Continuo Foundation announces awards to 30 Early Music ensembles

Continuo Foundation has announced the recipients of its eleventh round of grants, awarding more than £100,000 to support Early Music projects across the UK. The awards showcase the breadth and vitality of the sector, with funded projects spanning opera productions, cross-arts collaborations, recordings and performances designed to reach audiences beyond traditional concert settings and far from city centres.

The grants also reflect Continuo’s wider role in supporting the Early Music ecosystem, with funding benefiting emerging ensembles, touring activity, festivals and new partnerships.

‘We received a record number of applications in the latest round, demonstrating the extraordinary creativity of the Early Music community across the UK, and reminding us that Early Music is a living, vibrant art form. I would like to thank our expert panel for their careful deliberation and congratulate all the recipients whose work enriches audiences and ensures that these remarkable musical traditions continue to thrive.’ - Tina Vadaneaux, Founder & CEO of Continuo

A particular feature of Round 11 is an additional £6,000 in funding offered by the Purcell Society, and matched by Continuo, to mark their 150th anniversary. Two Purcell projects were selected for support. The first, the Monteverdi String Band’s Wandering Prince, Unhappy Queen, is created in collaboration with the Roman River Festival. Inspired by Dido and Aeneas, the project combines Purcell’s music with readings from Virgil, songs and ballads to restore the wider dramatic and literary context of the story for modern audiences.

The second Purcell-focused award will enable Istante Collective to create a new fully-staged production of King Arthur. The ensemble notes that while the music is regularly performed, the full Restoration masterpiece is rarely presented in its complete form. Their production will restore the spoken word and dance elements that are ‘rarely performed but an essential part of the work’s identity’.

Continuing the opera strand of the awards, Vache Baroque will create a production of Francesca Caccini’s La liberazione di Ruggiero (1625), the oldest known opera written by a woman composer, for the Buxton International Festival, while the English Haydn Orchestra is supported for its Haydn’s Musical World concert series at the eponymous festival in Bridgnorth.

Several grants will help bring Early Music further afield, reaching under-served audiences. Touring projects from the Bloomsbury Players, Linarol Consort of Viols, The Morley Consort and Wessex Baroque Collective will take performances to venues across the Lake District, Scotland, Wales, Devon, Southwest England, and London.

‘The process of launching a new ensemble is incredibly challenging – and without the pivotal ‘big breaks’ provided by Continuo Foundation, it would be significantly harder. Receiving Continuo funding is a tremendous catalyst, enabling us to bring our passion-driven academic approach and an intriguing array of repertoire to historic spaces and smaller towns with few Early Music connections.’ - The Morley Consort

The range of projects also highlights the importance of collaboration. Ensemble Hesperi will work with the Buskaid Soweto String Ensemble from South Africa in what the ensemble describes as ‘an artistic and educational collaboration’ grown from a ‘shared passion… for high-quality, historically informed performance.’

In the studio, The Harmonious Society of Tickle-Fiddle Gentlemen will make world-premiere recordings of Alessandro Poglietti’s arrangements of motets by Bonifazio Graziani. The ensemble says these recordings will allow audiences to hear ‘these ear-tickling masterpieces’ and compare them with the original monody versions.

This round also points to the future potential of the sector, with support for nine recently formed groups, including The Royal Sackbut Collective, which will use its grant to present a launch concert for its debut album.

We are truly thankful to Continuo Foundation for supporting us. Their grant allows us to take our debut album project to the next level. Considering the struggles of entering the music industry as a young ensemble, we are beyond grateful to be given this opportunity and we cannot wait to make it happen!’ - The Royal Sackbut Collective

For details of all 30 grantee projects in this eleventh round of Continuo Foundation awards, visit the Continuo Foundation website.