All About Us



Consortium5 formed in 2005 when its founding members were students at the Royal Academy of Music. They have since established themselves as one of the foremost recorder consorts of their generation, and an ensemble of unique appeal to a wide range of audiences. Founded out of a shared love of consort music and recorders, Consortium have performed in Europe and the UK at major festivals and concert series. In 2010 they recorded their debut album on the Nonclassical Label, voted among the top ten best classical albums of the year by Chicago Time Out. Working with composers has formed a central part of Consortium5's activity over the past four years, and this album features works commissioned especially for and by the group. A recent review from the influential blog Sequenza21 concludes that the album ‘suggests a new frontier for chamber ensembles’.

 Winners of numerous prizes and awards, Consortium5 made their Purcell Room debut in 2009 as part of the Park Lane Group Young Artists Series. In 2007-2009 they were Joan Greenfield Junior Fellows at Trinity College of Music and in 2006 they were awarded the Deutsche Bank Pyramid Award for performance, a prize that allowed



them to invest in a set of 10 matching consort instruments. Equally committed to performance on the concert platform and in the community, Consortium5 spent several years resident on the Live Music Now scheme, and have performed numerous concerts for London based music services, reaching over 7000 children, many of whom had never attended a professional music concert before.

 

Since forming, Consortium5 have combined historically informed and contemporary performance to great effect in both concerts and educational work. Consortium5 enjoy working closely with composers throughout the composition process and it has been their great delight to discover the fascination these instruments hold for composers and the richness and variety with which their language speaks through the consort. Consortium5 are particularly interested in the bridges that these compositions build; new consorts from the archaic consort form, new works for ancient instruments, a contemporary dimension to the recorder that concentrates without compromise on both its simplicity and its myriad complexities.

Click on our faces to the right to find out more about each individual member.


Who's Who

Emily Bloom