ASHLEY SOLOMON
flute/recorder
Director
Active as a soloist and chamber musician Ashley is the director of Florilegium, and much of his time is spent working and performing with this ensemble that he 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, Far East and Australia. Florilegium have been recording with Channel Classics since 1993 and have to date made 37 recordings, many of which have garnered international awards. They have given over 1,600 performances over the years, and close to 90 of these have been at London’s Wigmore Hall.
As a soloist, he has performed worldwide, including concertos in the Sydney Opera House, Esplanade (Singapore), Teatro Colon (Buenos Aires), Concertgebouw (Amsterdam), Konzerthaus (Vienna), Beethoven-Haus (Bonn), Handel-Haus (Halle) and Frick Collection (New York). He also records as a solo artist with Channel Classics and his recording of the complete Bach’s Flute Sonatas was voted the best overall version of these works on either modern or period flute by Gramophone Magazine (February 2017):
Solomon’s luminous tone and unfussy command of the complicated melodies conflate into something utterly beautiful. Slow movements are soulful in their infinite variety, fast ones are clever and with a wealth of invention behind them.
Since 2003 Ashley has been training vocalists and instrumentalists in Bolivia, working on the remarkable collection of music held in archives by the Moxos and Chiquitos Indians. He formed Arakaendar Bolivia Choir in 2005 and has directed them in concerts throughout North and South America, Europe and in the Far East and on their 3 cd recordings. In 2008 Ashley was the first European to receive the prestigious Bolivian Hans Roth Prize, given 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.
Combining a successful career across both theory and practice, Ashley Solomon is Head of Historical Performance at the Royal College of Music, having been appointed a professor in 1994. In 2014 he was awarded a Personal Chair and in July 2017 he was elected a Fellow of the Royal Academy of Music (FRAM) which was conferred on him by HRH Duchess of Gloucester. In 2019 he was also elected a Fellow of the Royal College of Music (FRCM) which was conferred on him by HRH Prince of Wales. Both Fellowships are in recognition of outstanding services to music.
He has given masterclasses and lectures worldwide, including The Juilliard School, Yale University, Case Western Reserve University, Sydney Conservatorium, Jerusalem Academy of Music and Dance, Nanyang Academy of Fine Arts Singapore, Hong Kong Academy of Performing Arts, Oslo and Bergen Conservatories, Frankfurt Hochschule and Mozarteum in Salzburg. Since 2014 Ashley has been working closely with the Royal Collection Trust to curate musical performances in their Royal venues including Buckingham Palace (Queen’s Gallery, Ballroom) at Windsor Castle and in the Queen’s Chapel.
He has given masterclasses and lectures worldwide, including The Juilliard School, Yale University, Case Western Reserve University, Sydney Conservatorium, Jerusalem Academy of Music and Dance, Nanyang Academy of Fine Arts Singapore, Hong Kong Academy of Performing Arts, Oslo and Bergen Conservatories, Frankfurt Hochschule and Mozarteum in Salzburg. In 2002 Florilegium became involved with Bolivian Baroque and since 2003 Ashley has been training vocalists and instrumentalists there. Initially solo singers, he formed Arakaendar Bolivia Choir in 2005. He has directed them in concerts in Bolivia, North America and Europe, including two major tours of UK and their three cds. In 2008 Ashley was the first European to receive the prestigious Bolivian Hans Roth Prize, 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.
BOJAN ČIČIČ
violin
As one of the rising stars in the world of period performance, Bojan Cicic is fast making a name for himself with his sensitive and virtuosic playing. In addition to being the leader of Florilegium, he frequently guest directs and performs as a soloist with groups such as the Academy of Ancient Music, European Union Baroque Orchestra, and Budapest Festival Orchestra. His recording of J.S.Bach’s Concerto for two violins with Rachel Podger was recently named the best available recording by BBC Music Magazine.
Bojan’s own group, the Illyria Consort, recently recorded their first disc with Delphian Records for release in March 2017, a groundbreaking recording of Carbonelli’s virtuosic violin sonatas. The Illyria Consort explores rare repertoire of the 17th and 18th centuries from the Venetian Republic and Habsburg Empire, and have performed at the Utrecht Early Music Festival, the Korkyra Baroque Festival, Laus Polyphoniae, and at the Festival de Sablé.
Future projects include directing Vivaldi’s Four Seasons with the European Union Baroque Orchestra and performing Mendelssohn’s Violin Concerto with Instruments of Time and Truth. Bojan is Professor of Baroque Violin at the Royal College of Music, and plays a violin by Rugieri from the 1680s, kindly loaned to him by the Jumpstart Junior Foundation.
JENNIFER MORSCHES
cello
Jennifer Morsches enjoys an international career as a versatile cellist, acclaimed for playing with “intelligence and pathos” and a “fine mixture of elegance and gutsiness.” Especially inclined towards historical performance, she is the principal cellist of Florilegium since 2000, with whom she performs around the globe and has recorded numerous award-winning discs for Channel Classics Records. She is Co-Artistic Director of Sarasa Ensemble, based in Cambridge, MA, highly acknowledged for its outreach in youth detention centres in the Boston Metropolitan Area. World premieres of chamber music include pieces by David Matthews, Michael Wolpe and Ben Zion Orgad, and a new commission for Julian Grant in 2019. She is a founding member of Richter Ensemble, tracing and focussing on the interdependence of today’s music with the past. A longtime member of the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment, Les Siècles and Orchestre des Champs-Élysées, she has toured and recorded with eminent artists such as Sir Simon Rattle, Sir András Schiff, Vladimir Jurowski, Sir Roger Norrington, Dame Emma Kirkby, Michael Chance, David Zinman, François-Xavier Roth and Philippe Herreweghe. Jennifer graduated Phi Beta Kappa, magna cumlaude, First Group Scholar from Smith College with degrees in Music History and German Literature, and was awarded the Ernst Wallfisch Prize in Music.
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.
TERENCE CHARLSTON
harpsichord/organ
Terence Charlston was born in Blackpool, Lancashire. From an early age, he was drawn to the sound and repertoire of old instruments, especially the harpsichord, which he first experienced through recordings and BBC Radio 3 broadcasts. He studied piano and organ from childhood and later took degrees in Oxford and London, and in organ, harpsichord and musicology beginning his career in church music. As a harpsichord and organ soloist, he has toured extensively within Europe, as well as to Japan, the USA and South America giving courses and master classes in Germany, Greece, Italy, Mexico and USA.
He is well known to chamber music audiences and performs and records with most of today’s leading period singers, instrumentalists and ensembles. He was a member of the quartet London Baroque between 1995 and 2007 with whom he gave nearly 500 concerts worldwide. Like many a Lancashire man, he has gravitated south but is proud to be a patron and guest director of Lancashire Sinfonietta. His wide repertoire spans from the 16th century to the present day and reflects his passionate interest in keyboard music of all types and styles.
In addition to an international performing career, he is much in demand as a teacher. He taught academic studies, performance practice and harpsichord at the Royal Academy of Music, London where he founded the department of Historical Performance (1995) and now teaches basso continuo and clavichord. He also lectures for the London centre of Lawrence University, Wisconsin and has given master classes in Italy, Germany, Greece, USA and Mexico. He is professor of harpsichord at the Royal College of Music, London and International Visiting Tutor in Harpsichord Studies at the Royal Northern College of Music in Manchester.
Terence is an important advocate of English and continental keyboard music of the 17th and 18th centuries and his fascination with this repertoire has resulted in a number of pioneering concerts and recording projects. These include editions and recordings of all Matthew Locke’s organ and harpsichord music, Carlo Ignazio Monza’s Pièces modernes pour le Clavecin, and a recording and interactive edition of the keyboard music of Albertus Bryne. His recording of William Byrd’s My Ladye Nevell Booke can be heard on the British Library’s Turning Pages website and he made the world premiere recording of the recently discovered keyboard manuscript of Antoine Selosse.
