Formerly members of the BBC Radio 3's New Generation Artists scheme, the Galliard Ensemble has been firmly placed as one of Britain's leading chamber ensembles. Its energetic, highly entertaining and communicative performace style has wowed audiences both in britain and abroad leading to critical acclaim. Commenting on the Galliard's highly praised CD for the Deux Elles label, Michael Oliver wrote in Gramophone Magazine 'pure pleasure... This, in short is wind quintet playing of great distinction... From this admirably recorded disc you also get a very good idea of how enjoyable the Galliard's public concerts must be. Strongly recommended'.
The Galliard Ensemble was founded in 1993 when its members were students at the Royal Academy of Music, and has since won many major awards including the Maisie Lewis Young Artist Award, the BBC Radio 3 Young Artists Forum, and were selected for the Park Lane Group Series and Fresh Series at the Purcell Room. They play regularly in many of Britain's perstigious venues such as Wigmore hall, South Bank Centre and Bridgewater Hall.
The Galliard Ensemble makes appearances at festivals throughout Europe, having performed at the BBC Proms, Huddersfield Contemporary Music Festival, Bath, Brighton and Harrogate festivals, as well as the Mafra Festival for the British Council, the Castello Branco and Porto Festivals in Portugal.
The Galliard Ensemble has a strong interest in contemporary composition. In addittion to working with Paul Patterson, Gyorgy Ligeti, Richard Rodney Bennett, they have also worked with Sir Harrison Birtwistle on his quintet 'Five Distances' for their performance at the 1999 BBC Proms.
The Galliard Ensemble is committed to bringing music to a wider audience and has undertaken educational concerts with Live Music Now! and has enjoyed performing many school concerts, family concerts, workshops and demonstrations. The group's repertoire spans a wide range from Mozart and Beethoven to Berio and Schoenberg. Having now recorded several commercial CDs, the group has attracted much critical acclaim. Their recording of Sir Harison Birtwistle's chamber music for winds was selected by the Sunday Times, BBC Music Magazine, Gramophone, and BBC Radio 3 in their critics choices of outstanding releases in 2001.