Meet in the Chancel for an evening of discussion illustrated with live musical examples, exploring the development of baroque music.
5th June 2019 - 7.30pm
Chancel
Featuring:
Robert Howarth and Bojan Cicic
Presented by Robert Howarth, Director of Music at the University Church, and Bojan Cicic, Leader of the Academy of Ancient Music and Professor of Baroque Violin at the Royal College of Music.
Tickets free, available from Eventbrite and on the door.
Known for his intelligent and virtuosic playing on both the violin and viola d'amore, Bojan Cicic specialises in repertoire ranging from the late 16th century to the violin concertos of Mendelssohn and Beethoven.
He has recently appeared as a soloist with the Kioi Hall Chamber Orchestra Tokyo, Instruments of Time and Truth, the Budapest Festival Orchestra and appears regularly as a leader and director with the Academy of Ancient Music and the European Union Baroque Orchestra.
Bojan has featured as leader on numerous recordings with ensemble Florilegium, La Nuova Musica, and the Arcangelo Consort. His recording of J.S. Bach’s Concerto for two violins with Rachel Podger was recently named the best available recording of the work by BBC Music Magazine.
Next season will see his debut as director and soloist with several ensembles: Het Gelders Orkest, the Netherlands; Singapore Symphony Orchestra; the Washington Bach Consort; and Orchestra Clàssica do Sul, Portugal.
Bojan formed his own group, the Illyria Consort, to explore rare repertoire of the 17th and 18th centuries. They have performed at the Utrecht Early Music Festival, the Korkyra Baroque Festival, Festival Laus Polyphoniae, and at the Festival de Sablé. Their debut recording of Giovanni Stefano Carbonelli’s Sonate da camera Nos. 1-6 achieved great critical acclaim and was chosen as one of Presto Classical’s “Presto Recordings of the Year” for 2017. The Illyria Consort’s second disc, a world première recording of Giovanni Giornovich’s London Violin Concertos, was released in March 2019. Their third recording will be the second volume of Carbonelli’s sonatas, Sonatas 7-12, and will appear in July of this year.
In 2016 Bojan was appointed Professor of Baroque Violin at the Royal College of Music, and is passionate about training the next generation of instrumentalists in historically-informed playing styles. In April 2018 he was appointed the leader of the Academy of Ancient Music.
Robert Howarth read music at the University of York and is establishing a reputation an gifted director and conductor of early and classical repertoire. He is also the current Director of Music here at the University Church.
Howarth’s opera engagements include Il ritorno d’Ulisse in patria for Opernhaus Zürich; Giulio Cesare for Opera North; The Fairy Queen in St Gallen, Haydn’s L’Isola Disabitata for the Norwegian Opera, L’Incoronazione di Poppea with the Academy of Ancient Music at The Barbican, London and in Venice and Dido and Aeneas with The English Concert at the Buxton Festival and Birmingham Opera Company. He has directed Il Ritorno d’Ulisse in Patria for Welsh National Opera, Birmingham Opera Company and English Touring Opera; Alcina for the Hamburg State Opera, Theater St Gallen and English Touring Opera, Monteverdi Ballo del Ingrate with Il Combattimento di Tancredi e Clorinda for the Birmingham Opera Company, Acis and Galatea with The Early Opera Company and Tolomeo for English Touring Opera as well as Charpentier La déscente d’Orphée aux enfers for Glyndebourne’s Jerwood Programme, Charpentier Actéonand Purcell King Arthur for the Dartington International Summer School.
Howarth was Music Director for Claire van Kampen’s play Farinelli and the King staring Mark Rylance and Iestyn Davies at the Sam Wanamaker Playhouse, Duke of York’s Theatre, London and Belasco Theater, New York.
He regulary directs programmes with the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment and Academy of Ancient Music and has conducted Messiah with The Hallé Orchestra, Danish Radio Symphony Ochestra, Bilbao Symphony Orchestra, the Irish Baroque Orchestra and the Royal Seville Symphony Orchestra; the St Matthew Passion with the RTE National Symphony Orchestra; Mozart, Haydn and Rameau with The English Concert and has also appeared with the Early Opera Company, the English Chamber Orchestra,The St James Baroque Players, Salzburg Mozarteum Orchestra and at the Ambronay Festival. He regularly co-directs the Italian baroque ensembeLa Serenissima.
Howarth’s current season includes Agrippina at The Grange Festival and music direction for James Runcie’s play The Great Passion at the Dartingon Festival. Future plans include a new production of The Magic Flutefor Opera North.