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.