The directors
Deborah Roberts formed Musica Secreta in 1990 with the harpsichordist John Toll. Her soaring soprano has featured in many of the leading early music ensembles in the UK, and as a member of the Tallis Scholars for over 25 years, Deborah has a lifetime's experience of singing Renaissance polyphony. She co-founded the Brighton Early Music Festival in 2002, and has watched it grow to become one of the largest and most innovative music festivals in Britain. She is in constant demand as a teacher, workshop leader and choral conductor, and currently runs two amateur chamber choral ensembles, the BREMF Consort and Musica Secreta's sister choir, Celestial Sirens.
Laurie Stras joined Deborah Roberts as co-director of Musica Secreta in 2000. With a background in performance, including a spell as a musical director and keyboard player with the Royal National Theatre, she is now a leading authority on Renaissance female musicians. Known as the band boffin, Laurie also fills out the tenor lines in Celestial Sirens, researches the costumes and has been known to play Renaissance guitar. Currently completing a book entitled Musica Secreta: Women, Polyphony and Performance, Laurie is Senior Lecturer in Music at the University of Southampton.
The singers
Katharine Hawnt was a choral scholar at King's College London and then trained at the Schola Cantorum Basiliensis in Switzerland. Her main teachers there were Evelyn Tubb and Kathleen Dineen, and after finishing, Stefan Haselhoff. She performs throughout Europe as a soloist and chorus member with groups including Collegium Vocale Ghent, Musica Secreta, Al Ayre Español, Trinity Baroque, Nuove Musiche and her own medieval ensemble, Le Basile. She teaches singing at Sherborne School for Girls.
Clare Wilkinson read Classics at Trinity College, Cambridge and continued to postgraduate study at Trinity College of Music, London. Now enjoying a busy concert career specialising in Baroque and Renaissance music, Clare sings with many distinguished ensembles: the English Baroque Soloists/Sir John Eliot Gardiner, the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment, Les Talens Lyriques, Manchester Camerata, the English Concert, Fretwork and the Rose Consort of Viols, amongst others. Clare also enjoys stage work; she is a member of I Fagiolini and with them has been part of the ground-breaking "secret theatre" project The Full Monteverdi, the newly commissioned opera The Birds by Ed Hughes and the group's trademark staged madrigal comedies. Other roles include Second Witch in Dido and Aeneas and Zinnia in Chabrier's L'Etoile (both for Gardiner) and Galatea in Handel's Aci, Galatea e Polifemo at the London Handel Festival (Laurence Cummings). Clare features on many CDs, most recently Handel's Messiah and Bach's St Matthew Passion, both with the Dunedin Consort/John Butt, and Four Gentlemen of the Chapel Royal with the Rose Consort of Viols. Future releases include a mixed recital disk, The Silken Tent, with Fretwork. For a full discography and schedule of forthcoming engagements, please visit www.clarewilkinsonmezzo.co.uk.
Caroline Trevor has sung and recorded with a number of prominent groups, such as The Tallis Scholars (since 1982), The Sixteen, The Cardinall's Musick, The Taverner Consort, The Gabrieli Consort, Consortium, The Rose Consort, Aurora Nova, and, of course, Musica Secreta.
Caroline feels very at home singing with all female groups, and wonders if perhaps she was a happy nun in a former life.
The instrumentalists
Originally fom Bath, Claire Williams studied piano, harpsichord and fortepiano at the Royal College of Music in London. Since graduating, she has performed with a wide range of ensembles in both the UK and abroad.
Claire has recently completed a Master's degree at Trinity College of Music, studying harpsichord and chamber organ with James Johnstone. She is now putting her energies into other projects, and remains much in demand as a performer and educator. Claire has recently been appointed teacher of piano at St Dunstan's College, and now that she has fully completed her studies, she has also been invited to join Trinity College of Music as a staff accompanist. In addition to these positions, Claire is delighted to have been recently involved with the Brighton Early Music Festival's Early Music Live! scheme along with her group Triptych. Please visit www.clairewilliams.co.uk for more information on Claire's solo engagements and other ensembles.
Kinga Gáborjáni completed her postgraduate degree at the Royal Academy of Music in London in 2007. She studied the Baroque Cello with Jennifer Ward Clarke and the Viola da Gamba with Richard Campbell. Kinga has just finished a project of Bach's Brandenburg Concertos with the English Baroque Soloists, including several performances and a recording. She also plays with the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment and she is co-principal cellist of the English Touring Opera's Baroque Orchestra.
Her future engagements include further tours with the English Baroque Soloists, The English Concert, the Orchestre Revolutioannaire et Romantique, the Gabrieli Consort and Players, the Amsterdam Baroque Orchestra and the English Touring Opera.
Trained on the modern harp and with a music degree from Cambridge University, Frances Kelly was one of the first harpists to explore early harps, their repertoire and in particular, the use of the harp as a continuo instrument.
Well known both as a chamber musician and soloist, she is now a leading exponent pf early harps and much in demand as a continuo player. She has performed, broadcast and recorded with many distinguished ensembles including the Gabrieli Consort and Players, the Sixteen, the New London Consort, and the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment as well as working with English National Opera, Welsh National Opera and English Touring Opera.
She has numerous chamber music recordings to her name as well as a solo Harp Collection, Mozart's Flute and Harp Concerto, Handel's Harp Concerto and Britten's A Ceremony of Carols. Her work has taken her throughout Europe and to the USA, Mexico, China and Japan. She also enjoys a busy teaching practice at home and at both junior and senior departments at Trinity College of Music.