The London Bridge Ensemble
Daniel Tong – piano/Festival co-director
Kate Gould – cello/Festival co-director
with guests
The London Bridge Ensemble is one of Britain’s most exciting and brilliant chamber groups and through the Winchester Chamber Music Festival especially, is well known to Hampshire audiences.
The Ensemble’s name represents its special ability to bring together different musical genres and styles from the fields of both chamber music and song. It’s also an affectionate homage to the bridge of that name in the City of London. Also, through Frank Bridge, it reflects an admiration for the English music of the early twentieth century, which has always formed an important part of the group’s varied repertoire.
Engagements have included concerts at Sheffield Music in the Round, St. David’s Hall Cardiff, St. George’s Bristol, St. John’s Smith Square and Bridgewater Hall Manchester. Festival appearances include City of London Festival, the Kerry Chamber Music Festival, Leicester International Music Festival’s lunchtime series and Ponte de Lima Festival in North Portugal.
The Ensemble has recorded two CDs of works by Frank Bridge for Dutton as well as one of music by Schumann for Sonimage. These have all been highly praised by the critics and the second Bridge disc was shortlisted for the Gramophone Chamber Music Award 2011.
This year, the Ensemble returns to the Wigmore Hall, appears at Kings Place, London and gives a series of concerts in Portugal.
In late 2007, the Ensemble was awarded start-up funding to launch a new festival – and where better than Winchester, with which both Festival co-director Kate Gould and baritone Ivan Ludlow had musical connections in their youth, and where there is a strong appetite for chamber music? The Festival launched in April 2008, and was rapidly acknowledged by audiences and funders alike as a significant event in Hampshire’s cultural calendar. It continues to draw audiences from the county and beyond.
In 2012, we once again have a distinguished lineup of guest artists and are looking forward to performing a wonderful range of repertoire with them!