Formed in 2002, Belsize Baroque is one of the leading amateur baroque orchestras. It comprises young professionals, students, and top amateur baroque players from London and elsewhere. The orchestra performs on period instruments in an historically informed style. It collaborates regularly with leading baroque directors to give orchestral performances, and works on baroque and classical repertoire with choral groups.
The orchestra showcases the abilities of talented college students and young professional musicians, providing these players with the opportunity to perform with top directors and an experienced baroque orchestra.
Baroquestock Festival
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Director:
Simon Standage is well-known as a violinist specialising in seventeenth- and eighteenth-century music. After reading music at Cambridge University he joined the Netherlands Chamber Orchestra under Szymon Goldberg before receiving a Harkness Fellowship to study violin with Ivan Galamian in New York. On his return to England he played with the London Symphony Orchestra and the English Chamber Orchestra of which he was sub-leader for four years. Leader and soloist with The English Concert from its foundation in 1973 until 1990, he also fulfilled the same role for many years with the City of London Sinfonia. As well as the many records he made with The English Concert (including Vivaldi’s The Four Seasons, nominated for a Grammy award), he also recorded solo and chamber music – including all of Mozart’s violin concertos – with the Academy of Ancient Music, of which he was, with Christopher Hogwood, Associate Director from 1991 to 1995. Since his foundation, with Richard Hickox, of Collegium Musicum 90, he has made numerous recordings for Chandos Records, which have met with consistent critical acclaim.
As soloist and director of chamber orchestras and chamber musician, he is active both in Britain and abroad, where he had for some years a regular collaboration with Collegium Musicum Telemann in Osaka and Haydn Sinfonietta in Vienna. He is leader of the Salomon String Quartet (founded by him in 1981), which specialises in historical performance of the Classical repertoire, and has performed worldwide and made many recordings and broadcasts. He is Professor of Baroque Violin at the Royal Academy of Music in London and the Franz Liszt Academy in Budapest, and teaches at summer courses in Europe.
In 2008 he received a medal for services to Polish Culture, in 2009 he was awarded Honorary Membership of the Royal Academy of Music and in 2010 he was the recipient of the Georg Philipp Telemann Prize, awarded by the city of Magdeburg.
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Belsize Baroque Scholarship awarded to Ada Witczyk:
Previous recipient of Belsize Leadership Bursary violinist Ada Witczyk was born in Poland and has recently been awarded Belsize Baroque Scholarship to lead our orchestra during 2017/2018 season.
Ada made her solo orchestral debut at the age of eleven with the Odeon Orchestra. Since then she has performed in such venues as Buckingham Palace, the Royal Festival Hall, Barbican Centre, St Martin-in-the-Fields, Cadogan Hall and Palazzo Pallavicini-Rospigliosi, amongst others.
She has taken part in concerts with Gabrieli Consort & Players, WOB, The English Concert and Florilegium.
She has won several prizes in international violin competitions, including first prize at the Baroque Competition in Gorzów Wielkopolski Honourable Mention at the Polish Forum of Young Instrumentalists, 3rd prize during The Rising Stars Grand Prix – International Music Competition in Berlin.
Ada completed her Bachelor’s degree at the Royal College of Music, studying violin with Itzhak Rashkovsky and Michal Cwizewicz and Baroque violin with Catherine Martin. Thanks to an Anthony Edward Brookes Award Ada is currently in her second year of a Master’s degree at the Royal Academy of Music studying with Levon Chilingirian and Simon Standage.
