"known as much for vigour and risk-taking as for historical authenticity and intelligent programming"
The Financial Times
"a serious kick up the baroque backside"
365 Bristol
The Financial Times
"a serious kick up the baroque backside"
365 Bristol
We are an international, flexible collective of unconducted instrumentalists and singers who want to bring old music to new life by pushing the limits of what is possible on stage. Taking inspiration from innovative live theatre, our singers sing everything by heart, and we combine scrupulous musical preparation with high-wire risk-taking and intense, direct delivery.
Our sound is defined by tight, compact instrumental impact coupled with the vocal virtuosity of soloists who can meld as an intuitive ensemble.
We collaborate with stage directors, visual artists, other ensembles, composers, and choreographers in order to challenge what we do and learn from others. These include Tim Carroll, Federay Holmes, John la Bouchardière, Sven Werner, Mira Calix†, Spira mirabilis and Les Passions de l’Ame.
We are ensemble in residence at Wigmore Hall for the 2021/22 season, and made our BBC Proms debut in 2019.
During lockdown, we ran a weekly SKaffeehaus forum for performers and supporters which has now evolved into our podcast, releasing interviews with our players and singers in the SKunlocked series, and making archive video of live performances available for the first time. We dodged the lockdowns to perform in the Das alte Werk series in Hamburg’s Laeiszhalle in October 2020. Our Purcell potpourri was broadcast on North German Radio. Most recent performances have been at the Tage Alter Musik Regensburg (2021), Thüringer Bachwochen (2021), a collaboration with Les Passions de l’Ame, Bern (2021/22) and performances at Wigmore Hall throughout our residency.
Our performance of the 1725 version of JS Bach’s Johannes-Passion at the Bachfest Leipzig and Wigmore Hall in 2019 was acclaimed as “setting new standards” by the Leipziger Volkszeitung. Magnificat, our debut CD of festive music by Schelle, Kuhnau, and JS Bach was released on Sony Classical in November 2019, and our opera production L’ospedale is available on DVD.
Our sound is defined by tight, compact instrumental impact coupled with the vocal virtuosity of soloists who can meld as an intuitive ensemble.
We collaborate with stage directors, visual artists, other ensembles, composers, and choreographers in order to challenge what we do and learn from others. These include Tim Carroll, Federay Holmes, John la Bouchardière, Sven Werner, Mira Calix†, Spira mirabilis and Les Passions de l’Ame.
We are ensemble in residence at Wigmore Hall for the 2021/22 season, and made our BBC Proms debut in 2019.
During lockdown, we ran a weekly SKaffeehaus forum for performers and supporters which has now evolved into our podcast, releasing interviews with our players and singers in the SKunlocked series, and making archive video of live performances available for the first time. We dodged the lockdowns to perform in the Das alte Werk series in Hamburg’s Laeiszhalle in October 2020. Our Purcell potpourri was broadcast on North German Radio. Most recent performances have been at the Tage Alter Musik Regensburg (2021), Thüringer Bachwochen (2021), a collaboration with Les Passions de l’Ame, Bern (2021/22) and performances at Wigmore Hall throughout our residency.
Our performance of the 1725 version of JS Bach’s Johannes-Passion at the Bachfest Leipzig and Wigmore Hall in 2019 was acclaimed as “setting new standards” by the Leipziger Volkszeitung. Magnificat, our debut CD of festive music by Schelle, Kuhnau, and JS Bach was released on Sony Classical in November 2019, and our opera production L’ospedale is available on DVD.
The Collective concept
Most musical groups operate a traditional top-down structure with a single artistic director determining programming and identity. Our collective works in the round. The inspiration for a project may come from any one of us, and artistic leadership in-concert isn't fixed either. Operationally, this helps us to overcome our widespread geographical base - from East London to Amman - and artistically it ensures that the group's definition emerges through collaboration and teamwork.
Why "Solomon's Knot"?
Solomon's Knot was initially the 'Solomon Choir and Orchestra', which took its name from Handel's eponymous oratorio. This had long been one of Jonny's favourite pieces and was the one he founded the group to perform (though we had to get into the swing of things with a Messiah or two first). Hunting for a logo, we discovered Solomon's famous knot, which we thought provided a neat representation of the bond between choir and orchestra. When we reformed ourselves as a collective, we realised that the knot - which is actually nothing of the kind but rather two interweaving loops - perfectly reflected our new structure, so we tied everything together and adopted it as our name.
Like the singers and the instrumentalists, the interweaving loops of Solomon's Knot are inextricably linked, just as our players work very hard on the 'text' of their individual lines, and the singers on communicating as if part of a string quartet. Together we work on a unity of articulation and expression, matching colour, and of course making the interdependence (bordering on telepathy!) work, without which performances such as the chamber Messiah simply would not be possible.
Like the singers and the instrumentalists, the interweaving loops of Solomon's Knot are inextricably linked, just as our players work very hard on the 'text' of their individual lines, and the singers on communicating as if part of a string quartet. Together we work on a unity of articulation and expression, matching colour, and of course making the interdependence (bordering on telepathy!) work, without which performances such as the chamber Messiah simply would not be possible.
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artistic advisor - James Halliday
I devote much of my time to 17th- and 18th-century music, working as an assistant conductor or researcher for conductors such as John Eliot Gardiner, Emmanuelle Haïm and Christophe Rousset. I have conducted staged productions of operas by Rameau and Monteverdi, worked with baroque and Arabic traditional musicians in Syria, created musical editions for the Berlin Philharmonic and the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra, led education workshops on baroque music, and I retain a passion for contemporary music, having studied composition with Michael Finnissy and Robin Holloway. I have acted as musical director of the experimental opera company Erratica, preparing performances at The Print Room and Wilton’s Music Hall in London, and a musical installation piece for the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York. I have also worked as a coach for the Jette Parker Young Artist Programme at the Royal Opera House and in conjunction with the International Rameau Ensemble. My work with Solomon’s Knot reflects in particular my passion for French and Italian Baroque music.
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