Previous Concerts
Adult Ticket £13
Introducers Ticket* (admits 2) £22
Joint First Timers** Ticket (admits 2) £22
*Introducers Ticket: for regular SNEMF supporters to book for themselves PLUS someone who has never been to SNEMF before.
**Joint First Timers ticket: for anyone who has not been to SNEMF before to come with someone else who hasn't either.
SO, WHAT IS EARLY MUSIC?
Sunday 1 February 2026 4:00-6:00pm (doors open 3:40pm)
Hackney Showroom, 4 Murrain Road, London N4 2BN [venue]
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PART 1 - round table discussion with Peter Holman, Aimée Taylor and Lucine Musaelian
Professor Peter Holman MBE studied at Kings College, London with Thurston Dart, one of the most significant figures of the 20th century early music movement. Peter's career as conductor, keyboard player, musicologist, writer and broadcaster has spanned many decades. He is therefore an ideal person to communicate 'what is early music' to newcomers, while also offering fascinating insights to those who are familiar with this genre.
Aimée Taylor read music at Oxford before studying the flute in Paris and at the Royal College of Music in London. She is currently working on a PhD on the philosophy of historical music performance with Colin Lawson at the RCM. Aimee is intrigued by questions posed by historical music performance: 'What exactly are we doing and why are we doing it?'
Lucine Musaelian is an Armenian-American singer, viola da gamba player and composer. She studied at Yale University, the Schola Cantorum Basiliensis and the Royal Academy of Music, where she co-founded Intesa Duo. Lucine is an exceptionally creative musician who collaborates with performers across many genres. Her interests include ancient Armenian music and self-accompaniment in early music.
PART II - Just a Minuet
In an entertaining Early Music take on the Radio 4 panel game, four articulate musicians from the early music world will attempt to speak for 1 minute on subjects given by show host Daniel Thomson. Daniel performed at SNEMF with ensemble Rune last July. He will be returning with Dowland's Foundry on 6th February.
Instead of Chopin's Minute Waltz, harpsichordist Freddie Waxman will play Minute Minuets, Galliards & Sarabandes on the Kirckmann model harpsichord recently completed by local maker Huw Saunders.
The four panellists will be:
- Paula Chateauneuf, who performed at SNEMF 2023
- Peter McCarthy of Music in the Village, Walthamstow
- Sam Brown, who will be performing at SNEMF on 6th February 2026
- Tatty Theo of The Brook Street Band, who performed at SNEMF 2022
ROYALIST OR REVOLUTIONARY?
held on Saturday 24 January 2026 to a sold-out audience
The Old Church, Stoke Newington Church St, N16 [venue]
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Rachel Brown, flute
The Revolutionary Drawing Room
- Adrian Butterfield, violin
- Rachel Stott, viola
- Ruth Alford, cello
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Rachel Brown (flute) and the Revolutionary Drawing Room performed chamber music by English composer William Shield, who was close to King George III and IV, but also acquainted with the radical thinkers of Newington Green. The programme included flute quartets by Mozart and Viotti.
Pre-concert talk 6.30 -7.00pm by cellist and academic Dr Amélie Addison. Was William Shield a royalist or a revolutionary?
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ONE CHARMING NIGHT
held on Sunday 18 January 2026 to a sold-out audience
The Old Church, Stoke Newington Church St, N16 [venue]
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Nicholas Mulroy, tenor
Sarah Sexton, violin
Sarah Moffatt, violin
Rachel Stott, viola
Sarah McMahon, cello
Toby Carr, theorbo
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Nicholas Mulroy, accompanied by an ensemble of strings and theorbo, performed a programme of music by Henry Purcell, taking us from evening stillness to break of day.
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Counting the Hours
held on Thursday, 13 March 2025 to a sold-out audience
The Old Church, Stoke Newington Church St, N16 [venue]
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Incantati
Petra Samhaber-Eckhardt, violin
Rachel Stott, viola d'amore
Ibrahim Aziz, viola da gamba
with harpsichordist Satoko Doi-Luck
and singer/speaker Daniel Gilchrist
Incantati performed a programme based around Bach's Goldberg Variations. In this concert, the miraculously crafted Goldberg canons were presented in the context of canons from the middle ages through to Bach's time, alongside other music of nighttime.
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What is Our Life?
held on Friday, 24 January 2025 to a sold-out audience
at the The Old Church, Stoke Newington
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Chelys Consort of Viols
Alison Kinder
Ibrahim Aziz
Kate Conway
Sam Stadlen
Jennifer Bullock
with soprano Emily Atkinson
A concert dedicated to the life and career of the English composer Orlando Gibbons, who died 400 years ago in 1625.
The programme traced the development of the composer from his youth in Cambridge to his time at the Chapel Royal and subsequently Westminster Abbey, where he became organist in 1623, shortly before his death.​
The King's Flutes
held on Saturday, 26 October 2024 to a sold-out audience
at the The Old Church, Stoke Newington
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Ensemble Phaedrus
International early music group Ensemble Phaedrus presented The King’s Flutes, an enchanting programme of music from the court of Henry VIII for renaissance flutes with lute and voice.
King Henry VIII's acquisition of no less than seventy-two transverse flutes shows that the flute held a place of some significance at his court. The Tudor monarchs employed members of the famous Italian Bassano family, one of the most beloved wind instrument-making families in Europe, for over 125 years. The instruments used by Ensemble Phaedrus in 'The King's Flutes' are copies of a traverso consort made by the Bassano family, now in the Accademia Filarmonica in Verona. The music they performed encompasses both the celebratory and the more intimate styles of music performed at the English court.
The Pear Tree on the Top of the Mountain
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held on 23 November 2023 to a sold-out audience
at the Old Church, Stoke Newington
The Consone Quartet
Aria Prasad, recorded audio
Festival favourites, the Consone Quartet, returned with a programme of string quartets by Mozart and Beethoven. The presentation of this concert was be a little unusual, the music being framed by a creative adaptation of Virginia Woolf's short story "The String Quartet," recorded by Aria Prasad.
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Beethoven's string quartet in F major Op. 59, No.1
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Mozart's quartet in G major, K. 156
Les Violoncelles Réunis
held on 8 October 2023 to a sold-out audience
at the Old Church, Stoke Newington
Henrik Persson and Kinga Gáborjáni (baroque cellos) with harpsichordist Steven Devine perform French baroque music.
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Jean-Baptiste Barriere (1707-1747)
Sonata no 1 in A minor for cello and continue, from Book II
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Jean-Pierre Guignon (1702-1774)
Sonata no 5 in D major for cello and continuo
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Joseph Bodin de Boismortier (1689-1755)
Sonata in D minor for two bass instruments
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Jean-Baptiste Barriere (1707-1747)
Sonata no 3 in E minor for cello and continuo from Book II
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Francois Couperin (1668-1733)
Treizieme Concert Royaux for two bass instruments
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Michel Corrette (1709-1795)
Sonata no 4 in B flat mjor from Les Delices de la Solitude
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A LOVING HEART BY MOONLIGHT
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held on 17 February 2023
at the Old Church, Stoke Newington
Jonathan Brown, baritone
Steven Devine, fortepiano
Jonathan Brown, baritone, and Steven Devine, fortepiano, gave a superb recital of late 18th and early 19th century music to a packed audience. As a gesture to St Valentine, the programme featured Beethoven’s song cycle An die ferne Geliebte (To the Distant Beloved) and the famous Moonlight Sonata, alongside songs about love by Haydn and Montgeroult and solo piano works by Mozart. Steven gave wonderfully insightful introductions to the solo piano works and stunned the audience with his virtuosity on a Viennese model fortepiano, reading the music from his iPad. (Both devices require pedals!)
CONCERT FOR UKRAINE
held on 21 April 2022
at St Augustine's Church, Highbury
Our SPRING EXTRA! concert for Ukraine raised £1,927 for the British Red Cross Ukraine Crisis Appeal. This concert was generously supported by Michael Naik Estate Agents, who covered the venue hire, as well as making a significant donation. Publicity was kindly covered by RUDE Design.
The musicians who gave their time and talents to this event were: Emma Murphy, recorders; Zoe Shevlin, bassoon; Pavlo Beznosiuk, violin; Annette Isserlis, viola; Rachel Stott, viola d'amore; Ibrahim Aziz, viola da gamba, and Paula Chateauneuf, theorbo.
The programme included works by J S Bach, Orlando Gibbons, Henry Purcell, Biagio Marini, and arrangements of Ukrainian traditional songs by Annette Isserlis and Rachel Stott.
