Ensemble 360 has gained an enviable reputation across the UK not only for the quality and integrity of the members’ playing, but also for their ability to communicate the music to a range of different audiences. Formed in 2005, eleven musicians of international standing came together to take up residency in Sheffield with Music in the Round, establishing a versatile group comprising five string players, five wind players and a pianist.
Their home performance space is Sheffield’s Crucible Studio Theatre which, as one of only a handful of ‘in the round’ venues in England: an intimate space in which the audience is never more than twenty feet away from the stage. The ensemble members believe in concerts being informal, friendly and relaxed occasions and, although they perform in a large variety of venues, they perform ‘in the round’ wherever possible. Having an audience on all four sides brings with it an intimacy and immediacy between musician and audience that other layouts cannot match. It is from this format that the group takes its name.
Ensemble 360 is a strong team and a group of friends who share a passion for the music, and this radiates through each performance. Their enthusiasm, drive and musicality draw audiences into their performances both through the quality of their playing and their engaging trademark spoken introductions.
Critical acclaim has greeted all of the group’s CDs to date; Mozart and Spohr (ASV Gold), Beethoven (Nimbus Alliance) and their latest disc, Poulenc (Nimbus Alliance), which contains all his great works for piano and wind: “A lovely disc” BBC Radio 3 CD Review. BBC Music Magazine said about Mozart, “This is a performance that can stand as a benchmark for this much recorded work…a real pleasure”.
Ensemble 360 has collaborated on a variety of projects with partners as diverse as actor and director Samuel West, jazz trombonist Dennis Rollins, poet Ian McMillan and Museums Sheffield, for which the group performed aural tours of exhibitions including Vivienne Westwood’s exhibition in 2008. The group is committed to the work of living composers such as Huw Watkins who wrote Broken Consort for the full ensemble in 2009. It received its premiere at the annual May Festival, which the Ensemble co-presents with Music in the Round, and then toured to a further thirteen venues in its first year.
Ensemble 360 appears regularly on BBC Radio 3 and at some of the largest festivals and venues in England including the Wigmore Hall, the National Centre for Early Music, Bath International Festival, Buxton Festival, Leamington Music Festival and Manchester Chamber Concert Series. It tours nationally every year with Music in the Round, and it has established its own concert series in Barnsley and Doncaster. The group brings other international artists to Sheffield to perform in the nine-day May Festival and Autumn and Spring series.
Ensemble 360 has established its own brand of children’s concerts which tour to sell-out audiences. Commissioning two scores from composer Paul Rissmann in the last two years, these unique musical stories combine participation and narration. Members of the ensemble regularly run schools’ workshops, performance and composition classes with a variety of ages and is the Ensemble-in-Residence at both the University of Sheffield and the University of Huddersfield.
Outside Ensemble 360 the musicians all have highly successful individual careers working with such renowned musicians and ensembles as Adrian Brendel, Trevor Pinnock, Manchester Camerata, Nash Ensemble, RTÉ National Symphony Orchestra of Ireland, Orchestre National du Capitole de Toulouse and Deutsche Kammerphilharmonie. They have performed across the UK at festivals including the Aldeburgh, Cheltenham, Edinburgh, Plush, Wye Valley Festivals and across Europe, America and Japan in venues including the Concertgebouw, Carnegie Hall and Tokyo Suntory Hall.
For enquiries about Ensemble 360's work with Music in the Round please contact Tracy Bryant here
For external bookings please contact their Booking Agent, Andrew Strange at Rayfield Allied here
www.rayfieldallied.com/artists/ensemble-360
Registered Charity Number 326811
