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.
Belsize Baroque Scholarship awarded to Ada Witczyk
Previous recipient of Belsize Leadership Bursary violinist Ada Maria 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.
Members of Belsize Baroque will be accompanying Hamstead Chamber Choir’s concert of Purcell on 28 October. Click here for details.
Our next concert will feature two Bach cantatas and Brandenburg Concerto No 4. Click here for a poster.
Soloists:
Rory Carver is studying at the Royal College of Music with Russell Smythe and Simon Lepper, where he is a Douglas and Hilda Simmonds Scholar. Previously he has been a St Martin-in-the-Fields choral scholar and a Monteverdi Choir apprentice. With the Monteverdi Choir he performed in the 2015 and 2017 BBC Proms and has taken part in tours of Bach’s Mass in B Minor and St Matthew Passion. Recent solo performances include Monsieur Lacouf in Poulenc’s Les mamelles de Tirésias for the Royal College of Music International Opera School, and the title role in Monteverdi’s L’Orfeo for Brighton Early Music Festival.
Hamish McLaren was born in London and grew up there and in North Wales. He graduated from St. John’s College, Cambridge with a BA and an MPhil in History and Early Modern History in the summer of 2016. During his time at St. John’s, Hamish sang both as a choral scholar and as a lay clerk at St. John’s College under Andrew Nethsingha. Hamish now studies at The Royal Academy of Music where he is generously supported by the Josephine Baker Trust. In July Hamish was made a Kohn Foundation scholar in The Royal Academy of Music’s Bach cantata series.
Ella Taylor is currently studying for a Masters in Performance at the Royal Academy of Music under the tuition of Elizabeth Ritchie and Marek Ruszczynski. Roles include Countess (Le nozze di Figaro), Miles (The Turn of the Screw), Susanne Meyer (Schutzwall), Galatea (Acis and Galatea) and Governess (The Turn of the Screw). She is a member of the Royal Academy of Music’s prestigious Song Circle and a Royal Academy of Music/Kohn Foundation Bach cantata scholar. Ella is supported by the Sheffield Church Burgesses Trust, the Josephine Baker Trust and the Parepa-Rosa Prize, awarded by the Royal Academy of Music.
www.ellataylorsoprano.co.uk
