Sherborne Early Music was created by a collective of friends and like-minded musicians who met whilst studying at the Schola Cantorum Basiliensis in Switzerland (a global leader in the study of historical performance practice). Having spent over a decade making their names internationally in the field of early music, cornettist Gawain Glenton, harpist Kirsty Whatley, singer Katharine Hawnt and musicologist, fidel, viol and recorder player Uri Smilansky have all settled in Sherborne. While members of the original group have by now moved away and other colleagues joined, we remain remain committed to specialist music-teaching, education and performance, and are still striving to establish a hub for such activity in the area.
The aim of Sherborne Early Music is to present high quality concerts and workshops led by international specialists in their fields. We want to attract students of all ages, amateurs and professionals from near and far. In this way we hope to establish Early Music as a mainstream component within the local cultural landscape, while raising Sherborne’s profile within the national and international music scenes.
You would be hard-pressed to come across a team of more highly-specialised, knowledgeable people, living in such beautiful historical surroundings, ready and waiting to pass on their knowledge and expertise. We run concerts, lectures, workshop days, and longer intensive weekends, on wide variety of themes. These have already ranged from introductions to Medieval music to 'pearls' of the Venetian Renaissance; from English consort music to Latin American Baroque, and from street-music to that of royal courts.
You would be hard-pressed to come across a team of more highly-specialised, knowledgeable people, living in such beautiful historical surroundings, ready and waiting to pass on their knowledge and expertise. We run concerts, lectures, workshop days, and longer intensive weekends, on wide variety of themes. These have already ranged from introductions to Medieval music to 'pearls' of the Venetian Renaissance; from English consort music to Latin American Baroque, and from street-music to that of royal courts.
