Cardiff University Baroque Ensemble

Baroque Ensemble is a newly formed initiative, focusing on music composed for female SSAA choir with orchestral and/or keyboard accompaniment, exploring repertoire of 17th and 18th centuries.

The first concert performed in Spring Semester 2022 included the music of the Venetian Ospedale choirs of girls and young women, with works by Vivaldi, Porpora and Galuppi, as well as items by Marianna Martines and Isabella Leonarda.

Auditions are held for places in the choir and orchestra and non-music students are welcome, although the majority of singers are drawn from the School of Music.

• Auditioned: Audition required
• Conductor: Peter Leech
• Rehearsals: Tuesday, 16:15-18:00, Concert Hall

The Baroque Ensemble is open to all Cardiff University students with auditions taking place each September. For more information on auditioning please contact Elin Jones at jonese159@cardiff.ac.uk.

Conductor: Peter Leech

Peter Leech began his musical career in Australia as a treble chorister and later worked as a professional conductor in Adelaide, Melbourne, and Sydney, before moving to the UK in 1996 to undertake a PhD in Musicology with Dr. Peter Holman MBE.

In 2003 Peter won First Prize at the Mariele Ventre International Competition for Choral Conductors (Bologna), since which time he has developed a reputation in the UK and aboard for fresh, innovative and dynamic interpretations of a wide variety of choral repertoire, ranging from early polyphony to contemporary music. The list of vocal ensembles he has directed includes The Song Company (Sydney), Coro Euridice (Bologna), the City of Oxford Choir, the Cathedral Singers of Christ Church Oxford, the Bristol Bach Choir, the Royal Scottish National Orchestra Chorus, Collegium Singers, Harmonia Sacra and Cappella Fede. With The Song Company and Harmonia Sacra Peter has recorded CDs for Tall Poppies and Nimbus Alliance, and has also appeared as an ensemble vocalist on the Hyperion label.

Trained initially as an orchestral conductor (after studies in violin and keyboard) Peter has also collaborated with many leading UK period instrument ensembles including Canzona and Frideswide Ensemble. After several years as a professional singer in London, Peter has been based in North Somerset since 2009. He was appointed to an Associate Lectureship in the School of Music at Cardiff University in 2015.