Sligo Baroque Festival




	Maya Homberger will be the festival's artist in residence for 2004. Swiss born Maya, whose early career was London based, has worked with most of the foremost international ensembles and artists; including John Elliot Gardiner, Christopher Hogwood, and Trevor Pinnock.

	Ever since meeting the composer and solo bassist Barry Guy - on the occasion of an extended concert tour with Christopher Hogwood's Academy
	of Ancient Music- she has devoted her time between managing his London Jazz Composers Orchestra, running their CD label MAYA Recordings and developing her own personal style on the baroque violin, specialising more and more in chamber music and solo performance.

	Resident in Ireland for last six or so years, she is a solo Baroque violinist of prodigious intellect and musicality whose technical ability is always subservient to thoughtful interpretation.

	Her instrument is an Italian baroque violin, made by Antonio dalla Costa, Treviso in 1740 which is in its original baroque condition.

	Read more about Maya here>


	Most would agree that Wilbert Hazelzet is the most renowned and revered baroque flautist playing today. He has dedicated himself since 1970 exclusively to the study and performance of the baroque flauto traverso. He became principal flautist of the celebrated ensemble, Musica Antiqua Koln in 1978, and with them and with other leading ensembles has since performed throughout the world.

	His style is decidedly un-showy; combining beauty of tone with deep musical understanding, and has resulted in his status as a much sought-after soloist and chamber musician. This will be his first appearance at the Sligo festival.
	Read more about Wilbert here>


	Dublin based, Trio Quattro, formerly known as The Purcellian Groove Machine, will perform a lunch-time recital of trio sonatas. Their programme will trace the development of this form, which was as important in the baroque era as the string quartet was to become in the the Classical and later periods, from the early to late baroque.

	Trio Quattro is an ensemble revelling in the joy of early music. Its members, Jenny Robinson (recorders), Anita Vedres (baroque violin), Malachy Robinson (violone) and David Adams (harpsichord), are all leading Dublin period-instrument professionals. Their repertoire consists principally of trio- and solo-sonatas by Corelli, Handel and Telemann, with the addition of some renaissance dance music and transitional early baroque pieces.


	Opera singer, Actress and Butcher, Buddug Verona James is a Welsh mezzo Soprano of outstanding ability. Aplauded on the most prestigious stages across the world she is a delightful addition to this years programme where she will perform her one woman show Castradiva; a fictional tale by about Pedrolino Il Magnifico ( il primo castrato del mondo!) with some of the greatest arias written for the castrati. Playing men on stage has an enduring fascination for James. It may be because she was the only woman working in her father's butcher shop.

	Whatever the reason the result is an entertainment that is as much fun as educative and musically profound, for she has a special understanding of Baroque music and is expert in the arcane art of gesture.
	Read more about Buddug here>


	Familiar to audiences at the Sligo Baroque festival, Malcolm Proud (harpsichord) and Sarah Cunningham (viola da gamba) are acclaimed Irish Baroque musicians with successful international careers.


	Harpsichordist and organist Malcolm Proud was born in Dublin. Having graduated from Trinity College, Dublin with a B.Mus. a Danish Government scholarship enabled him to study at the Conservatory in Copenhagen. After a further year of study with Gustav Leonhardt in Amsterdam the Sweelinck Conservatoire awarded him his Performer's Diploma. In 1982 he won first prize at the Edinburgh International Harpsichord Competition having been a finalist in the 1980 Bruges International Harpsichord Competition

	He has toured worldwide performing with John Dornenburg, the Chandos Baroque Players, Maya Homburger, the English Baroque Soloists, the E.U. Baroque Orchestra, the Gabrieli Consort and the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment among others. His most recent international appearances were at the David Oistrakh Festival in Pernu, Estonia and in the Wagner Hall in Riga, Latvia.

	Malcolm Proud is a member of the period instrument ensembles Convivium and Camerata Kilkenny and has performed with soloists Gustav Leonhardt, Marcel Ponseele, Wilbert Hazelzet, Maya Homburger, Elizabeth Wallfisch, Isabelle Poulenard, John Elwes, Michael George, Monica Huggett, Steven Isserlis, Sarah Cunningham, Lisa Beznosiuk, Pavlo Beznosiuk, Rachel Brown, Julia Dickson, John Dornenburg, and Richard Tunnicliffe.

	Malcolm seems incapable of playing other than insightfully well, is always well prepared and self-effacing, a servant of the music he performs.


	Sarah Cunningham began her viol studies in 1969 in Boston where as a young player she was described as "one of the most satisfying players of anything in the area." She then went on to work with Wieland Kuijken at the Royal Conservatory in The Hague. In 1981 she moved to London where she was active as a soloist and chamber musician and won world-wide recognition for her eloquent, expressive and communicative playing.

	She was a founder-member, with baroque violinist Monica Huggett, of the acclaimed Trio Sonnerie, with which she has made many recordings and toured on three continents.

	Since moving to West Cork, Ireland, in 1999, Sarah Cunningham has been in demand as a soloist and chamber musician throughout Ireland. She held the professorship in viola da gamba at the Hochschule fuer Kuenste, Bremen from 1990-2000. She now teaches privately in London and Ireland, and is the Artistic Director of the East Cork Early Music Festival

	Sarah has a large discography, is remarkable to watch as well as listen to. A performer of intense musicality with a seemingly effortless technique.


	Owen Willetts graduated this year from the Royal Academy of Music where he studied singing with Noelle Barker, David Lowe and Iain Leadingham. On the concert stage Owen has worked with the Monteverdi choir, Ex-Cathedra, Roger Norrington, Laurence Cummings and Richard Egar. He has sung the role of Ottone from Monteverdi's "L'In coronatione di Poppea" with the Royal Academy Opera and the Reykjavic Summer Opera. Next year Owen will perform Monteverdi's "The Return of Ulysees" with Graham Vick and the Birmingham Opera Company.

	Read more about Owen here>


	Richard Sweeney has played with many of the UK and Ireland's leading ensembles including; the Irish Baroque Orchestra, Opera Theatre Company, the Kings Consort, the Academy of Ancient Music, the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment and Sonnerie. This summer he played at Glyndeboune for their production of Handel's 'Rodelinda'. As a soloist he has performed at most of the Irish festivals including the Sligo and Galway festivals of early music, the Kilkenny arts festival and the West Cork chamber music festival.

	Richard has a strong interest in recreating genuine historical continuo practises from the 17th and 18th centuries and is particularly drawn to Italian and German practises of the period.


	Born in Yorkshire, Matthew Truscott pursues a busy free-lance career combining modern instrument playing with gut strings and period performance. Having graduated with first class honours from the Royal Academy of Music in London where he studied with Erich Gruenberg and Simon Standage, he went on to study with Vera Beths at the Koninklijk Conservatorium in The Hague. Since then he has been in demand as guest leader with numerous ensembles including Florelegium and the Steinitz Bach Players.

	He is a principal member of the Academy of Ancient Music, the English Baroque Soloists and the London Mozart Players. He is second violin of the Dante Quartet, which tours widely throughout the UK and abroad, and a recent prize-winner in the Gramophone awards for their recording of Rubbra quartets. Matthew is also a member of Concerto Cristofori, specializing in chamber music of the Classical and Early Romantic periods, and The Private Music, which won the York Early Music Competition, playing repertoire from the seventeenth century.


	Aedín Halpin began her studies with Doris Keogh in the Royal Irish Academy of Music. At a young age she won the woodwind section of the RTE Young Musician of the Future and was a frequent winner at the Feis Ceoil. She received diplomas in recorder, flute and piano and went on to study music in Trinity College Dublin achieving an honors degree in 1989. Having finished her degree she studied recorder with Pedro Memelsdorf in Bologna, Italy. Since completing her studies there she has appeared as soloist with the RTE Concert Orchestra, the Orchestra of St. Cecilia, and the Baroque Players.

	She has performed in venues such as the Hugh Lane Gallery, John Field Room, Queens University Belfast, National Gallery of Ireland, Bank of Ireland House of Lords and in the Kilkenny and Galway Arts Festivals. As well as performing she is currently teaching recorder in the Royal Irish Academy of Music.


	An established recitalist at home and abroad David Adams also appears regularly with all the major Irish orchestras. He is much involved in chamber music, particularly in the fields of Early and contemporary music, and is a member of ensembles such as Christ Church Baroque, SurPlus and Crash Ensemble.

	He is also a founder member of Ensemblissimo, an innovative group that presents talented young Irish players alongside more experienced musicians in a wide range of Early Music performances throughout the country. David currently lectures in harpsichord and musicianship at the DIT Conservatory of Music and Drama and is Organist and Choirmaster at Christ Church Taney in Dublin.


	Andrew Wilson-Dickson is an irresponsibly wide-ranging musician: composer, keyboard-player, director, teacher and writer. He is Head of Early Music at the Royal Welsh College of Music and Drama, he also teaches composition there and continually adds to his large stock of pieces, which includes opera, musicals, and church and chamber music. As a keyboard-player he has a particular interest in contemporary scores and in playing continuo, which he does in concerts in the UK and well beyond. Andrew is the Musical Director and founder of the Welsh Baroque Orchestra.


	Marc Elton left the Early Music Department of the Royal Welsh College of Music and Drama in 2001, gaining an Advanced Diploma with distinction. He now plays for a number of period instrument groups and is the leader of the Welsh Baroque Orchestra.