About the Brigantia Consort

Inspired by the early music practice of playing chamber music on whatever instruments could be brought together, the Brigantia Consort explores the possibilities of the unique combination of violin, horn and voice, introduces the rare bass sounds of the serpent and proves that recorders are not just for school concerts.

Anna, Jessie and Kathryn met while studying at Trinity College of Music. Drawn together by a love of chamber music, eclectic repertoire, and improvisation, we have been playing together as a trio since leaving Trinity in 2009. We gave our debut performance in November, playing at the opening of a local arts festival in Leytonstone. Over Christmas, our performances raised almost £500 pounds for the homeless charity Shelter – as well as introducing countless Londoners to Kathryn’s unusual second instrument, the serpent!

Inspired after hearing a quartet playing in a local church hall, Anna Michel started learning the violin in school at the age of eight. She soon realized this was something she enjoyed doing and went on to play in various ensembles including both Dorset and Hampshire county youth orchestras; since then her orchestral playing has taken her on tour to locations as diverse as the Czech Republic and China. From 2002- 2004 she studied on the Hampshire Specialist Music Course with Judith Young, taking an active role in chamber music. For the past four years Anna has been a guest soloist on the accompanist’s course at Canford School of Music. In 2009 she graduated from Trinity College of Music where she studied the with John Crawford and Michael Bochmann. At Trinity she had the opportunity to participate in masterclasses with musicians such as Mataja Marinkovic, Walter Reiter and members of the Wihan quartet. Anna also has a keen interest in composition, which she has studied with Edward Jessen and Paul Newland.

Jessie Holder began singing with the Crusoe Children’s choir at the age of five, and has not looked back. She performed with English National Opera and the National Theatre, and recorded Britten’s Ceremony of Carols for Naxos. At university, she was a chorister at St John’s College, Oxford and with early music choir Magdala, with whom she recorded several CDs as well as touring in Europe and South Africa. Jessie then went on to study for an MMus at Trinity College of music under Tessa Cahill. Jessie has a particular love of contemporary music, and devised musical theatrical performances, as well as disability arts. She is currently performing regularly with Ambient Jam for disability arts organisation Entelechy.


Kathryn Rose was born in Saskatchewan, Canada and studied the piano from the age of four. She composed her first piano piece at the age of seven and started playing the horn at eleven. She moved to London in 2000 and studied with Julian Baker before attending Trinity College of Music, where she studied horn with Stephen Stirling and Roger Montgomery, and jazz with Jim Rattigan and Mark Bassey. Kathryn has performed several solo recitals as both horn player and pianist, and acted as musical director for various community dramatic productions. She has also performed on serpent and tenor cor and busked on the London Underground. She teaches piano and enjoys music theory, composition and arranging. Recently she took up the pipe organ, and has accepted a position at St Andrew's Church, Leytonstone, as organist and choirmaster. For more information visit her website at http://artsyhonker.blogspot.com.

She's Like the Swallow

Just over a week ago we uploaded this track to Soundcloud. You can listen and download it there, or here:

We performed this Newfoundland folksong at St John on Bethnal Green in July as part of a concert. It was first collected in 1930 by the British folksong collector Maud Karpeles, who made the claim, now disproven, that since the tune was so beautiful, it must have originated in Britain. There are a few different versions of the lyrics, but these are the ones we used:

She's like the swallow that flies so high,
She's like the river that never runs dry,
She's like the sun that shines on the lee shore
I love my love, but love is no more.


T'was down in the meadow this fair maid went
A-plucking the rose just as she went,
The more she plucked and the more she pulled
Until she'd gathered her apron full.

She climbed on yonder hill above
To give the roses unto her love
She gave him one, she gave him three
She gave him her heart for company.


How foolish, foolish you must be,
To think I loves no one but thee.
The world's not made for one alone,
I takes delight in everyone.

It's of those roses she made a bed,
A stony pillow unto her head,
Now this fair maid, no word did she say,
Until her very dying day.

There is a man on yonder hill
He's living there and living still
He's got a heart as hard as stone,
He's got two hearts instead of one.


She's like the
swallow that flies so high,
She's like the river that never runs dry,
She's like the sun that shines on the lee shore
I love my love, but love is no more.

Performance: With Merry Glee

Brigantia
Consort

With Merry Glee

An eclectic programme of psalmody,
folk music and improvisation
with an early music twist.

Anna Michel -- violin
Jessie Holder -- voice, recorder
Kathryn Rose -- horn, serpent

Sunday, 11th July 7.30pm
St John on Bethnal Green
200 Cambridge Heath Road London E2 9PA

Tickets £5 (£4 conc.) available at the door
or contact brigantiaconsort@gmail.com