Dunedin Consort

Founded in 1996 by Susan Hamilton and Ben Parry, the Dunedin Consort was soon hailed by the critics as “a group that has done so much to transform the vocal life of Scotland”.  The dynamic ensemble has rapidly established its presence in the artistic life of its home country, appearing in venues throughout Scotland, from remote Highland churches to major concert halls.   It has performed a diverse repertoire that ranges from Medieval and Renaissance music to contemporary works such as Stockhausen’s Stimmung, together with a range of commissions from composers both in Scotland and beyond. 

The Consort has appeared at festivals in Belgium, Canada, France, Italy, Spain and the Channel Islands as well as at the Edinburgh International Festival.  It has worked in collaboration with ensembles including the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra, Sinfonia 21, Scottish Ensemble, Mr McFall’s Chamber, Paragon Ensemble, Florilegium, La Serenissima and the Scottish Chamber Orchestra, has appeared on BBC 2 and BBC 4 television and been broadcast on BBC Radio 3 and BBC Scotland.

Education and outreach have always been an integral part of the Consort’s work in the Scottish community. In winter 2002 The People’s Mass, a collaboration involving six Scottish-based composers, was performed with children’s choirs throughout the country and Harvey Brough’s Requiem in Blue, a project involving  nearly 300 children from a variety of different schools and backgrounds, culminated in a performance at the Usher Hall, Edinburgh.

The Consort has recorded works by Copland and Barber for the Linn label and appears on the recordings of Mozart’s operas Il Seraglio and Idomeneo with Sir Charles Mackerras and the Scottish Chamber Orchestra.   Music by William Byrd and Thomas Tallis and a recording of The People’s Mass, have been released on the Delphian label, as well as Corrinna Hewat’s Silhouette, which the ensemble premiered on the Island of Mull in 2003.

Since late 2003, when Ben Parry left to become Director of Music at St Paul’s School in London, John Butt joined Susan Hamilton as artistic director. This provided an opportunity to consolidate the group’s existing strength in the performance of Baroque music, together with the development of the Dunedin Players as an ensemble dedicated to performance with historical instruments. One particular trend has been to perform familiar works from the Baroque era in unusual ways: for instance, presenting Handel’s Messiah successively in the variety of versions that Handel himself developed in nearly 20 years of performances; presenting Bach’s Passions in the lean vocal scoring of their original performances. Another direction is to commission new pieces to complement and play off the old: William Sweeney, Errollyn Wallen and Peter Nelson have, for instance, written works to complement the era of George Buchanan, the Song of Songs settings of Heinrich Schütz and the motets of Bach.

The Consort and Players reached a significant milestone at the end of 2006, with the release by Linn Records of Handel’s Messiah, in its first performing version (Dublin, 1742). Against stiff competition from two other international releases, Dunedin’s was the recording most favoured by Gramophone and BBC Radio 3’s CD Review. It was also listed as one of the four top classical albums of 2006 In the Daily Mail.  David Vickers, in Gramophone, hailed the recording as ‘the freshest, most natural, revelatory and transparently joyful Messiah I have heard in a long time’.

Corrina Hewat is a renowned Scottish composer, a leading exponent of the small harp, a member of ground-breaking groups Shine and Bachue and co-musical director of the Celtic Big-Band phenomenon The Unusual Suspects.

Silhouette was commissioned by An Tobar, The Tobermory Arts Centre for a special outdoor performance, using the old pier in the centre of Tobermory as the stage.