Hebrides Ensemble

Hebrides Ensemble

The Hebrides Ensemble has built a reputation as Scotland's foremost chamber group, touring frequently throughout Scotland, appearing at international music festivals and broadcasting regularly on BBC Radio 3.

The Ensemble has commissioned and premiered new works by more than forty composers including Nigel Osborne, Sally Beamish, Stuart MacRae and Gordon McPherson and performs a celebrated series of concerts each year at the Royal Scottish Academy of Music and Drama.

The 2005/06 season includes the Ensemble's second Scottish Arts Council Tune Up Tour and a major new mixed media commission, "Shoreline...Stories of Love and War" from composer Nigel Osborne and film maker / animator Rachel Bevan Baker in collaboration with Opera Circus and Scottish Dance Theatre.  Hebrides Ensemble received high critical acclaim for their outstanding performance of the music of Elliott Carter at the 2005 Edinburgh International Festival.

Consort of Voices

Based in Edinburgh and founded in 1991, the Consort of Voices specialises in performances of a cappella music and small-scale choral repertoire from the 15th century to the present day. The group performs regularly throughout Scotland and made its English debut at the Ryedale Festival in Yorkshire in 1996 under the direction of William Conway.

The Consort has been closely associated for many years with the music of John Bevan Baker, and participated in the first performances of his chamber opera The Seer. They first performed Songs of Courtship and Hymn for the Nativity at a memorial concert for the composer at the Queen's Hall, Edinburgh, in 1995.