Biography
The Chelys Consort of Viols embodies an emerging wave of viol consort performance, distinguished by its reliance on crowdsourced album financing and its active pursuit of fresh commissions for contemporary works scored for viols. The ensemble performs exclusively on pure gut strings, chosen for historical fidelity and yielding a timbre unlike that of peer groups.
Formed in Britain during the early 2010s, the consort draws its personnel largely from graduates of British university music programs. The players comprise Ibi Aziz, recipient of a gold medal in gamba from Trinity College of Music, London, and director of viol consorts and Baroque ensembles at Morley College; Alison Kinder, an Oxford alumnus who pursued further viol studies at the Royal College of Music; Jenny Bullock, a cello graduate of the Royal College of Music; Kate Conway, trained in gamba and Baroque cello at the Royal Academy of Music and founder of both Ceruleo and Ensemble Molière; and Sam Stadlen, active as gambist, cellist, musicologist, and educator. The name Chelys, drawn from ancient Greek and denoting a bowed lyre said in myth to have been devised by Hermes, entered viol repertoire through the seventeenth-century composer and theorist Christopher Simpson. His Airs for two trebles and two basses appeared on the consort’s debut recording, Ayres & Graces, issued by BIS in 2015. The group next issued A Pleasing Melancholy, recorded in partnership with veteran soprano Emma Kirkby, and joined the Ebor Singers for the 2017 holiday disc A Cavalier Christmas, devoted to seasonal works by English Renaissance composers. The selections connected to the Lachrimae melody on A Pleasing Melancholy received widespread praise from both specialist early-music journals and the broader classical press.
On the concert platform the ensemble has worked with Kirkby as well as additional collaborators, among them the Choir of Clare College, Cambridge, and the St. Mary’s Vocal Ensemble. New pieces have been commissioned from composer Jill Jarman, and the group has joined the Fieri Consort in performances of contemporary choral settings by Michael East. Returning to BIS in 2021, the Chelys Consort of Viols partnered once more with the Fieri Consort on Amavi, presenting East’s music for viols and voices; later the same year the ensemble released Purcell: Fantazias.
Formed in Britain during the early 2010s, the consort draws its personnel largely from graduates of British university music programs. The players comprise Ibi Aziz, recipient of a gold medal in gamba from Trinity College of Music, London, and director of viol consorts and Baroque ensembles at Morley College; Alison Kinder, an Oxford alumnus who pursued further viol studies at the Royal College of Music; Jenny Bullock, a cello graduate of the Royal College of Music; Kate Conway, trained in gamba and Baroque cello at the Royal Academy of Music and founder of both Ceruleo and Ensemble Molière; and Sam Stadlen, active as gambist, cellist, musicologist, and educator. The name Chelys, drawn from ancient Greek and denoting a bowed lyre said in myth to have been devised by Hermes, entered viol repertoire through the seventeenth-century composer and theorist Christopher Simpson. His Airs for two trebles and two basses appeared on the consort’s debut recording, Ayres & Graces, issued by BIS in 2015. The group next issued A Pleasing Melancholy, recorded in partnership with veteran soprano Emma Kirkby, and joined the Ebor Singers for the 2017 holiday disc A Cavalier Christmas, devoted to seasonal works by English Renaissance composers. The selections connected to the Lachrimae melody on A Pleasing Melancholy received widespread praise from both specialist early-music journals and the broader classical press.
On the concert platform the ensemble has worked with Kirkby as well as additional collaborators, among them the Choir of Clare College, Cambridge, and the St. Mary’s Vocal Ensemble. New pieces have been commissioned from composer Jill Jarman, and the group has joined the Fieri Consort in performances of contemporary choral settings by Michael East. Returning to BIS in 2021, the Chelys Consort of Viols partnered once more with the Fieri Consort on Amavi, presenting East’s music for viols and voices; later the same year the ensemble released Purcell: Fantazias.
Albums
