Festival Performers
2026
Zoë Brookshaw
Originally from Nottingham, soprano Zoë Brookshaw was a choral scholar at Trinity College, Cambridge where she read Theology. Beginning her singing career as an apprentice in the Monteverdi Choir, she has since performed extensively around the world as an established soloist specialising in Baroque repertoire.
Highlights of solo engagements include Bach Matthew Passion (Sir John Eliot Gardiner), Handel Israel in Egypt at the Royal Albert Hall BBC Proms (Bill Christie and the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment), 'Aci' in Handel's Aci, Galatea e Polifemo with OAE, Handel's Dixit Dominus (Laurence Cummings and Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra), Bach's John Passion at the Barbican (Britten Sinfonia), Bach's John Passion at Wigmore Hall and Bach's Fest Leipzig (Solomon's Knot), Monteverdi's Lamento Della Ninfa at Carnegie Hall (Gallicantus), Handel's Dixit Dominus at Concertgebouw, Amsterdam (Collegium Vocale Ghent), Pergolesi's Stabat Mater (OAE), Handel's Dixit Dominus (Paul McCreesh).
Zoë has a growing solo discography, featuring on many critically acclaimed CDs such as Bach Matthew Passion (Sir John Eliot Gardiner, Soli Dei Gloria), Magnificat (Solomon's Knot, Sony Classical), Leçons de Ténèbres (Arcangelo, Hyperion), John Blow An Ode on the Death of Mr Henry Purcell (Arcangelo, Hyperion), Stabat Mater (The Marian Consort, Delphian), Bach H-Moll Messe (Gli Angeli de Genève, Claves).
Opera credits include 'Aerial Spirit' in Opéra National de Lyon’s production of Purcell's Indian Queen with Emmanuelle Haim, 'Eurydice' and 'La Musica' in Monteverdi's Orfeo for Robert Hollingworth, 'the statue' in Rameau's Pygmalion with John Butt and Dunedin Consort and soloist in Purcell's Fairy Queen for Paul McCreesh. Other productions with Sir John Eliot Gardiner include Berlioz's Benvenuto Cellini, and Gluck's Ophée at Covent Garden.
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Toby Carr
Lutenist and guitarist Toby Carr studied the classical guitar at Trinity Laban, where he was introduced to historical plucked instruments, an interest he pursued during a postgraduate degree at the Guildhall School of Music & Drama (where he was welcomed back as a professor in 2021). Now in demand as a soloist, chamber musician and continuo player, his playing has been described as 'sensuous and vivid' (The Guardian), 'Eloquent' (BBC Music Magazine) and 'Mesmerising' (Opera Today).
Toby has performed with most of the principal period instrument ensembles in the UK and beyond. Highlights have included touring over a dozen shows around the country with English Touring Opera from 2016 - 2023, joining the orchestra of the Royal Opera House for Handel's Jepthah in 2023, and performing at the BBC Proms 2022 with La Nuova Musica. He is a member of Ceruleo, Lux Musicae London and Ensemble Augelletti, works frequently with vocal groups Fieri Consort and Ensemble Pro Victoria, and has appeared on recordings with all of these groups.
Collaboration is at the heart of his work, from song recitals with singers such as Helen Charlston, Alexander Chance and Emma Kirkby, to unique projects such as De Pasión Mortal with tenor Nicholas Mulroy and lutenist Elizabeth Kenny. Other innovative partnerships have included with oud player Attab Haddad for a cross-cultural concert organised by NW Live, as well as with pianist Christina McMaster for her 'Lie down and listen' series.
2022 saw the release of Battle Cry with Helen Charlston on Delphian Records, which won a Gramophone award for best concept album and a BBC music magazine award for best vocal album, the only recording to receive both Gramophone and BBC music magazine awards that year. In 2023 Drop not, mine eyes, a recording of English lute songs with Alexander Chance, was released on Linn, described as a 'thing of beauty' (Gramophone) and was another editor’s choice in Gramophone magazine.
Toby is a professor at the Guildhall school of Music & Drama, specialising in guitar chamber music. He is delighted to share his passion for chamber music and collaboration with the next generation of musicians. He has coached chamber music and assisted with the lute class at Dartington International Summer School. From 2014-2018 he worked for the charity Live Music Now as part of a Flute & Guitar duo, totalling over a hundred performances in care home and SEND school settings: a formative experience. Passionate about the arts being open to everyone, Toby is an Arts Emergency mentor.
Duo Trobairitz
Faye Newton and Hazel Brooks met at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama in London, where they discovered a shared passion for medieval music and poetry. They subsequently worked together in the award-winning ensemble Concanentes and in the year 2000 they formed duo Trobairitz to explore the courtly song repertoire of the troubadours and trouvères, which is especially appropriate to their combination of voice and vielle.
Following an acclaimed international debut at the Antwerp Young Artists’ Presentation in 2000, duo Trobairitz rapidly rose to success and has appeared at major early music festivals within the UK and across Europe. The duo has collaborated with the Flemish theatre company fABULEUS for performances at the Belgian International Day of Early Music and broadcast live on British, Belgian and Slovenian radio. Performance highlights to date include a tour of Slovenia, a Dutch Early Music Network tour, the Leeds International Medieval Congress and the debut performance of its Medieval Femme Fatale programme at the York Early Music Festival, which was later broadcast on BBC Radio 3’s The Early Music Show. Their debut CD ‘The Language of Love’ was released on the Hyperion label in 2007 to international critical acclaim, and was the American Record Guide Choice of 2007.
Faye and Hazel are both fascinated by the medieval period and thrive on the challenge of interpreting medieval music in a way that is true to its historical roots whilst being entertaining and meaningful for a modern-day audience. They enjoy the creative process of taking a melody and a text and, through a combination of scholarship and imagination, bringing the meaning and emotion of the text to life. The duo has been praised for its glorious and beautifully rich interpretations (Early Music Review), and aspires to take the performance of medieval music to the highest artistic plane.
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Guildhall School of Music and Drama
Founded in 1880, the Guildhall School was the first municipal music college in Great Britain.
The School moved to its present premises in the heart of the City of London's Barbican in 1977 and continues to be owned, funded and administered by the City of London.
Its Department of Historical Performance provides opportunities for students to study rhetorical delivery and historical stagecraft.
Recurring projects include Baroque Opera Scenes, the Baroque Orchestra (including a side-by-side project with the Academy of Ancient Music), the Cantata Project, and the Guildhall Consort.
Students participate in masterclasses with principal players and in side-by-side ensemble workshops and performances.
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Aileen Henry
Aileen Henry is a foremost exponent of the baroque harp, as both a soloist and as a continuo player or accompanist. Originally from Northern Ireland, Aileen moved to London to pursue an undergraduate degree at Trinity Laban Conservatoire of Music and Dance, studying with Gabriella Dall’Olio and Frances Kelly, followed by a postgraduate degree at the same institution. While an undergraduate at Trinity, Aileen was introduced to the baroque harp and, falling for the beauty of the instrument and its music, decided to pursue it alongside the modern harp.
The baroque harp has taken Aileen all over the UK, Ireland and Europe, playing with some of the most exciting young baroque Ensembles in London and beyond. She has had the opportunity to perform at Greenwich International Early Music, Brighton Early Music Festival and Ryedale Festival. Recent highlights have included working for Hamstead Garden Opera, Glyndeboure Youth Opera and being invited back to her native Ireland to work with the baroque group Resurgam under the direction of Mark Duley.
Alongside Lux Musicae London, Aileen has been working with many other baroque ensembles, such as Fieri Consort, Florisma and Ceruleo. Both Fieri Consort and Florisma, with soloist Penelope Appleyard, have recently released CDs on which Aileen has featured.
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www.aileenhenry.com
Lowe Ensemble
Lowe Ensemble is a group specialising in historically informed performance, formed by five siblings of dual British-Spanish nationality. The members are graduates of, and currently studying at, some of the UK's most renowned music institutions, including the Royal College of Music, the Royal Academy of Music, and the University of Cambridge.
They have recently completed their first UK tour, funded by the Continuo Foundation, with performances in cities including Birmingham, Norwich, London, and at the National Centre for Early Music in York. Reviews described them as 'a fine group with a bright future' (York Press). The ensemble was selected for the Brighton Early Music Festival Young Artist Scheme (2024) and performed at the ECOS Festival in 2025, including participation in ECOS Labs' Rebranding Early Music conference. They have been invited to appear at the APAC Festival 2026 in Bolivia, one of the world’s most significant Baroque music festivals.
Their recent recording, Fandango, has reached over 90,000 views across social media, and the ensemble has been featured with live performances on BBC Radio 3's In Tune and Spanish National Radio (RNE). Lowe Ensemble is actively committed to outreach, leading workshops in primary schools and centres for adults with learning disabilities.
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Daniel Murphy
Daniel Murphy studied guitar at the Junior Guildhall Music Department for with Mark Eden and Matthew Robinson. He then started his Undergraduate studies at the Royal College of Music studying Classical Guitar with Carlos Bonell. During the first two years of his degree, he gradually transitioned to the historical performance department and in his third year, he became RCM's first ever undergraduate principal-study theorbo player, studying with Jakob Lindberg. In 2023, he graduated from a Masters of Performance Degree with distinction.
Daniel's freelance work includes collaborating with ensembles such as Ex-Cathedra, Armonico Consort, Fiori Musicali, London Baroque Orchestra and The Bellot Ensemble, with whom he recently performed at the Utrecht Early Music Festival. As a lutenist, he regularly performs lute song with numerous singers including Emma Kirkby, Mary Bevan and Hugh Cutting. Opera forms a large part of his continuo playing, performing works including Handel’s Rodelinda; Purcell’s Fairy Queen, and Monteverdi's l'Orfeo.
As part of the Flutes & Frets Duo, alongside Beth Stone, he has recently won the Romanus Weichlein Prize for the advancement of Austrian Music at the 2023 International H.I.F. Biber Competition and the 2022 La Follia Nuova International Chamber Music Competition. They are also currently collaborating with the EEFEA to perform at various international early music festivals.
Career highlights include performing with the Taverner Consort, conducted by Andrew Parrott in Frauenchiemsee, Germany and numerous features on Radio 3's Early Music Show and German Radio, WDR 3 Alte Musik. As a soloist, Daniel recently Won the 2024 La Risonanza EMSA Competition and was also the only lute finalist in the New Elizabethan Award 2022.
www.danielmurphylute.com
Helen Roberts
Helen first encountered the cornett during postgraduate research in musicology at Birmingham University. After initial studies with Jamie Savan, Helen went on to study at the Schola Cantorum, Basiliensis under Bruce Dickey, generously supported by Birmingham University's Centre for Early Music Performance and Research. Helen graduated from the Schola in 2008 with a final concert programme exploring three centuries of cornetto performance practice, from the 15th-century Italian frottole repertoire to the large-scale sonatas of Johann Heinrich Schmelzer.
Since completing her studies, Helen has continued to pursue research and editing interests, and completed a PhD in 2019 examining the role of the cathedral wind band in seventeenth-century England. Helen is a founder of the innovative online publishing house Septenary Editions, which provides support to, and a platform for performer/editors working in the field of early music, and created Passaggi, the improvisation and ornamentation app for historical performers, released in 2020.
Helen has performed and recorded with some of Europe's leading period ensembles, including English Baroque Soloists, The Orchestra of the Sixteen, The Gonzaga Band, Concerto Scirocco, the Gabrieli Consort and Players, Gothenburg Baroque, and I Fagiolini. As a multi-instrumentalist, Helen has worked on productions at Shakespeare's Globe Theatre, including Henry V on tour and in residence at the Globe and on Twelfth Night in the West End. Helen was thrilled to be invited to join His Majesty's Sagbutts and Cornetts in 2012, and now tours, records and performs regularly with the ensemble throughout the UK, Europe and the USA.
Masumi Yamamoto
Harpsichordist Masumi Yamamoto was born in Osaka Japan, grew up on Australia's Gold Coast and has been based in the UK since 2001. She has appeared at the Purcell Room, the Royal Albert Hall, St. John's Smith Square and Cadogan Hall as soloist and continuo player. Recent concerts have taken her to France, Germany, Norway, Spain and Italy, and she has also performed as far afield as Malaysia, Japan and Australia. Masumi was a prize winner at the prestigious International Harpsichord Competition in Bruges in 2007. She was also a semi-finalist in the International Johann Sebastian Bach Competition in Leipzig (2006), a runner-up in the Broadwood Harpsichord Competition in London (2007), and the winner of Fenton House Keyboard Ensemble Competition (2012) with ensemble The Akenside Players. A recital in London was given a four-star rating in The Independent: 'her tempi follow the pulse of the heart, and her ornamentation is as natural as breathing'.
Masumi graduated with a University Medal from the Queensland Conservatorium Griffith University in Brisbane Australia studying piano with Leah Horwitz and harpsichord with Huguette Brassine. In the UK, she studied at the Royal Academy of Music, then at Trinity College of Music with harpsichordist James Johnstone and was later 'The English Concert' Junior Fellow with ensemble Melopoetica. She completed her PhD at the University of York.
More recently, Masumi made concerto appearances with London Concertante, Solisti Divini and the Keld Ensemble in the UK as well as with the Soloists of London in Spain and Paulus Barokk in Norway. She has appeared on BBC Radio 3 and ABC Classic FM. Her future engagements include solo, chamber and concerto performances in Japan, Spain, Norway, and within the UK. Masumi is the Artistic Director of a concert series 'Sydenham Concerts' launched in February 2016 which specialises in Baroque repertoire.
Masumi is also a keen teacher, and has given lessons and Masterclasses at Yong Siew Toh Conservatory of Music in Singapore and Queensland Conservatorium Griffith University in Australia. Masumi is Teacher of Harpsichord at St. Paul's Girls’ School.
