Benjamin Bayl - organ & harpsichord
Benjamin Bayl has just completed his second season as Assistant Conductor of the Budapest Festival Orchestra, working alongside Music Director Iván Fischer. He is also the Assistant Artistic Director of The Gabrieli Consort.
He is rapidly establishing himself as one of today’s leading young conductors. Recent engagements have included conducting the Opening and Closing Ceremonies at Sydney’s World Youth Day, in the presence of the Pope; his Opera Australia debut, conducting a new production of Orlando in Melbourne; his Spanish debut conducting Hita’s Briseida at the Santiago Festival with La Grande Chapelle; guest directing The King’s Consort; Il mondo della luna for Iford Opera Festival; a concert with Gabrieli Consort and Rosemary Joshua in Rome; Brockes Passion for Wratislavia Festival in Poland; many concerts with London’s Orchestra of the City as Music Director (including their recent Fifth Birthday Concert: Bruckner Symphony no.7 and Poulenc Organ Concerto with Simon Preston), and concerts with European Union Baroque Orchestra and London Chorus. With the Orchestra of the City he has conducted major works of Beethoven, Shostakovich, Mahler, Bruckner, Brahms, Stravinsky and Rachmaninov.
He conducted the Budapest Festival Orchestra regularly, assisting not only Iván Fischer but also guest conductors including Oliver Knussen, Michael Schønwandt, Ludovic Morlot, Ion Marin and András Schiff. He also assisted Fischer with the National Symphony Orchestra of Washington, OAE and Schleswig Holstein Festival Orchestra (Bartok’s Wooden Prince). Other highlights include conducting The Little Magic Flute at Opera North, Rossini’s La scala di seta at the Guildhall, and the European première of Sir John Tavener’s Lament for Jerusalem with Orchestra of the City and The Rodolfus Choir, in the presence of the composer, to critical acclaim.
He joined the music staff of the Royal Opera, Covent Garden on Turandot, La forza del destino and La fanciulla del West with Antonio Pappano, and the world première of 1984, conducted and composed by Lorin Maazel; he recently returned to 1984 at the Palau de les Arts in Valencia. He has performed with the Orchestra of the Royal Opera (Boris Godunov, Ariadne auf Naxos and Alceste) and for Sir Simon Rattle and Sakari Oramo at the CBSO. In London, he was Chorus Master at Opera Holland Park (Eugene Onegin, MacBeth, La Sonnambula and Luisa Miller), assisted Gareth Jones at ENO and worked on Così fan tutte for ETO. He was also assistant conductor for British Youth Opera, making his conducting debut in the Queen Elizabeth Hall, South Bank Centre, with Britten’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream.
Benjamin has built up relationships with many important opera houses as an assistant conductor, most notably in Sydney (Giulio Cesare with Hickox, and Orlando); Copenhagen (Partenope with Lars Ulrik Mortensen and Andreas Scholl); Teatro Real Madrid (Tamerlano with McCreesh and Plácido Domingo, and The Creation, Orquesta Nacional de Espana); Gran Teatre del Liceu Barcelona (Ariodante and L’incoronazione di Poppea with Harry Bicket), Dido and Aeneas with Harry Christophers; Aldeburgh Festival (Fairy Queen with Bicket, King Arthur with Laurence Cummings and B minor Mass with Masaaki Suzuki); and Buxton Festival (Semele, Hercules, Ascanio in Alba with Christophers).
Benjamin Bayl studied at King’s College Cambridge, where he was Organ Scholar and from where he graduated with a double music degree and first class Honours. He is an alumnus of the Guildhall School of Music and Drama, National Opera Studio, Schola Cantorum Basel, and The Royal Academy of Music, where he studied conducting with Colin Metters, George Hurst and Sir Colin Davis on the Sir Charles MacKerras Scholarship. He also participated in masterclasses with John Adams and Jorma Panula.
Future conducting engagements include his debut with the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra in London, Ariodante for English Touring Opera, Il mondo della luna for Opera East, a Hindemith recording with The Britten Sinfonia, and a return to Poland’s Wratislavia Cantans Festival. As an assistant conductor, he will collaborate on Carmen with Sir John Eliot Gardiner (Opéra Comique Paris), Paul McCreesh (Reykjavik Symphony Orchestra, Iceland) and Ivor Bolton (Opéra National du Rhin, Strasbourg).
George Crawford - violin
George was born in Hackney, London in 1979. He became interested in a wide range of musical pursuits from an early age - it was not uncommon to find him conducting, singing and playing violin, viola and percussion in a single concert at school!
He continued his education as a student on the Joint Course between the University of Manchester and the Royal Northern College of Music. Here, as well as studying violin and viola, George had a number of professional conducting engagements, and played drums in the University big band.
In 2002 George became a member of the European Union Baroque Orchestra with whom he toured extensively through Europe and Japan, including 10 performances as soloist in Bach's double violin concerto. Performance on period instruments now makes up most of his professional activities, in orchestras and smaller ensembles in the UK and across Europe.
In the course of just a few years, George has worked with many of the foremost period instrument ensembles. These include the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment, the Academy of Ancient Music, the King's Consort, the Hanover Band, the Gabrieli Consort, the Early Opera Company, Independent Opera, Ensemble Sonnerie, Amsterdam Baroque Orchestra, B'Rock (Belgium) and the Holland Baroque Society.
2005 saw the first performances of George's own ensemble, Battuta, as part of the Hackney Proms seasons at the Hackney Empire. The concerts, designed with a strong bias toward the local community, inclusion and equal opportunities, were a great success, with some fantastic feedback from the audiences. All he needs now is lots of money to put on some more!
Camilla Scarlett - violin
Camilla Scarlett read music at Magdalen College, Oxford before studying violin with Howard Davis and baroque violin with Rachel Podger at the Royal Academy of Music with generous support from the AHRC, RAM and San Martino Trust.
Since leaving the Academy in 2007, she has performed as a member of the European Union Baroque Orchestra, and with Gabrieli Consort and Players, La Nuova Musica, London Handel Orchestra, The English Concert and The Hanover Band as well as for Bampton Classical Opera, Independent Opera and Opera Theatre Company (Ireland). She has worked on recordings with Charivari Agreable (Torelli Brandenburg Concerti for Signum Classics), EUBO (Bach/Fux/Rameau on ‘The Gift of Music’ label), Gabrieli Consort (Haydn’s ‘Creation’ and Handel arias/Vilazon for Deutsche Gramophon) and appeared live on Radio 3’s ‘In Tune’ programme and The Early Music Show.
Camilla was a Young Artist for Brighton Festival’s Early Music Live! scheme. Past solo projects include Brahms/Elgar on gut strings with pianist David Owen Norris at the Seven Locks Festival, Vivaldi’s Four Seasons with Bampton Classical Players and Bach/Telemann for Charivari Agreable in Oxford’s Holywell Music Room. Ongoing projects include exploring the music of Brahms from a historical perspective with David Owen Norris.
Alexandria Lawrence - viola
Alexandria studied at the Oberlin College Conservatory of Music in Ohio, USA, before coming to England for postgraduate studies at the Guildhall School of Music & Drama in London, where she studied baroque viola with Katherine McGillivray. As a freelance musician she has played with a number of period-instrument ensembles, including the Gabrieli Players, King’s Consort, Classical Opera Company, English Touring Opera, Saraband Consort, Harmony of Nations, Dunedin Consort and La Serenissima.
Although French baroque music certainly lies at the centre of her musical interests, Alexandria has cultivated a passion for jazz and swing dancing over the past six years and tries to make ‘swing outs’ a regular part of her musical diet! The viola d'amore is a more recent addiction...
Malgosia Ziemkiewicz Artabe - viola
After attending Arriaga Conservatorio, Bilbao, Malgosia completed her studies in modern viola with Professor Marek Marczyk, at the Chopin Academy in Warsaw where she won a full scholarship for the five years of study.
The last three years in Warsaw led to an increasing interest in early music under the direction of Agatha Sapiecha. Inspired by a course with Simon Standage in Wilanow, Poland, Malgosia came to the Royal Academy, London, to study for a two year postgraduate diploma in baroque viola with Katherine McGillivray, later taking lessons with Jane Rogers and Pedro Gandia. During this period she performed with Laurence Cummings, Trevor Pinnock, Catherine Mackintosh, Catherine Manson, Jonathan Manson and Maggie Faultless.
She was first viola with the European Union Baroque Orchestra for the last 2005/06 seasons. Projects included programs conducted by Lars Ulrik Mortensen, Cristopher Coin, Jaap ter Linden, Rachel Podger and Edward Higginbottom. She now plays violin and viola with various orchestras and chamber groups including Amsterdam Baroque Orchestra,The English Concert, Early Opera Company, English Baroque Soloists, and La Serenissima. Malgosia also organizes concerts in the UK and Europe.
Natasha Kraemer - 'cello
In 2005 Natasha successfully completed two years of post-graduate studies in the Early Music Department at The Royal Academy of Music, where she studied the Baroque cello with Jenny Ward Clarke.
As an Academy student her ensemble won the annual Friends of RAM Early Music Prize two years in succession (2004/2005).
Natasha now performs as a freelance cellist with many orchestras and chamber groups working in the UK and travelling abroad. These include The Gabrieli Players, English Concert, The Sixteen, Hanover Band, English Baroque Soloists and Classical Opera Company. She is also principal cellist with The Sweelinck Ensemble and Saraband Consort.
She recorded Haydn’s The Creation with The Gabrieli Players last year and has just recorded some Handel Arias with tenor Rolando Villazon with the same group, both for Deutsche Grammophon.
Carina Cosgrave - bass
Carina Cosgrave was born in London in 1983 and began playing the bass aged 11. She studied both double bass and baroque bass at the Royal College of Music with Peter Buckoke completing her Postgraduate Diploma in July 2006 supported by a Douglas & Hilda Simmons Study Award.
Carina has worked with a number of orchestra and ensembles all over the UK including Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment as part of the Young Musicians Experience Scheme, Yorkshire Baroque Soloists, Sinfonia Brittanica, Sweelinck Ensemble, BBC Symphony Orchestra, and New London Orchestra. She has performed on broadcasts for BBC Radios 3 & 4 and recordings for the Naxos and EMI Uk labels.