"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
Determined to communicate the full power of 17th- and 18th-century music as directly as possible, the collective Solomon’s Knot was founded in London in 2008. Led by artistic director Jonathan Sells, the group performs without a conductor, the singers by heart.
What began a decade ago as a promise never to lose the joy of performing, to blow the dust off early music and break down the barriers of classical music has evolved into Solomon’s Knot’s reputation today: direct communication, adventurous programming and bold trademark performances from memory.
Our flexible approach enables us to explore a wide range of repertoire, especially music written before 1800, from the madrigals of Gesualdo to JS Bach’s Mass in B minor with 10 singers and 20 instrumentalists, or the rediscovery of the anonymous opera Lospedale' (ca. 1650), available on DVD.
By exploring new ways of presenting ancient music to ‘modern’ ears, eyes and minds, we work closely together with directors, composers, choreographers, visual artists, and other ensembles. From 2013-2017 Solomon’s Knot was part of Snape Malting’s inaugural Open Space development scheme. Recent collaborations include projects with Spira mirabilis, Sven Werner, James Hurley, Tim Caroll, Federay Holmes and Les Passions de l’Ame.
We are grateful to Sir John Eliot Gardiner for his invitations to the Bachfest Leipzig in 2016 and his Barbican Bach Weekend in 2018. We have also appeared at the Aldeburgh Festival, Händel-Festspiele Halle, Newbury Spring Festival, Thüringer Bachwochen, Regensburger Tage Alter Musik, Spitalfields Music Winter Festival, London Handel Festival, and St John’s Smith Square Christmas Festival.
Solomon’s Knot finished 2018 with the revival of our project ‘Christmas in Leipzig' in Nottingham and London’s Milton Court, recorded live and released on Sony Classical in 2019. “Time and again zig-zagging choruses, lightly accompanied, sprang into fire almost as if by spontaneous combustion. Most exciting.” The Times *****
Concerts in 2019 included our Wigmore Hall debut with the second version of JS Bach’s Johannes-Passion, returns to the Thüringer Bachwochen, Leipzig Bachfest, and St George’s Bristol, a residency at the Ryedale Festival, and our first appearance at the Bachwochen in Thun (Switzerland).
SKonnect, Solomon’s Knot’s education strategy, aims to take the excitement of so-called ‘early’ music into classrooms and workshops around the UK and further afield. Recently, schools in Nottingham and London have benefitted from hearing musicians perform for them live and explain the wonders of this colourful and exhilarating repertoire.
What began a decade ago as a promise never to lose the joy of performing, to blow the dust off early music and break down the barriers of classical music has evolved into Solomon’s Knot’s reputation today: direct communication, adventurous programming and bold trademark performances from memory.
Our flexible approach enables us to explore a wide range of repertoire, especially music written before 1800, from the madrigals of Gesualdo to JS Bach’s Mass in B minor with 10 singers and 20 instrumentalists, or the rediscovery of the anonymous opera Lospedale' (ca. 1650), available on DVD.
By exploring new ways of presenting ancient music to ‘modern’ ears, eyes and minds, we work closely together with directors, composers, choreographers, visual artists, and other ensembles. From 2013-2017 Solomon’s Knot was part of Snape Malting’s inaugural Open Space development scheme. Recent collaborations include projects with Spira mirabilis, Sven Werner, James Hurley, Tim Caroll, Federay Holmes and Les Passions de l’Ame.
We are grateful to Sir John Eliot Gardiner for his invitations to the Bachfest Leipzig in 2016 and his Barbican Bach Weekend in 2018. We have also appeared at the Aldeburgh Festival, Händel-Festspiele Halle, Newbury Spring Festival, Thüringer Bachwochen, Regensburger Tage Alter Musik, Spitalfields Music Winter Festival, London Handel Festival, and St John’s Smith Square Christmas Festival.
Solomon’s Knot finished 2018 with the revival of our project ‘Christmas in Leipzig' in Nottingham and London’s Milton Court, recorded live and released on Sony Classical in 2019. “Time and again zig-zagging choruses, lightly accompanied, sprang into fire almost as if by spontaneous combustion. Most exciting.” The Times *****
Concerts in 2019 included our Wigmore Hall debut with the second version of JS Bach’s Johannes-Passion, returns to the Thüringer Bachwochen, Leipzig Bachfest, and St George’s Bristol, a residency at the Ryedale Festival, and our first appearance at the Bachwochen in Thun (Switzerland).
SKonnect, Solomon’s Knot’s education strategy, aims to take the excitement of so-called ‘early’ music into classrooms and workshops around the UK and further afield. Recently, schools in Nottingham and London have benefitted from hearing musicians perform for them live and explain the wonders of this colourful and exhilarating repertoire.
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 Berne - 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.
Solomon's Knot's joint artistic directors
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JamesI 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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