"known as much for vigour and risk-taking as for historical authenticity and intelligent programming"
The Financial Times
The Financial Times
Solomon’s Knot baroque collective was founded in 2008 by Jonathan Sells, who now shares the artistic direction with James Halliday. We are a group of singers and players who are prepared to take risks in order to communicate more directly with our audience. Our aim is to remove the barriers between performer and spectator, to intensify the performance experience. One way in which we do this is to apply the principles of chamber music to large-scale works, performing them with small forces, without conductor, and often from memory. As one audience member put it, “it almost felt as if one knew all the performers at the end.”
Another way to achieve closer audience communication is through our work with director and member of The Factory, Federay Holmes. Federay works at the Globe and for The Dutch Factory in Amsterdam, and has a gift for challenging actors into giving their most honest performances.
Our flexible structure enables us to explore our passion for a wide range of repertoire. So far our focus has been on so-called ‘early’ music, from 16th-century Italian chamber music through the French baroque to the grand 17th-century oratorios. In future we aim to broaden our scope in order to look more closely at the relationship between the present and the past.
We are extremely honoured to have been selected for Aldeburgh Music’s Open Space residency scheme 2013-17, supported by the Esmée Fairbairn Foundation, which gives us the opportunity to develop our artistic vision and explore possible collaborations.
In 2015 we began a collaboration with the Swiss baroque orchestra, Les Passions de l'Ame, in order to exchange creative ideas, and bring them across borders. This included performing in their concert series 'Alte Musik? - ganz neu!' in Bern, as well as concerts in Lausanne and at the Regensburg Tage Alter Musik.
Through our links with the London Borough of Lewisham Music Hub and the St Marylebone CE School, we are excited to be able to bring the riches of this music to young people who would not otherwise be able to experience it live.
We have appeared on BBC Radio 3's In Tune, are regular guests of Cambridge Early Music and Aldeburgh Music Easter Weekend, and have performed at the Fringe in the Fen, London Handel, Spitalfields Music Winter and St John's Smith Square Christmas festivals. Future festival appearances include the Aldeburgh Festival, Regensburg Tage Alter Musik in 2016 and 2017, and the Leipzig Bachfest.
Another way to achieve closer audience communication is through our work with director and member of The Factory, Federay Holmes. Federay works at the Globe and for The Dutch Factory in Amsterdam, and has a gift for challenging actors into giving their most honest performances.
Our flexible structure enables us to explore our passion for a wide range of repertoire. So far our focus has been on so-called ‘early’ music, from 16th-century Italian chamber music through the French baroque to the grand 17th-century oratorios. In future we aim to broaden our scope in order to look more closely at the relationship between the present and the past.
We are extremely honoured to have been selected for Aldeburgh Music’s Open Space residency scheme 2013-17, supported by the Esmée Fairbairn Foundation, which gives us the opportunity to develop our artistic vision and explore possible collaborations.
In 2015 we began a collaboration with the Swiss baroque orchestra, Les Passions de l'Ame, in order to exchange creative ideas, and bring them across borders. This included performing in their concert series 'Alte Musik? - ganz neu!' in Bern, as well as concerts in Lausanne and at the Regensburg Tage Alter Musik.
Through our links with the London Borough of Lewisham Music Hub and the St Marylebone CE School, we are excited to be able to bring the riches of this music to young people who would not otherwise be able to experience it live.
We have appeared on BBC Radio 3's In Tune, are regular guests of Cambridge Early Music and Aldeburgh Music Easter Weekend, and have performed at the Fringe in the Fen, London Handel, Spitalfields Music Winter and St John's Smith Square Christmas festivals. Future festival appearances include the Aldeburgh Festival, Regensburg Tage Alter Musik in 2016 and 2017, and the Leipzig Bachfest.
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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