ARTISTS
Thomas Fournil
Artistic direction, Composition, Hurdy-gurdy, Portative Organ
Thomas Fournil is a Corsican composer, researcher, singer, portative organ, and hurdy-gurdy player based in London. He founded the Idrîsî Ensemble during his fellowship at the Guildhall School of Music, after completing the Guildhall Artist Masters course (distinction) under James Weeks. His current doctoral research is concerned with practical applications of postcolonial medievalism in music making/pedagogy, with a unique conflation of spectral techniques and queer spectrality. Thomas specialises in Old Roman, Occitan, and Corsican heritage. He believes in the crucial role of medievalism in our structures of knowledge production and its potential for driving transformative change in contemporary investigations of identity, gender, class, ecology, pedagogy, and history. He is supervised by James Weeks, Julian Anderson, Marcel Pérès and Nye Parry. His studies are supported by the City of London Corporation and The Guildhall School Trust.
Noémie Ducimetière
Voice, Oud, Electric Guitar
Noémie Ducimetiere is a London-based folk rock & electronic artist from Romandy, Switzerland. Her career is rooted in live performance, touring internationally between 2008 and 2015 as lead singer of 11-piece band 'Gentle Mystics'. In recent years she has expanded her horizons by composing and producing the score for multiple films, notably internationally acclaimed feature documentary ‘Another News Story’, which premiered at Karlovy Vary, featured in IDFA, Zurich and Amsterdam, and is currently shortlisted for the Griersons Awards. The theme of the film, which follows the lives of people escaping violence in the Middle East, influenced her to study Oud and Arabic modes of music, which she continues to this day. Noémie also started studying Troubadour and Old Roman chant with Thomas Fournil, and integrated the Idrîsî Ensemble.
Voice
Greek mezzo-soprano Alexandra Achillea Pouta has performed as a soloist at the Carnegie Hall, Barbican Hall, Snape Maltings, Milton Court Concert Hall, and Union Chapel among other venues. A keen improviser and collaborator, she is invested in premiering emerging music. She works closely with Idrîsî Ensemble, through which she is exploring the interconnections between her Mediterranean heritage, and her passion for ancient repertoires.
She is a two-time finalist in the Maria Callas Foundation Competition, a finalist in the 2023 Guildhall Gold Medal Prize, a Sybil Tutton Opera Award Holder, a Jane Ades Scholar, and an Athena Scholar. She is currently studying on the Guildhall School Opera Course. She has previously studied Vocal Studies at the Guildhall School, Musicology at Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, and Historical Performance at the Early Music Centre of Athens Conservatoire.
Elsa Hackett Esteban
Voice
Elsa Hackett is a musician, artist and actor born in Barcelona and based in London. She graduated with a 1st Class Honours from the Guildhall School of Music and Drama (2019) in jazz music. She founded the a cappella group ‘In Crescendo’, winners of Spanish TV contest ‘Oh Happy Day’ in 2014. She has collaborated with the likes of Sampha, Knower, Conor Albert and Jockstrap. She is currently invested in testing the boundaries of cross-genre and electronic experimentation in her solo project ‘ELSAS’, alias under which she released her debut EP ‘The Art of The Concrete’ in 2021. The influence of her South-American and Mediterranean heritage have greatly informed her artistry and vocal expression, which she is exploring further with Idrîsî Ensemble.
Dunja Botic
Voice
Dunja is a performer and singer currently based in London with Greek and Serbian origins. As a professional singer she specialises in Eastern European, Mediterranean Folk and Near Eastern European music. She explores a wide range of styles including Jazz, Soul, Theatre, Film scoring and Ottoman makam singing. She has worked as the lead singer for ‘The Royal Shakespeare Company’ appearing in number of productions including ‘Timon of Athens’, ‘Tartuffe’ and ‘Museum of Baghdad’ at Stratford-upon-Avon’s Royal Shakespeare theatre. She loves exploring and collaborating with artists and work with many bands including Don Kipper, Kourelou, Near East collective, The Embers collective, Puppet Barge theatre, Rebetiko Carnival and The Turbans.
Eliza Oakes
Voice
South London artist Eliza Oakes is a vocalist, songwriter and performer who's live shows and original music presents a unique, expansive and formidable exploration of the voice that blends classic songwriting, improvisation and performance. Graduating from the Guildhall School of Music with a first-class honours degree in Jazz Vocal, she has since performed in collaborative projects at iconic London venues such as Ronnie Scott’s Jazz Club, Koko, Earth Hackney, Jazz Cafe and Omeara and further headlined sold-out shows at St Pancras Old Church, Bermondsey Social Club and Servant Jazz Quarters with her original project. She has consistently worked in studying, honing and exploring a range of music styles such as classical, pop, musical theatre and jazz and has recently recorded for artists such as Elbow and Gregory Porter. Now backed by the PRS’s ‘Women Make Music’ Fund, she is set to release her next body of work in 2024.
Konstantinos Glynos
Kanun
Konstantinos Glynos is a London-based kanun player. He performs music spanning from Balkan, Greek, Turkish and Arabic traditions. Moreover London offered him the platform to expand his range of performance skills in jazz ensembles and experimental music. He has collaborated with numerous musicians, dancers, visual artists, composers and directors and he has performed in many world music festivals as well as London venues such as Green Note, Harrison's pub and Magic Garden as well as Ronnie Scott's, Union Chapel and The Place. He is currently a MA student at Goldsmiths university, pursuing a degree in Performance and Related Studies and his research is focusing on arranging, transcribing and performing western baroque music on the Turkish kanun.
Oliver Dover
Kaval, Ney
Oliver Dover is a saxophonist/clarinettist/kaval/ney player based in Leeds. He specialises in the crossover between jazz and the music of the Balkans and Eastern Mediterranean, and has been fortunate enough to have studied with some of the great masters of Greek, Turkish and Bulgarian folk music. He has toured internationally with The Turbans, Beats and Pieces Big Band, Mohammed Alnuma, Hassan Eraji, HAWA,The Near East Collective, Kourelou, Polar Bear and many others.
Lucine Musaelian
Vielle, Voice
Lucine Musaelian is an Armenian-American viola da gamba player, singer, and composer. She graduated from Yale University in 2020 with a B.A. in Music. In July 2022, Lucine completed her M.A. in Historical Performance at the Schola Cantorum Basiliensis in Basel, Switzerland, where she studied viola da gamba with Paolo Pandolfo and voice with Rosa Dominguez. She continued her viol studies with Jonathan Manson at the Royal Academy of Music, where she recieved a Professional Diploma in Viola da Gamba Performance as a recipient of the Enlightenment Award. Lucine is now a Royal Academy Chamber Fellow with the duo Intesa, which specialises in self-accompaniment and multi-genre performance. Her recent performances include a concert in the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment’s Night Shift series, and with Phantasm and Dunedin Consort. In March, she will play with the BBC Philharmonic in a performance of J.S.Bach’s St. John Passion.
CHORUS
PREVIOUS COLLABORATORS
Emily Baines
Recorders, Shawm, Bagpipe
Emily Baines is one of the most exciting and versatile musicians working in the UK today. A specialist recorder player, she is also a skilled multi-instrumentalist performing worldwide on shawms, bagpipes and other early reed instruments.
Emily’s work as a performer involves a myriad different roles, from concerto soloist and chamber musician to theatre band and actor/musician roles. As a musical director Emily is in increasing demand, her main work is currently in drama from the medieval, renaissance and baroque eras using both period and more contemporary musical styles…
Arngeir Hauksson
Theorbo, Cittern, Renaissance Guitar, Lute, Gittern, Saz, Hurdy Gurdy, Percussion
'Outstanding among the instrumental contributions' Early Music Today
I started making music in my early teens with a punk rock band. I soon wanted to play jazz but in Reykjavik, where I'm from, you had to learn the classical guitar before being allowed to enrol on the jazz course. So that's what I did, and I haven't looked back. I also started singing in a college choir and this, alongside my discovery of classical music, led me to the fascinating world of early music. After moving to London and having finished my post-graduate training in guitar and lute, I was invited to join a medieval group. With medieval music's open tunings…
Harry Buckoke
Vielle
Harry Buckoke studied at China Conservatory before attending the University of Cambridge (Holding a place as a cellist on their Instrumental Award Scheme). He completed his MA in Aesthetics at NYU receiving their “student performer award”. As a cellist and viola da gamba player, Harry maintains a varied and exciting schedule, performing in festivals and with groups such as Kontrapunkt, New York Theatre Workshop, the Vincas Grybas Festival (Jurbarkas, Lithuania), Latitude Festival, Wilderness Festival, St George’s Hanover Square, Cadogan Hall (for the RCM Rising Stars series), the Stroud Green Festival and Birmingham Opera Company. In June 2017 he performed Telemann’s concerto TWV 51:A5 in the Telemann Festival at St Mary at Hill. Harry plays and programmes for Lux Musicae London. Performances include Brighton Early Music Festival, Beverly Early Music Festival, the Utrecht Fringe and a tour of Ireland. Harry is committed to connecting music and other performance mediums, he recently founded The Kennings Project, a group dedicated to reviving ways of performing narrative poetry. He has also created music for political burlesque shows, and Dance. He has also written plays. He was the recipient of the RSC and Marlowe Society’s Other Prize for Playwriting 2013. His dramatic work has been performed, among other places, at the Edinburgh fringe, and FringeNYC. He has studied viol with Richard Tunnicliffe and Margaret Panofsky and is grateful for the support received by the Leverhulme trust, Dartington Summer School trust, the Robinson scholarship, and the Joy Dodson memorial fund, to participate courses and masterclasses across Europe.
Nilufar Habibian
Qanun, Composition
Nilufar Habibian was born in Iran. Aged 11, Nilufar entered the Tehran Music Conservatoire where she studied both Iranian and Western Classical music. She also started learning Qanun under supervision of the renowned Qanun player Ms Maliheh Sa’idi. Nilufar was awarded First Prize for playing “Solo Qanun” at the Student Music Festival in 1996 and First Prize at the International Fajr Music Festival in 1996 and 1997. She pursued higher education and studied French literature in Tehran. She was one of the members of the highly acclaimed “Sheyda Ensemble” directed by Grand Maestro Mohamad Reza Lotfi, where she performed in numerous concerts and recordings. She continued her advanced studies of Persian music repertoires (radif) with grand maestros Mohammad Reza Lotfi and Majid Derakhshani. She also attended master classes held by Goksel Baktagir the renowned Turkish Qanun player. Since moving to the UK, she has regularly performed and collaborated with different…
Elisabeth Flett
Medieval Fiddle, Recorders, Viola, Violin
Elisabeth Flett is a Scottish multi-instrumentalist who moved to London in 2013 to study a BMus Hons in Classical Recorder at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama. She graduated with a First in 2017 and now enjoys a wide-reaching portfolio career.
She has performed with a variety of bands and ensembles, including folk duo Shamblestone (BBC Radio 2 Young Folk Awards 2017 Semi-Finalist) and sea shanty band The Mead Men, supported bands such as Breabach (Letham Nights, 2013) and won the 2015 Cecil Sharp…
Claire Bournez
Voice
French-born mezzo-soprano, Claire Bournez graduated in 2105 from the Guildhall School of Music & Drama where she studied under Janice Chapman (Masters with Distinction). She returned to The Guildhall School as a fellow in 2015-2016. She previously studies in the High School of Lausanne (Haute Ecole de Musique) with Christian Immler, and in the CNSMD (Conservatoire National Supérieur de Musique et de Danse) in Lyon.
A Britten-Pears and Franz Schubert Institute Artist, Claire is regularly enhancing her education by participating in masterclasses e.g. with Bernarda Fink, Thomas Quasthoff, Graham Johnson, Elly Ameling or Emma Kirkby….
Latana Phoung
Voice
Born in Paris to Algerian and Chinese parents the mezzo-soprano Latana Phoung graduated from the Guildhall School of Music and Drama under the tutelage of Prof Laura Sarti and completed the intensive course with the National Opera Studio.
As a scholar, she was also awarded a Master's degree in Art History with distinctions from Sorbonne University / Freie Universität. She performed at the age of nine with the Maîtrise de Radio Franceas a soloist and chorister. She worked with conductors such as Seiji Ozawa, Charles Dutoit, Kent Nagano in Théâtre des Champs Elysées, Salle Pleyel and Radio France and recorded as a soloist Jean Thibaudeau's Souvenirs de Guerre which received a mentioning at Italia Prize in 1998…
Balakrishnan Raghavan
Voice
Balakrishnan Raghavan is a classically trained musician and educator. He is intrigued by the sheer depth, openness and beauty of expression, in the music, dance and poetry of the past, their relevance today and how one could connect with them in the present day and age. Post his undergraduate studies and a six year stint in the corporate sector, he is now pursuing Music full time in the traditional Gurukulam Style from his mentor Sangita Kalanidhi Guru Smt. R.Vedavalli. His aim is to develop into a holistic artist grounded in music, while developing an understanding of dance, history and culture and become a performer, educator and researcher, both locally and globally.
Jack Michael Welch
Flute
Jack was introduced to the flute at the age of nine and is currently taught by Gareth Davies, Philippa Davies and Christopher Green at The Guildhall School of Music and Drama, where he is studying Classical Flute. Jack has played principal with several orchestras including Neath and Cardiff Sinfonietta, British Sinfonietta, Welsh session orchestra, Sinfonia Cymru, Cardiff Music Festival Orchestra and previously the National Youth Orchestra of Wales. He has toured to France, Italy, Luxembourg and the Czech Republic, and has performed in the Albert Hall, The Sage Gateshead, Millennium Centre Cardiff and Barbican Centre London. Next year Jack is continuing his studies at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama as a Masters student. Jack was recently added to the extras list of the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra.
Sarah McCabe
Viola
Sarah McCabe is a violist originally from Bowmanville Canada, now living in London, England. Sarah graduated with her MMUS in Viola Performance from Guildhall School of Music and Drama in 2017. She studied viola with Matthew Jones, and chamber music with Gary Pomeroy. During her degree she was the violist of the Ember Quartet, which was invited to perform at the Festival de Torroella de Montri in Torroella Spain. While at Guildhall, she was a part of many interesting collaborations, including a project with the London School of Contemporary Dance, and creating and hosting Eine Kleine Queer Musik, a showcase of queer composers…
Kirsty Elizabeth Clark
Viola
I am a freelance violist, violinist, and private violin and viola teacher based in Hackney, East London. During my Master's studies at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama, I began to consider ways in which I could unite my musical career and my LGBTQ identity. This led me to identify a gap in queer scholarship in classical music: the intersection between queer identity and classical music performance has not been much explored. I am now in my first (MPhil) year of a doctorate at Guildhall using my own performance practice to explore ways in which the closet is constructed and can be dismantled in the Western classical music performance tradition. By focusing specifically on myself, I hope both to develop my own performance practice as a violist, and to demonstrate the ways in which classical music performance replicates society by enacting compulsory heterosexuality in its conventions.
Caoimhe de Paor
Recorders
Having graduated top of her class from the Cork School of Music (B.Mus), Caoimhe moved to London, where she gained a distinction in her Masters in Performance from the Guildhall School of Music and Drama. She was also awarded the school's Concert Recital Diploma (for outstanding recital performance). Caoimhe went on to become an Artist Fellow at the conservatoire and was also invited to take part in the Handel House Talent Scheme (2014-15)…
Beth Higham-Edwards
Percussion
Beth Higham-Edwards is a London-based percussionist. Contemporary music and theatre are her specialisms. She enjoys performing in a range of styles. Skills include tuned percussion, hand percussion, timpani, drum kit and orchestral percussion. Beth mainly works in theatre, with pop artists and orchestras.
Her work in theatre includes Amadeus at The National Theatre (2016 - 18) where she had a central on stage role which included movement and acting as well as performing both Mozart and contemporary underscore from memory. She was an original cast member and took part in…
Jamie Lemercier
Bowed Guitar
“An absolutely incredible hidden gem of an artist! Mind blowing skills and a beautiful creation of sound with looping and beautiful vocals” - Naomi