About
The English Wind Consort (EWC) was established in 2022 after its founders met on the Historical Music course at Dartington Summer School. United by their love of early music and consort playing, they formed EWC with the goal of exploring and enlarging the consort repertoire.
The core of the ensemble comprises a group of Renaissance wind players, most of whom are early reed specialists, underpinned by organ. All are multi-instrumentalists and often play two, three or more different instruments per performance: this flexibility allows for great timbral variety. The overall compass of the constituent instruments of the ensemble is large, and more than meets the demands of sixteenth-century repertoire: in the parlance of the time, the entire gamut is covered. This is by instruments such as the quint-bass dulcian, which plays a whole octave below the bass stave, to the higher recorders, which play a whole octave or more above the treble.
The English Wind Consort's inaugural performance was in Stroud on 22nd July 2023 and since then have played at numerous venues across the UK and abroad. Particular highlights include providing the music for the 400th Anniversary Celebration banquets at Pembroke College, Oxford University, which began in 2024; a tour through the Rhineland; and recording an album with the choir of Pembroke College Oxford.