Ashley Solomon, Director of the early music group Florilegium, is pleased to announce the ensemble’s programme for spring 2010. This will follow the final Handel/Purcell anniversary concert in Wigmore Hall, on New Year’s Eve 2009, when they will be joined by Dame Emma Kirkby.

The first concert of 2010 is a performance of their Bolivian Baroque programme, with four Bolivian soloists, and will take place in Singapore on 14 January. At home performances include chamber concerts of Bach, Italian baroque music, and a programme based on Couperin’s Les Nations, as well as major choral concerts with The Bach Choir of Bach’s B Minor Mass and the annual performance of St Matthew Passion, both in the Royal Festival Hall, conducted by David Hill.

Overseas there are concerts of Bach in Amsterdam (Concertgebouw), Arnhem and Antwerp (De Singel). In March there is the first concert celebrating the 300th anniversary of Pergolesi’s birth. Starting in Ourense (Spain), there are performances in Budapest, Austria, Germany, Stour Festival and at Wigmore Hall in the spring, with further performances in the autumn. For these concerts they will be joined again by Dame Emma Kirkby and countertenor Robin Blaze.

To coincide with this anniversary and these performances, Florilegium have recorded a new CD of Pergolesi’s works with Robin Blaze and soprano Elin Manahan Thomas. This will be released early in 2010.

Florilegium continues as Ensemble in Association at the Royal College of Music, giving masterclasses and regular coaching sessions. Additionally members of Florilegium will perform alongside members of the RCM Baroque orchestra in two major events. There will be a concert performance of Purcell’s Diocelsian at the College in March, and in May the RCM Historical Performance Department’s annual concert of Bach Cantatas at St John’s Smith Square. Both these performances will be conducted by Ashley Solomon.

Florilegium’s season ends with the same forces as the year began, with four Bolivian soloists in a concert tour, including a performance in London, France and at the Edinburgh International Festival.