Baroque Soloists

Brandenburg Baroque Soloists

Brandenburg Baroque Soloists is the period-instrument partner orchestra of the highly successful Brandenburg Sinfonia. Its creation was an organic development from the long-standing partnership between Twickenham Choral Society and the Brandenburg Sinfonia for a performance of Bach’s Christmas Oratorio in 2004. The orchestra is a judicious mixture of regular Sinfonia players who play on both modern and original instruments with some of the finest period instrument specialists drawn from the same pool as the Academy of Ancient Music, the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment and the Gabrieli Consort.

Specialising in the Baroque choral repertoire and the Brandenburg Concertos of Bach, the group has created a unique soundscape, woven through with an instinct that brings to light the great classic works of this glorious period of composition.

Dynamic, agile and stylish – audiences never leave without a smile on their faces.

Persephone Gibbs - leader

Persephone’s education ran the gamut from studying with violin pedagogue Dorothy DeLay at The Juilliard School, to English and law degrees, to improvising and writing songs with a rock band. Her interest in period performance was cemented while studying with David Takeno and Rachel Podger at the Guildhall School of Music, where she won prizes for chamber music and solo Bach performance.

Hailed by Time Out as a ‘rising star of the baroque violin,’ Persephone is director/soloist in the Brandenburg Baroque Soloists’ series of concerto programmes at St Martin-in-the-Fields. She also leads the group’s performances of the major baroque choral repertoire.

Much in demand as a chamber musician, Persephone is a founder of the group Gut Instinct, which explores 17th and 18th century music for two or, more unusually, three violins and continuo. The group enjoys presenting neglected composers and their works in the context of their more famous contemporaries. Persephone’s research has unearthed pieces not regularly performed in centuries.

Persephone is also leader of the Temple Players, Charivari Agréable Simfonie and the Bampton Classical Players. She led Opera Theatre Company’s productions of Orlando (2009) and Alcina (2010) at the Buxton Festival. Persephone has appeared as soloist and guest leader with many groups, including the Festive Orchestra of London and the Orchestra da Camera Lorenzo Da Ponte. An interest in early Italian repertoire has led her to work with His Majesty’s Sagbutts and Cornetts, the English Cornett and Sackbut Ensemble and I Fagiolini. Persephone is a member of the Academy of Ancient Music, the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment, the Gabrieli Consort and the Amsterdam Baroque Orchestra.