OUR MEMBERS
Harp
Aileen Henry is quickly gaining a reputation as one of the foremost exponents of the baroque harp, as both a soloist and as a continuo player or accompanist. Originally from Northern Ireland, Aileen moved to London to pursue an undergraduate degree at Trinity Laban Conservatoire of Music and Dance, studying with Gabriella Dall’Olio and Frances Kelly, followed by a postgraduate degree at the same institution during which she was a TL scholar. While an undergraduate at Trinity Aileen was introduced to the baroque harp and, falling for the beauty of the instrument and its music decided to pursue it alongside the modern harp.
Since finishing her studies, the baroque harp has taken Aileen all over the UK, Ireland and Europe, playing with some of the most exciting young baroque Ensembles in London and beyond. She has had the opportunity to perform at Greenwich International Early Music, Brighton Early Music Festival and Ryedale Festival. Recent highlights have included working for Hamstead Garden Opera, Glyndeboure Youth Opera and being invited back to her native Ireland to work with the baroque group Resurgam under the direction of Mark Duley.
Alongside Lux Musicae London, Aileen has been working with many other baroque ensembles such as Fieri Consort, Florisma and Ceruleo. Both Fieri Consort and Florisma, with soloist Penelope Appleyard, have recently released CD’s that Aileen has featured on.
Aileen is looking forward to continuing to play with her colleagues in Lux Musicae London and developing some exciting new programmes.
Viola da Gamba
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 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, performance art (as part of Figment Festival) theatre, (part of Gallatin Arts Festival) and for the Melissa West dance company.
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.
Recorder
Sophie Creaner enjoys a versatile career as a woodwind multi-instrumentalist and is particularly passionate about musical theatre and chamber music, as well as giving regular performances as an orchestral musician. In 2016, she received her Bachelor of Music with distinction in both clarinet and recorder from the Guildhall School of Music and Drama. Whilst studying there, she won the Needlemakers Prize for Woodwind, a recital competition open to all woodwind players in the school.
Going on to study a postgraduate degree in orchestral artistry, also at the Guildhall, she was lucky enough to be able to work with the London Symphony Orchestra and the Academy of St. Martin in the Fields. Primarily a bass clarinettist in an orchestral setting, recent highlights for Sophie have included playing with the RTÉ Concert Orchestra in various venues throughout Ireland, including the National Concert Hall.
During her studies, Sophie also received regular lessons on flute and saxophone. As a musical theatre performer, Sophie has most recently appeared on-stage at the Royal Opera House for Welsh National Opera’s July performances of Andre Tchaikovsky’s The Merchant of Venice. In October, she will join the new musical, Romantics Anonymous at the Sam Wanamaker Theatre, where she will perform on recorders, flutes and clarinets.
She was winner of the McCullough Cup for Woodwind Concerto at the RDS Feis Ceoil in Dublin for her performance of the Copland clarinet concerto and of the RTE Lyric FM award for Most Promising Musician at the Sligo Feis Ceoil on recorder. As a soloist, she has appeared alongside the Luton Symphony Orchestra and the Dublin Orchestral Players for performances of the Mozart clarinet concerto and Rossini’s Introduction, Theme and Variations.
Alongside her performing career, Sophie keeps a busy schedule of workshops, masterclasses and private teaching. Her work with Lux Musicae, as well as other chamber ensembles, has allowed her to lead workshops in London and Brighton schools, as well as at the Purcell School and at the North East of Scotland Music School. She has also given masterclasses in clarinet and recorder performance and chamber skills at the Cork School of Music.
Soprano
Roberta Diamond is a versatile soprano who specialises in the interpretation of renaissance and baroque music. A graduate of the Guildhall School of Music and Drama, Roberta performs in a number of ensembles and duos around the world. She has sung live on BBC Radio 3, given concerts at St Martin-in-the-Fields, Handel House and Wigmore Hall and has appeared in the Urbino Festival of Early Music, the London Handel Festival, the Brighton Early Music Festival, the Greenwich Early Music Festival and the International Festival of Baroque Music in Bolivia.
As well as singing with Lux Musicae London, Roberta is a member of Emma Kirkby’s ensemble Dowland Works, a regular guest of Ensemble Molière and Ensemble 642, and has recently begun to perform with Australian vocal ensemble The Song Company. Roberta is also a Voces8 Scholar for 2018-19. Recent opera roles Roberta has had the pleasure of performing include Minerva in Monteverdi’s Ritorno di Ulisse in Patria, Galatea in Handel’s Acis and Galatea, Céphise in Rameau’s Pygmalion, Atalanta in Handel’s Serse and Amore in Pinchgut Opera’s production of L’incoronazione di Poppea, where Roberta was praised for her ‘golden-voiced’, ‘fluid, crystalline soprano’.
Coming from a background of foreign language study, Roberta is known for her strong focus on communication and connection of words and music, Roberta also enjoys collaborating with folk musicians from all over the world in cross-cultural projects and especially enjoys singing in Arabic, which she studied at university. In 2017 and 2018 she was able to pursue this interest by performing at the Ketevan World Sacred Music Festival in Goa, India. In September 2018 Roberta will begin a Master’s Degree at the Schola Cantorum, Basel.
Tenor
Originally from Melbourne, Daniel Thomson is a London based tenor soloist and chamber singer. He holds a Bachelor of Music (specialising in vocal performance) with Honours, from the University of Melbourne. In 2018 Daniel also completed a Master Diploma in Advanced Vocal Ensemble Studies at the Schola Cantorum Basiliensis in Basel.
Daniel’s studies have had a particular focus on historically informed performance of music from the 16th to 19th centuries. In 2015 and 2016, he spent a couple of months in Canada working on several recordings using old rhetorical methods of interpretation under the guidance of Professor Robert Toft at the University of Western Ontario. Daniel’s debut solo album Secret Fires of Love, the result of this work, is available now and has been featured on BBC Radio 3 programme In Tune with Daniel as a BBC Introducing Artist.
Having moved to London in April 2015, Daniel has established himself as an expressive and unique performer. He is a regular tenor at the church of St Bartholomew-the-Great and performs and tours with many notable choirs including the Choir of the Age of Enlightenment, Gabrieli Consort, Arcangelo and the Early Opera Company. Daniel is also a core member of several professional groups including Dowland Works (dir. Dame Emma Kirkby), InVocare and Lux Musicae London. As a soloist Daniel enjoys intimate solo recital programs and is particularly known for his expressive interpretation of 16th and 17th century music, often accompanied by lute or viol.
Back in Melbourne, Daniel regularly performs as a recitalist and soloist with various choral and instrumental groups including Ensemble 642, the Consort of Melbourne, Ensemble Gombert and La Compañia – with whom Daniel features as a guest vocal soloist on their critically acclaimed 2013 CD release “Destino Mexicano”. Daniel has also received excellent reviews for his concerts with Ensemble 642 and solos in the Woodend Winter Arts Festival and Organs of the Ballarat Goldfields Festival. "Thomson's fine, light instrument is a joy to listen to. ...Clarity, agility and textual empathy were all displayed in abundance." Tony Way, www.limelightmagazine.com.au – June 2017.
For more information, please visit Daniel's website: www.daniel-thomson.com
Or follow him on Facebook: www.facebook.com/danielthomsontenor
Recorder
Mirjam-Luise Münzel has studied recorder, historical performance and baroque cello in Bremen, Seville, London and Berlin. She was the winner of the international Biagio Marini competition, finalist of the Concours internationales des journees musiques anciennes Paris, Handel House Young Artist and won the 3rd prize of the international Moeck/SRP solo recorder competition in London.
Performance highlights include Het Concertgebouw Amsterdam with The Early Opera Company, English National Opera London, concerts within Brighton Early Music Festival, Beverley Early Music Festival and London Festival of Baroque Music, Wigmore Hall, Palace de Versailles, a tour with the Brandenburg Concertos as recorder soloist with the ThüringenPhilharmonie, Ketevan Festival India, a tour to Iceland with The international baroque orchestra The Hague, opening concert of Bach Biennale Weimar 2019, Cologne Philharmonie and Thomaskirche Leipzig with Gewandhausorchester soloists.
Mirjam-Luise co-founded Lux Musicae London in 2014 and organized the successful Bach Club series together with the harpsichordist Satoko Doi-Luck, and in collaboration with the London Bach Society. For those concerts, they brought over 50 young musicians of the London Early Music scene together and performed several Bach cantatas under their musical leadership.
Mirjam is a founding member of ensemble con|tactus, Tiefklang Berlin and Trio Les Salonnieres. Les Salonnieres recreates the salon culture of the 18th and 19th century, combining music with often controversial philosophical readings of the time. Mirjam also organizes and curates the Alte Musik Fest Friedenau Berlin together with her trio colleagues , creating new spaces and formats for concerts, combining early music with dance, literature, philosophy, design and film.
Mirjam writes articles and CD reviews for the German recorder magazine “Windkanal” and teaches recorder at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama.
For more information, please visit Mirjam's website: www.mirjamluisemunzel.com
Lute
A versatile musician whose repertoire ranges from the early renaissance to new collaborative compositions, Toby Carr is a guitarist and lutenist from Hertfordshire. He moved to London in 2007 to study classical guitar with Graham Anthony Devine at Trinity Laban, and while there he also discovered lutes and early guitars under the tutelage of David Miller, developing a passion for baroque and renaissance music that would greatly inform his career. Going on to postgraduate study at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama with Robert Brightmore (classical guitar) and David Miller and William Carter (historical performance) he continued onto the MPerf course as a historical performance specialist, graduating in 2016.
While still active as a classical guitarist and teacher Toby has developed a specialism in the performance of renaissance and baroque music, particularly that of seventeenth century England and Italy, performing in this context regularly as a soloist, chamber musician, accompanist and continuo player.
This has led to work with groups and organisations such as English Touring Opera, Dunedin Consort, London Philharmonic Orchestra, Florilegium, Glyndebourne Youth Opera and Emma Kirkby's Dowland Works, as well as being a founding member of young period ensembles Ceruleo and Lux Musicae London. Toby has associations with many festivals at home and abroad, highlights including the UK premiere of Francesca Caccini’s ‘La Liberazione di Ruggiero’ with Brighton Early Music Festival, a recital at the Greenwich International Early Music Festival with Michala Petri, recorder, and appearing at festivals in Italy, Holland and Belgium with Ceruleo and Lux Musicae London.
Now settled in Greenwich, south-east London with his wife and frequent collaborator, the baroque harpist Aileen Henry, Toby is gaining a reputation as an innovative and exciting performer, working with some of the finest musicians in the business.
For more information, please visit Toby's website: www.tobycarr.co.uk