It all started during an uninspiring performance of a Bach oratorio that I was singing in. I was bored, the audience was bored, and suddenly I thought, “We can do better than this.” So I drew together a choir, orchestra and soloists from my friends and colleagues, mostly in their 20s, and named it after my favourite Handel oratorio: the Solomon Choir and Orchestra.
The ensemble is a group of the next generation of young musicians, a plentiful and talented generation with a greater readiness than any before it to commit to period performance. We all can and do find work with existing ensembles run by established figures from whom we learn much of what we know and bring to the concert platform. But I feel that our generation’s sound and spirit needs advocacy on its own terms too.Through inspirational and uplifting performances, this new London-based ensemble is dedicated to spreading enthusiasm for masterpieces of the baroque. The musicians love this music and, with their thrilling combination of youth and expertise, they know they can make you love it too.
I am seeking to develop a new, vibrant and directly communicative sound with our singers and players that reasserts the primacy of passion and drama. And I maintain that this isn’t just youthful novelty, doing something different for the sake of doing so. I know it’s our job to keep this music alive, just as it was a previous generation’s job and will become that of a future one. And that means doing things with it and introducing it to new people – because that’s responsible cultural curatorship!
It’s this desire to communicate and share the music that was utterly missing from that boring Bach performance and is frequently missing from the professional music business altogether, and which is what makes the Solomon Choir and Orchestra stand out.
Jonathan Sells
