Ensemble Renard (wind instruments)
Friday 12 June 2026
1:00 pm - 2:00 pm
Escape from the clamour of the city and join Ensemble Renard for a recital of music that captures the symbiotic nature of humanity’s relationship to the natural world. Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, famed for writing the most touching and human of music, frequently wrote pieces for automated instruments such as his Andante K.616, to which we give a new life in an arrangement for wind quintet. Blue Cheese and Olive Oil by Cheryl Frances-Hoad takes inspiration from foods associated with two pillars of 20th-century European musical culture, and George Stevenson’s Les Machines de l’île is a musical description of the wooden creatures that decorate the old dockyard in Nantes, France. Interspersed between these musical manufacturings, Ensemble Renard present three works that capture the humanity of different folk traditions: Judith Weir’s Mountain Airs is a free adaptation of two Scottish folk tunes; Pavel Haas’s Wind Quintet takes inspiration both from Moravian folk music and Jewish liturgical practice; lastly, Béla Bartók’s Six Dances in Bulgarian Rhythm pulse with celebratory rhythmic vitality.
Judith Weir Mountain Airs
Mozart Andante für eine Walze in eine Kleiner Orgel, K. 616
Cheryl Frances-Hoad Blue Cheese and Olive Oil
Pavel Haas Wind Quintet
George Stevenson Les Machines de l’Île
Bartok arr. George Strivens Six Dances in Bulgarian Rhythm from Mikrokosmos Vol. 6
Ensemble Renard
London-based wind quintet Ensemble Renard comprises five of the UK’s most outstanding young musicians. Together, they exist to explore a wide range of timbral possibilities within modern day chamber performance, and by frequently collaborating with composers and guest instrumentalists, they strive to showcase a prismatic variety of colours.
Ensemble Renard curates compelling and contrasting programmes tailored to each audience, aiming to take repertoire rarely given the light of day to audiences from London to the Hebrides and beyond. From Gershwin to Knussen, each piece they play demonstrates the kaleidoscopic versatility of the ensemble, and most Ensemble Renard concerts feature works especially written or arranged for them.
Ensemble Renard were Chamber Music Fellows at the Royal Academy of Music in 2021, and have since received several accolades, becoming Tunnell Trust awardees, Britten-Pears Young Artists, Stoller Hall Young Artists, and awardees of the Countess of Munster Musical Trust’s Recital Scheme. They won the Royal Philharmonic Society Henderson Chamber Ensemble Award 2024, and in 2025 became Associate Artists on the Countess of Munster/YCAT UK Artists Directory, and City Music Foundation Artists.
Highlights of the ensemble’s career so far include repeat performances at the Aldeburgh Festival. In the 2025 issue they celebrated the centenaries of both Berio and Boulez at Aldeburgh Jubilee Hall to critical acclaim, and Britten-Pears Arts commissioned a new quintet by Cheryl Frances-Hoad to mark the occasion. They have returned yearly to Llanfyllin Music Festival since 2022 and can be found performing in music clubs the length of the United Kingdom.
Dates, Times & Book
| Fri 12 Jun | 1:00 PM | £10 | Book |
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