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Ensemble Dumont

Ensemble Dumont

Ensemble Dumont
Vocal Ensemble

Founded and directed by Peter Bennett to perform music of Renaissance France.

Genre
Classical
    Biography

    Ensemble Dumont was founded to bring a fresh approach to the vocal consort music of the 16th and 17th centuries, and to explore new areas of repertoire with its uniquely warm sound.  Based on a core of five singers, three viols, theorbo and chamber organ, the ensemble has established a reputation for its exquisite CD recordings, for its innovative scholarship, and for its fresh and vibrant performances in concert.

    Ensemble Dumont has appeared at major music festivals across Europe, including the Bruges and Innsbruck early music festivals and the European Festival of Sacred Music in Schwäbisch Gmund, and has performed at London's Wigmore Hall. The ensemble has also broadcast frequently, appearing on the BBC (In Tune (R3) and a live Easter concert from the Temple Church (R3)), RAI (Italy), SDR and NDR (Germany), and R3 (Belgium).

    Peter Bennett - director

    Peter Bennett combines careers as both a scholar and a performer. He is Associate Professor of Musicology at Case Western Reserve University, Cleveland, USA, where he teaches academic and performance-related classes in the musicology and historical performance programs, and he is also on the faculty of the Cleveland Institute of Music, teaching continuo and historical keyboard techniques. 

    Peter was organ-scholar at Gonville and Caius College, Cambridge (studying with Nicolas Kynaston) before spending two years at the Hochschule für Musik, Vienna, where he studied organ (with Peter Planyavsky), improvisation, and conducting. After a master's degree in musicology at King's College, London, he took up the harpsichord, studying with Jill Severs in London, and with Kenneth Gilbert at the Academia Chigiana (Siena, Italy) and privately in Paris. Founding Ensemble Dumont in 1995, Peter continued to work as a continuo player with other ensembles and to pursue his scholarly interests, completing a D.Phil. at Pembroke College, Oxford, in 2004 and being appointed to his current position in 2005.