Innovative narratives, the importance of local venues, inspirational outreach & unearthing manuscripts – The Continuo Foundation awards its ninth round of grants

The 31 Continuo Foundation round nine grantees

The Continuo Foundation awarded its first round of grants in Spring 2021, and their lates round, the ninth, takes the total awarded up to an impressive £950,000. The awards support concerts and recording projects, spanning 800 years of music – performed on period instruments – and shine a spotlight on the vibrant creativity of the UK’s early music scene.

The ninth round of grants will support seven emerging groups – formed since 2020 – and 24 established ensembles to undertake a total of 80 performances in 50 locations across the UK. From Bodwin in Cornwall to Melrose in the Scottish Borders, and from Conwy and Llanwit Major in Wales to Brighton, Buxton and Bradford, the funded projects span across a wide array of venues, ranging from purpose-built concert halls to art galleries, churches, and community spaces.

Beyond these headline figures, the individual stories of the award recipients paint a fuller picture of the positive impact of Continuo’s grants. For example, the London-based Serpentine Trio, formed in 2022, is among the emerging awardees. Featuring works by Marais, Forqueray, Couperin, and d’Hervelois, and inspired by ‘Le Grotto de Versailles’, their audiovisual project will have a narrative structure influenced by Homer’s Odyssey, echoing Louis XIV’s love of Greek antiquity, and will aim to reach a wide audience through strategic digital promotion efforts.

Another recently formed ensemble becoming a first-time grantee is Rune, specialising in medieval repertoire. Featuring music by Landini, Ciconia, and Machaut, as well as rarely heard English medieval pieces, their project, Decameron Musicale, is a mosaic of musical stories inspired by Boccaccio’s Decameron, exploring themes of fortune, virtue, love, trickery and intelligence.

Tenor Daniel Scott views Continuo’s support as vital to keeping the group’s artistic ambitions intact. He explains: “For Rune, this funding is vital as we plan our first concert tour, educational workshops and recordings – allowing us to share the magic of under-represented medieval repertoire with wider audiences. Many aspects of this project simply would not happen without the generous funding of Continuo Foundation.”

The Telling will tour their concert-play, Into the Melting Pot, to six new locations thanks to their Continuo grant. Set in 1492 Spain, and tuning into the voices of a community of Christian, Muslim and Jewish women, their story is told through plaintive songs and lively Spanish medieval music.

The grant will also help The Telling to take their award-winning Songs and Stories outreach project to refugee and migrant communities in Cardiff and Birmingham, helping them to create music and tell their own stories, inspired by Into the Melting Pot. Clare Norburn, Artistic Director, is deeply concerned that in a climate where many promoters and venues are shutting their doors, “if we don’t make this kind of performance happen, there will be places in the UK which always miss out on live music performances. This is where Continuo Foundation’s grant is so vital.“

The ever-present financial sensitivity around new projects is a shared concern for longstanding ensembles such as The Mozartists, established in 1997. As part of their MOZART 250 project, their Opera 1775 concert at London’s Cadogan Hall, now receiving a Continuo grant, will feature works by several composers who are unknown to modern audiences.

Founding Artistic Director Ian Page has been busy unearthing the manuscripts of these works, and comments: “It is increasingly hard in the current financial climate to take box-office risks and to present repertoire that will be mostly unfamiliar to most of the audience. We are therefore particularly grateful for Continuo Foundation’s grant, which gives us the confidence and encouragement to programme this fascinating and high-quality repertoire.“

Full details from the Continuo Foundation website.

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Innovative narratives, the importance of local venues, inspirational outreach & unearthing manuscripts – The Continuo Foundation awards its ninth round of grants

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