Harmonia Consort provides women in classical music with a distinctive platform for their creativity. We champion the works of women past and present, as well as perform standard and contemporary chamber music repertoire.
Brain-child of Eulalie Charland and her partners Gabriella Swallow, Jill Valentine and Rosie Moon, Harmonia Consort emerged from a zeitgeist coloured by the 2018 UK centenary of universal suffrage and the #MeToo campaign. As women working in music, the awareness of the lingering gender divide in the profession (more acute amongst composers and conductors) led to a desire to be part of a movement that empowers creative women.
We look forward to commissioning new works from young female composers to help secure the place of talented women in the chamber music canon.
A typical programme involves anything from three to thirteen players and includes repertoire from the Baroque period to the present day. The ensemble also proposes concerts for children.
Programme Samples
Programme 1
Green for String Orchestra by Thea Musgrave
New commission by Karl Fiorini
– Interval –
Death and the Maiden for String Orchestra by Franz Schubert (arr. Gustav Mahler)
Programme 2
String Quartet in E-flat Major by Fanny Mendelssohn
Interlude (string sextet) by Charlotte Harding
Fantasia (nonet) by Cheryl Frances-Hoad
– Interval –
Serenade for Strings by Herbert Howells
Programme 3
3 Lieder (voice and piano) by Clara Schumann
Sad Steps (piano and string sextet) by Huw Watkins
String Quintet in G Major, op.111 by Johannes Brahms
– Interval –
Into the Faded Air (sextet) by Helen Grime
Piano Quintet in E-flat Major, op.44 by Robert Schumann
Children’s Concerts
The Carnival of the Animals with narrator by Camille Saint-Saëns
– or –
The Soldier’s Tale with narrator by Igor Stravinsky
For more information, contact us.