THE BROOK STREET BAND, founded in 1995 by baroque cellist Tatty Theo, has rapidly established itself as one of the country’s foremost interpreters of music by George Frederick Handel. The Band’s repertoire ranges from intimate chamber music to concerts with double orchestra and choir. Its various prizes include BBC Radio 3 Young Artists' Forum and the Byrne Award, given by the Handel Institute for Handel scholarship.

The Brook Street Band has performed, and taught, extensively at prestigious British and European Festivals including Dartington International Summer School, Barcelona Early Music Festival and Kuhmo Chamber Music Festival.  The Band has recently undertaken its first tour of central Europe, with concerts in Croatia, Austria, Hungary and Slovenia.

The Brook Street Band broadcasts regularly for the BBC, and concert venues in the UK include Wigmore Hall, South Bank Centre and The Maltings, Snape. It is an associate artist of the Petworth Festival; and the Band has established a link with London’s Handel House Museum, giving concerts and running education projects which extend to schools and hospitals.

The Brook Street Band also commissions contemporary works for period instruments. Those who have written for the group include David Bedford and composer and vocalist Errollyn Wallen.  In 2007, the Band began its collaboration with author Louis de Bernières on an exciting project fusing Louis’ newly-commissioned prose and Handel’s music.

The Brook Street Band is named after the street in London’s Mayfair where Handel lived and composed for much of his working life. The term ‘band’ was used in the eighteenth century to describe a group of musicians.

The Brook Street Band’s recordings have received much critical acclaim, and its debut disc “Handel Oxford” was selected as Gramophone magazine Editor’s Choice.  Water Music

The Times reviewed the “Handel Trio Sonatas Opus 5” CD and described the ensemble as ‘The smartest new baroque band around, they deliver these seven sonatas with consistent panache and musicality…if you need instant sunshine, play this disc.’

International Record Review wrote of The Brook Street Band’s recording, “Handel ‘Cello’ Sonatas” ‘…These performances have a powerful stamp of authority about them…Theo’s beautiful sense of line and utterly natural phrasing. Perhaps the most striking thing about these performances is the sense of total unity between both players. These are two musicians coalesced into a single entity, dancing with a wonderful unanimity of purpose…Handel himself would have found real cause for celebration.’

THE BROOK STREET BAND: Artists’ biographies

TATTY THEO, Director of The Brook Street Band is an acclaimed cellist and a Handel scholar. Her passion for Handel and her love of performing chamber music inspired her to found The Brook Street Band in 1995. Tatty has performed as a soloist and chamber musician at festivals throughout Britain and Europe, with live broadcasts for the BBC and various European radio stations. She read music at Queen’s College, Oxford, and then became a postgraduate student at the Royal College of Music where she won many of the Early Music prizes.

Tatty has prepared the performing editions of Handel’s hitherto unpublished English cantatas, “So pleasing the pain is”, “To lonely shades”and “With roving and with rangin”. She is currently undertaking further research into Handel’s use of the cello.

Tim Homfray of The Strad magazine wrote of The Brook Street Band ‘…a riveting performance, which varied between affecting simplicity and visceral excitement…all the playing was high quality, but particular praise must go to the cellist Tatty Theo, the group’s founder, for her beautifully subtle underpinning and shading of the melodic lines above.’                                                            

SALLY BRUCE-PAYNE initially studied the cello, before studying singing at the Royal College of Music.  Her concert engagements have taken her all over the world, working with Sir John Eliot Gardiner, Philippe Herreweghe, the Academy of Ancient Music, the Scottish Chamber Orchestra, the Hanover Band/ Nicholas McGegan, the Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra/David Hill, Sir Neville Marriner, the London Philharmonic Orchestra/ Sir Roger Norrington, Sir David Willcocks, The Sixteen/Harry Christophers and at the Three Choirs Festival.

Sally’s recordings and broadcasts include Schubert’s Mass in A flat, Haydn’s Theresien and Nelson Masses with Sir John Eliot Gardiner (Decca), Boulanger’s Du fond de l’abime LSO/ Gardiner (Deutsche Grammophon), Boulez’ Le Marteau sans maître at the Cheltenham Festival for Radio 3 and Handel’s Messiah for BBC 1 television. Operatic appearances include various Handel roles: Virtue in The Choice of Hercules, Erisane in Poro, Medoro in Orlando and Ottone in Agrippina. She has also appeared in Vivaldi’s Ottone in Villa, Giustino and Tito Manlio.

NICKI KENNEDY studied singing at the Royal Scottish Academy of Music and Drama, and the Royal College of Music.

Nicki is well known as a specialist in the baroque and classical repertoire and has performed at major festivals throughout Europe, the U.S.A and Japan. As a soloist, she has collaborated in concerts and recordings with many of Europe’s most prestigious orchestras, including the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, the English Chamber Orchestra, the Philharmonia, Modo Antiquo, the Lautten Compagney of Berlin, the Orchestre des Champs-Élysées, Les Musiciens du Louvre and Le Parlement de Musique.

Her stage roles include Handel’s Semele, (title role) and Oriana in Amadigi; and she has performed and recorded several roles by Vivaldi including Vagaus (Juditha Triumphans), Angelica (Orlando Furioso), Lucio (Tito Manlio) and Barzane (Arsilda, Regina di Ponto) with Modo Antiquo. She has performed many works by Handel with The Brook Street Band including La Lucrezia at the Wigmore Hall.

CAROLYN GILBY, harpsichordist, studied at Chethams School of Music, the University of East Anglia and as a post-graduate at the Guildhall. An established soloist and chamber musician, Carolyn particularly enjoys working in small ensembles, with whom she has performed internationally, from California to Japan. Carolyn is also an accompanist, notably for the Royal Academy of Music and Guildhall School. She has edited the songs of Luigi Rossi from a manuscript in Oxford, and has transcribed Bach’s Organ Trio Sonatas for two violins and continuo for The Brook Street Band.

RACHEL HARRIS, violinist, studied at the Welsh College of Music and Drama with Clare Salaman, and at the Royal College of Music with Alison Bury. Rachel was awarded the prestigious Countess of Munster and German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD) scholarships for her postgraduate studies in England and Germany.  She concluded her studies (Solistendiplom) with Gottfried von der Goltz, the leader of the Freiburger Barockorchester, an orchestra with whom she now plays and records regularly. Rachel has performed with ensembles including the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment, The Brook Street Band, Florilegium, St. James's Baroque and the Swiss Consort.

FARRAN SCOTT, violinist, studied privately with Sidney Griller and then graduated from the Royal Academy of Music, where she had a prize-winning string quartet. Farran then spent three years at the Hochschule fur Kunste in Bremen, Germany. She has toured Europe extensively with many period instrument ensembles including the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment, The Brook Street Band and Mercurius Company. From 2003–06 Farran was the College Musician at Queens’ College, Cambridge. As artistic director of Vigani’s Cabinet, she has commissioned and premiered dozens of works by contemporary British composers.

Appearances:

The Brook Street Band perform Handel’s English Cantatas, St Peter’s Chapel, Bradwell, June 28th