Ashley Solomon
flute/recorder
Artistic Director

As Artistic Director of Florilegium much of Ashley’s time is spent working and performing with Florilegium, the ensemble he co-founded in 1991. They have a busy touring schedule and each year perform at major international festivals and concert series throughout Europe as well as the Americas. Florilegium have been recording with Channel Classics since 1993 and have to date made 20 recordings on this Dutch label.

Born in Sussex, Ashley won a recorder and flute scholarship to the Royal Academy of Music in London where he was awarded first class honours. He went on to complete his post-graduate studies there in 1991 with a scholarship from the Countess of Munster Musical Trust studying recorder with Peter Holtslag and baroque and classical flute with Lisa Beznosiuk. That same year he won first prize in the Moeck International Recorder Competition, resulting in a solo debut recital at London’s Wigmore Hall. This led to a debut solo recording project for the English label Meridian Records of recorder and Italian baroque flute music which was released in 1994.

He has performed as a soloist throughout Europe, the Americas, the Far East and Australia, in prestigious venues including the Concertgebouw (Amsterdam), The Frick Collection (New York), Teatro Colon (Buenos Aires) and the Sydney Opera House. He frequently records programmes for radio and television and as well as his many recordings with Florilegium for Channel Classics, he has been recording as a solo artist for the same label since 1998. His solo discography on Channel Classics includes the complete Bach Flute Sonatas (two volumes) as well as a recording of music for period harp and flute with works by Mozart, Rossini, Gluck, Nadermann, Bochsa and Tulou. Volume 1 of the Bach Sonatas was described by Gramophone magazine as “exceptional…prepare to be uplifted” and it went on to be selected as one of the magazines favourite CDs for 2001.

From 1997-2000 Ashley was a frequent guest principal flautist with the Sydney based Australian Chamber Orchestra when they performed on period instruments. This position involved several national tours each year as well as recordings for CD and national radio.

Much in demand as a teacher he has given master classes and lectures in Australia, The Americas, The Czech Republic, Bulgaria, Portugal, Norway and the UK. In 1998 he was made an Honorary Associate of the Royal Academy of Music and this was followed in 2000 with Honorary Membership of the Royal College of Music, where he has been Professor since 1994. In 2006 he was appointed to the new position of Head of Historical Performance at the Royal College of Music.

Since his appointment at the Royal College of Music he has directed a number of projects, including the RCM’s first performance of Bach’s Easter Oratorio in April 2007 with the College’s chamber choir. In November 2007 he directed two major projects and in January 2008 he directed the first of what will be a series of Bach Cantata concerts.

In 2003 Florilegium started working with Bolivian Baroque music; initially with a concert at the Wigmore Hall, Ashley led the group in performances in Bolivia 2004 and every two years since then, and they made recordings there in 2004 and 2006, and a third CD was recorded in the Waalse Kerk in Amsterdam, which will be released in October 2008.

In 2007 he directed three Bolivian national tours with Arakaendar Bolivia Choir, the choir he formed in that country in January 2006 to perform and record Bolivian Baroque music. Their first CD, released to critical acclaim in 2007, won a number of awards and was nominated for a 2008 BBC Music Magazine award. In February 2008 he directed a European tour with the Choir and Florilegium, including a concert tour in The Netherlands, a concert at the Royal College of Music and a live BBC Radio 3 broadcast.

Ashley was awarded the 2008 Hans Roth Prize; this prestigious Bolivian award has been given to him in recognition of the enormous assistance he has given to the Bolivian native Indians, their presence on the international stage and the promotion and preservation of this music.

Jennifer Morsches spent her formative years in Alexandria, Virginia, studying cello with David Hardy under the auspices of the scholarship Fellowship and Apprenticeship Programs of the National Symphony Orchestra in Washington, D.C. During the summer months she participated in orchestral and chamber music courses at the New England Music Camp, Eastern Music Festival and the Apple Hill Center for Chamber Music in New Hampshire. She has been invited as a guest artist and coach at Apple Hill since 2002.

She pursued a liberal arts education at Smith College, where she graduated magna cum laude, Phi Beta Kappa and First Group Scholar with degrees in Music and German Literature, and was recipient of the Ernst Wallfisch Memorial Prize in music upon graduation in 1990. Jennifer was subsequently accepted into the studio of Timothy Eddy at the Mannes College of Music in New York City, where she received her Master's degree. She continued to study with Mr. Eddy at the State University of New York at Stony Brook, where she received her Doctorate of Musical Arts in 1995. During her post-graduate years, she was a Fellow at the Bach Aria Festival, the Quartet Program and the Tanglewood Music Center. She received regular chamber music coaching sessions with members of the Juilliard String Quartet, Eugene Lehner, Louis Krasner, Felix Galimir, Julius Levine and Gilbert Kalish, and was awarded the C.D. Jackson Prize for outstanding merit and contribution at Tanglewood in 1994. That summer she was also invited to perform with Yo-Yo Ma as part of Wynton Marsalis' educational music videos, recorded by Sony, which have been aired on television worldwide. She was a member of the Cassatt String Quartet in New York City from 1995-96.

A growing interest in period instrument performance led her to London in 1996. Since then she has been in great demand as both continuo cellist and chamber music collaborator in the UK as well as on the Continent. As principal cellist of the highly acclaimed baroque ensemble Florilegium, with whom she regularly records for Channel Classics, she has toured extensively throughout the globe and performs regularly at, among other venues, the Wigmore Hall, Royal Festival Hall and Royal Albert Hall. Jennifer performs and tours chamber music in Germany with Trio 1790 (CPO records) and in the Netherlands with the quartet, Island (Centaur Records). Additionally, she is a member of the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment, the English Baroque Soloists, Orchestre des Champs Elysees and the Amsterdam Baroque Orchestra. This past spring she was invited to be the continuo cellist for Luc Bondy's production of Hercules at the Nederlands Opera. She also regularly performs in recital with countertenors Michael Chance and Derek Lee Ragin.

On modern cello, Jennifer participates in chamber music festivals such as El Paso Pro-Musica, Bravo! Colorado, Consonances Festival in Saint Nazaire, France, the Barossa Music Festival in Australia and the Flanders Festival in Belgium. She has given world premieres of chamber works by David Matthews, Ben-Zion Orgad, Luna Pearl Wolff and Michael Wolpe. She has performed live on BBC Radio 3, BBC World Service, Deutschlandfunk, CBC (Canada), ABC (Australia), WGBH-Boston, WQXR-New York and NPR in the United States.

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James Johnstone
harpsichord/organ

James Johnstone studied organ and harpsichord at the Guildhall School of Music, London and The Hague Conservatory, Holland, with teachers Jill Severs, Ton Koopman and Gustav Leonhardt.

For seventeen years he was a principal keyboardist in the Gabrieli Consort and Players and as such contributed as both soloist and continuo player to 22 of their award-winning recordings on Deutsche Grammaphon.

His main areas of interest are now recital work, chamber music and teaching. As a core member of Florilegium since 2001 he has made 10 discs and toured Europe and the Americas. He recently reformed the chamber group Trio Sonnerie at the invitation of violinist Monica Huggett. He also works regularly with London Baroque and Trinity Baroque with whom he has recorded the Bach Motets for Raumklang on the historic organ in Naumberg.

He has made 6 unanimously acclaimed solo discs of works by Blow, Gibbons, Bach, Pasquini, Cornet and Elisabethan Virginalists.

As a recitalist he has performed in Holland, Germany, Switzerland, Belgium, Poland, Denmark, Iceland, Spain, Israel, Colombia and the USA.

James teaches early keyboards at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama, and at Trinity College of Music in London, and has given masterclasses in Europe and the States.

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Reiko Ichise
viola da gamba

Reiko was born in Tokyo and began her musical training as a pianist. She read musicology at the Kunitachi College of Music where she started playing the viola da gamba, having lessons with Yukimi Kanbe and Tetsuya Nakano.

In 1991 she came to Britain, winning the foundation scholarship at the Royal College of Music, to study gamba with Richard Boothby. Whilst there, she won the concerto prize and completed her post graduate study with distinction. Since leaving the RCM, she has established herself as one of the leading gamba players in the UK.

Reiko has performed extensively throughout the UK as chamber musician and soloist, appearing in venues including the Royal Festival Hall, Wigmore Hall and the Royal Opera House.

She has worked with many leading conductors and orchestras including Sir John Eliot Gardiner and the English Baroque Soloists, Sir David Willcocks and the English Chamber Orchestra, Paul McCreesh and the Gabrieli Consort, and Kurt Masur and the London Philharmonic Orchestra.

Reiko regularly works with early music ensembles such as Concordia, Passacaglia, Charivari Agreable and the Early Opera Company. She has recorded chamber music for Lynn, Metronome, ASV and deux-elles. Since 2001 she has been a core member of Florilegium

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