Since the mid-1980s Robert Hollingworth has occupied a central place in the British early music world through his direction of the vocal ensemble I Fagiolini, while also leading additional choirs and pursuing numerous educational projects.
His earliest performances came as a boy chorister at Hereford Cathedral; after taking violin and keyboard lessons he chose a vocal career, studied music at New College, Oxford, sang extensively with the college choir on its travels, and worked under the pioneering early music conductor Edward Higginbottom, who encouraged him to form his own group. That ensemble, I Fagiolini, gave its debut concerts in 1986; the Italian name, meaning “the green beans,” originated in an Oxford nickname for early music—“beany music”—that reflected the vegetarian habits common among its practitioners.
Hollingworth later completed a postgraduate early music course at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama, after which I Fagiolini established a busy schedule of engagements both at home and abroad. The group recorded Andrea Gabrieli: The Madrigal in Venice for Chandos in 2003 and, in 2011, moved to Decca for a release of Alessandro Striggio’s Mass in 40 Parts.
Concert tours have taken I Fagiolini and Hollingworth to the United States, East Asia, and Africa, and the ensemble has appeared at the BBC Proms; Hollingworth’s recordings with the group have appeared on Erato, Metronome, and Chandos, among them the 2017 Monteverdi: The Other Vespers, a reconstructed Vespers service drawn from late works by Monteverdi together with pieces by other composers. In addition he has conducted larger choruses such as the Leicester Bach Choir, the Netherlands Chamber Choir, the North German Radio Choir, and the National Chamber Choir of Ireland.
Further projects include a production of Monteverdi’s L’Orfeo for Opera Zuid in the Netherlands, collaborations with the early music groups Florilegium, The Bach Players, and Fretwork, vocal coaching for Joaquin Phoenix in the film Quills, and presentation work for BBC Radio 3 and BBC Radio 2.
He remains widely recognized by amateur singers for his long association with the Lacock Courses, residential programs held at locations connected to particular choral repertories. In 2019 Hollingworth and I Fagiolini joined the Coro label with Leonardo: Shaping the Invisible, an album exploring musical reflections of Leonardo da Vinci’s ideas, and returned to the same imprint in 2023 for a recording of Orazio Benevoli’s Missa Tu es Petrus.
