Tenebrae: Bee for Bach


Benjamin Marquise Gilmore (violin) / Tenebrae (choir) / Stephen Disley (organ) / Prof. Milton Mermikides (speaker)

THURSDAY
24TH OCTOBER
19:00

£20

Locatelli Caprice No. 1 (solo violin)
Anna Semple For thy Creature the Bee (choir and organ)
Paganini Caprice No. 24 (solo violin)
Bach Chorales (choir) interwoven with
Bach Partita No. 2 (solo violin, with choir in Ciaconna)
Dufay Nuper Rosarium Flores (choir)

Artists

Benjamin Marquise Gilmore enjoys a busy life as an orchestral and chamber musician, joining the LSO as Leader in August 2023. He was concertmaster of the Philharmonia Orchestra between 2019 and 2023, and has been a member of the Navarra Quartet since 2021. He is also a member of the Chamber Orchestra of Europe and from 2016 to 2019 was leader of the Scottish Chamber Orchestra, to which he continues to return as guest leader and director. A lover of opera, he is also a frequent guest concertmaster with the Orchestra of the Royal Opera House. 
 
Benjamin studied with Natalia Boyarskaya at the Yehudi Menuhin School and with Pavel Vernikov in Vienna, and received further guidance and inspiration from Julian Rachlin and Miriam Fried. He won prizes at the Oskar Back, Joseph Joachim and Salzburg Mozart competitions, and has participated in festivals such as Kuhmo, Prussia Cove and Ravinia. Benjamin’s father was the musicologist Bob Gilmore, his grandfather is the conductor Lev Markiz, and his mother Maria Markiz has variously been a musicologist, interpreter, equestrian and data analyst. He is married to Hannah Shaw, a violist, and enjoys cooking and cycling, in both of which disciplines he makes up in enthusiasm what he lacks in proficiency. 

Described as “phenomenal” (The Times) and “devastatingly beautiful” (Gramophone Magazine), award-winning choir Tenebrae is one of the world’s leading vocal ensembles, renowned for its passion and precision.

Under the direction of Nigel Short, Tenebrae performs at major festivals and venues across the globe, including the BBC Proms, Wigmore Hall, Elbphilharmonie Hamburg, Rheingau Musik Festival and Sydney Festival. The choir has earned international acclaim for its interpretations of choral music from the Renaissance through to contemporary masterpieces, and has commissioned new music from composers including Judith Bingham, Joanna Marsh, Owain Park,Josephine Stephenson, Joby Talbot and Roderick Williams.

Tenebrae has enjoyed collaborations with some of the UK’s leading orchestras, including the London Symphony Orchestra, Aurora Orchestra, the Academy of Ancient Music and Britten Sinfonia. The choir also undertakes regular session work, having contributed the vocals for Max Richter’s Voices (2020), Jean-Jacques Annaud’s Notre Dame brûle (2022), and blockbuster sci-fi movie Avatar: The Way of Water (2022) among others. Its extensive recording catalogue comprises a wide range of music on labels including Signum, LSO Live and Warner Classics, and has earned the choir two BBC Music Magazine Awards, an Edison Classical Music Award and a Grammy nomination.

Alongside its performance and recording schedule, the choir also runs a thriving Learning & Connection programme which encompasses partnerships with Music Centre London and London Youth Choirs, Tenebrae Effect workshops with amateur choirs, and its newest programme run in partnership with Ealing Music Service. Tenebrae Schools aims to embed a long-lasting singing culture in local primary schools which might otherwise face barriers to music-making. Through its Associate Artist programme Tenebrae also provides talented young professional singers with vital experience and support in the early stages of their careers.

Anna Semple is a freelance composer and singer based in London, having finished her Masters in Composition at Guildhall School of Music and Drama in 2021. Recent commissions include works for Roderick Williams, Helen Charlston, St Paul’s Cathedral, The Sixteen, the Royal Opera House, Waterperry Opera Festival, and The Marian Consort. She has worked with a wide variety of artists including vocal consort EXAUDI, clarinettist Vicky Wright of PlusMinus Ensemble, members of the London Symphony Orchestra and solo accordionist Miloš Milivojević via Psappha’s ‘Composing for’ scheme. As a singer Anna works with a variety of concert groups including Tenebrae, Alamire, SANSARA, Siglo de Oro and HEXAD Collective.

Anna's work is primarily engaged with her interests in embodied processes of working (both in performance and writing) as a way of subverting the classic mind vs body/masculine vs feminine dichotomy, and she enjoys experimenting with the ways in which the things we see and feel can be communicated with sonic immediacy.

Stephen Disley was Organ Scholar at Liverpool Cathedral and a joint Foundation Scholar at the Royal College of Music and London’s famous Temple Church, studying with Dr John Birch.

Stephen was Sub-Organist at Southwark Cathedral and Founding Director of its Girls’ Choir which, in addition to its weekly commitments at the cathedral, toured Bergen, Rouen, the Czech Republic, Rome, Belfast, and Paris.

Stephen continues to promote new music and has given the first performances of music by Sir Peter Maxwell-Davies, Judith Bingham, Bob Chilcott, Gabriel Jackson, Joanna Marsh and Francis Grier. He recently performed in a premiere of the controversial 'Riot' Symphony by Conor Mitchel with the Ulster Orchestra at the Ulster Hall, Belfast.