This week’s #RAArtistinFocus is vocal group Gothic Voices - bringing medieval music into the mainstream and promoting previously unfamiliar music to audiences throughout the world:
Catherine King - mezzo-soprano
Julian Podger – tenor
Steven Harrold – tenor
Simon Whiteley - baritone
Gothic Voices' most recent Linn disc ‘The Splendour of Florence with a Burgundian Resonance’ explores a collection of Franco-Flemish music that was found in or associated with Florence. BBC Music Magazine’s 5 star review said: “The ensemble is incisive, ripe-toned and finely balanced… delicate as a fine French tapestry.” Listen to previews here.
One of their most popular programmes is from their Christmas CD: ‘Nowell synge we bothe al and som’. In December 2023 they performed it across Canada, in Amsterdam and Spain, which you can watch a clip of here in the Biblioteca de la Merced in Cuenca.
Gothic Voices' have appeared widely at festivals in the UK including the BBC Proms, Spitalfields, Aldeburgh, Cheltenham, Chester, Norfolk and Norwich, Three Choirs, Edinburgh International, Plush, York Early Music, Brighton & Birmingham Early Music.
Overseas they have performed at the Flanders and Utrecht Early Music Festivals, Laus Polyphoniae in Antwerp, Teater der Stadt Marl, Forum Alte Musik Köln, Musikfest Bremen, Montalbâne Festival, Abulensis Festival in Ávila, Festival de Musica Sacra Pamplona, Musica sacra para acompañar la Semana Santa Madrid, & BRQ Vantaa Festival in Helsinki.
With over 20 recordings, 3 of which have won Gramophone awards, we can’t talk about Gothic Voices without mentioning their famed first CD ‘A feather on the breath of God’ / Hildegard von Bingen, which remains one of Hyperion’s best ever selling discs, and also features Emma Kirkby.
