compositions feature alongside the exquisite Bach works they are inspired by to create a sparkling constellation of pieces and a compelling musical experience. To hear more, click on the video below and look out for their next single coming out on 16th December!