Verso la Serenissima - ‘Towards la Serenissima’

A musical journey from the Alps to the Adriatic featuring virtuoso works for recorder, viola da gamba and lute from 17th century Northern Italy. Music evoking the passionate excitement of the early baroque in Northern Italy along the valley of the River Po.

Naomi Okuda - recorder
Kate Conway - viola da gamba
Toby Carr - lute

Dario Castello (fl. early17c)/ Sonata Seconda
Francesco Rognoni (c.1585-c.1626)/ Vestiva i Colli
Giovanni Bassano (c.1561-1617)/ Susanne ung jour & Frais et gaillard
Bartolomeo Montalbano (1598-1651)/ Sinfonia ‘Geloso’
Aurelio Virgiliano (c.1600)/ Ricercata
Giovanni Antonio Pandorfi Mealli (1629-c.1679)/ Sonata Sesta “La Vinciolina”
Giovanni Battista Fontana (c.1571-c.1630)/ Sonata Sesta

Naomi Okuda (recorder) Naomi studied modern flute at the Osaka College of Music in Japan. After graduation she became interested in early music and studied recorder under Pamela Thorby at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama (the postgraduate early music course) in London. She also studied recorder with Piers Adams, and baroque flute and baroque studies with Stephen Preston. After graduation from the GSMD, she returned to Japan and has performed widely as a baroque music specialist ever since; giving recitals, playing with orchestras such as Bach Collegium Japan, and recording for NHK. She was one of the ‘Recommendation Artist of Osaka City’ in 2003. In 2010, Naomi moved permanently to the UK where she continues to develop her performing career and teaches recorder at the Wellington College and privately. She has taught the Advanced Baroque Recorder Course at Benslow Music Trust, Morley College and Blackheath Conservatoire. Naomi has given solo recitals, recordings and teaches actively in both UK and Japan. She has made a number of recordings and her solo CD ‘Airs Anglois’ was released to considerable critical acclaim in the Japanese and English musical press. Her latest CD ‘Shakespeare’s Music’ from the Hamamatsu Museum of Musical Instruments (Japan), on which Naomi is one of the principal players has received the highest critical acclaim in 'The Record Geijutsu', the principal Japanese music journal. www.emclute.com/okuda/

Kate Conway studied viol and baroque cello with Jonathan Manson at the Royal Academy of Music, graduating with distinction, after gaining first class honours in Classics from Jesus College, Cambridge. She has played with Solomon’s Knot, English Touring Opera and the Feinstein Ensemble, and was selected for the Handel House Talent Scheme 2016-17. Kate also performs with Chelys Viol Consort, and is a founder member of both Ceruleo, who were Ensemble Fellows at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama for 2016-17, and Ensemble Molière, who were finalists at the 2017 York Early Music International Competition and ‘Future Baroque’ artists at the 2017 London Festival of Baroque Music.

A keen chamber musician, Kate was twice awarded the RAM Nancy Nuttall Ensemble Prize, and was a recipient of the D Day Fund Award and Sir Anthony Lewis Memorial Prize for Consort Music. She has also taken part in masterclasses at the Greenwich International Early Music Festival and RCM Festival of Viols, performing to Christophe Coin, Alison Crum, Vittorio Ghielmi and Paolo Pandolfo. More recently, projects have included concerts at the Cadogan Hall, Southbank Centre and King’s Place, and live broadcasts on BBC Radio 3’s ‘In Tune’ with Ceruleo and Ensemble Molière.

A versatile musician whose repertoire ranges from the early renaissance to new collaborative compositions, Toby Carr is a lutenist and guitarist based in London. Having studied at Trinity Laban followed by the Guildhall School of Music & Drama, 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 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 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.

Verso la Serenissima, ‘Towards la Serenissima’