The Vauxhall Band Basset Horn Trio returns!

After their totally delightful visit to Hampstead Lane last April, we are thrilled that the The Vauxhall Band Basset Horn Trio, Katherine Spencer, Fiona Mitchell and Sarah Thurlow, will be returning  on Sunday 6th July when they will be joined by bassoonist Chris Rawley.

To get a feel for the evening – and to hear a a little snatch of the basset horns in action – go to this post on the Salon Music blog.

And to find out more about the Pleasure Gardens where the basset horns would first have been heard go to this post.

PROGRAMME

Georg Druschetzky (1745–1819) - Divertissiment
Franz Anton Hoffmeister (1754–1812) - Divertimento
Vojtěch Nudera (1748–1811) - Two Polonaises
W. A. Mozart (1756–1791) - The Marriage of Figaro. Abridged and arranged for hardly any instruments by Sarah Thurlow, Anton Sadler (attrib.) and Johann Georg Busch

SUPPER:

Suppers at Vauxhall Gardens were notoriously mean and expensive! Keen though we are on authenticity, we will aim to be somewhat more generous while still giving you a flavour of the Gardens ! Included in the price of your ticket.

TICKET 'PRICE':

Because we are not a public venue we cannot 'sell' tickets. Instead we ask you to make a donation (suggested minimum £30 per ticket) which will enable us to pay our musicians a reasonable fee and contribute a small amount towards the cost of supper and wine.

THE ARTISTS:

The Vauxhall Band

The Vauxhall Band was founded in 2021 by Artistic Director Laura Piras with the aim of bringing together leading period instrument specialist musicians and historic dance experts to create engaging performances inspired by eighteenth-century music heard in London in a variety of contexts: from pleasure gardens such as Vauxhall, Ranelagh and Marylebone, to the West End theatres and concert rooms.
The ensemble name is inspired by the original ‘Vauxhall Band’ which is, historically, how the collective of orchestral musicians who performed at eighteenth-century Vauxhall Gardens were known.
When Czech musicians Messrs Dworschak, David, and Springer came to London in 1789 and performed at Vauxhall Gardens as a Basset Horn Trio, the instrument was relatively new to London. The Vauxhall Band Basset Horn Trio was formed to explore this amazing instrument and its repertoire.
www.thevauxhallband.com

Katherine Spencer

Katherine Spencer made her concerto debut at the age of fourteen at the Royal Festival Hall, and has since performed there as concerto soloist many times. She has appeared as soloist with the BBC Symphony Orchestra and The Academy of St Martin in the Fields Orchestra at the Barbican Centre, Birmingham Symphony Hall and Queen Elizabeth Hall, made many live Radio 3 solo broadcasts, and performs regularly on Classic FM and European radio stations.
She is an active member of the period performance scene in Europe and the USA, particularly Principal Clarinet of the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment and Academy of Ancient Music. She is also a busy freelance modern clarinet player with the major orchestras in Britain as well principal clarinet of the Irish Chamber Orchestra and City of London Sinfonia.

Fiona Mitchell 

Fiona started playing with Sir John Eliot Gardiner’s period orchestras, the English Baroque Soloists and Orchestre Révolutionnaire et Romantique in 2009. This has led her to perform in some of the leading concert venues around the world including Carnegie Hall, Amsterdam Concertgebouw and at the BBC Proms in the Royal Albert Hall.
Fiona also performs with various other period orchestras in the UK and abroad including the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment, Academy of Ancient Music, Gabrieli Consort, English Concert, Orchestre des Champs-Elysées, and Pygmalion Orchestre. Fiona plays regularly in smaller ensembles too such as the Boxwood and Brass Ensemble and Marsyas Ensemble.

Sarah Thurlow
Sarah has performed more than fifty recitals for music clubs and societies in the UK with pianist Nigel Clayton, including at the Purcell Room, St John’s Smith Square, and Bridgewater Hall. As an orchestral clarinettist Sarah has performed with the London Symphony Orchestra, the Philharmonia, Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, and the BBC Concert Orchestra. Sarah has been a member of the Orchestra of Glyndebourne on Tour since 2009, and is a founder member of London Serenata. Sarah began playing historical clarinets whilst studying with Michael Harris at the RCM. She has performed with the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment since 2000 and was appointed Sub-Principal Clarinet in December 2023.

Chris Rawley
Chris Rawley has been fascinated by Historically Informed Performance ever since he was a student at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama. He has amassed an interesting collection of instruments that has led to him performing as Guest Principal Bassoon with many of the country's finest ensembles including the English Baroque Soloists, Florilegium, Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment and The Vauxhall Band.