ensemble 1685

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About ensemble 1685

Hello, my name is Richard Jeffcoat, and I'm Artistic Director of ensemble 1685.

Formed originally from singers I worked with at Coventry Cathedral, ensemble 1685 has offered more than 350 musical events in the five years of its existence around the Midlands and more widely, including Scotland, Ireland, and several European tours.

We perform in churches, care homes, community centres, prisons, stately homes — sometimes to a ticketed audience, but more usually to those who happen to be there. We bring an encounter with classical vocal music to many people who thought it wasn't for them, and we hope we've inspired a change of heart in at least some of them.

Every so often we put on a show with orchestra: for some years in a row we performed Bach's St John Passion on Good Friday, and at New Year 2009 we performed Bach's Christmas Oratorio. September 2010 saw our presentation of Handel’s oratorio Joshua.

1685, incidentally, was the year both Bach and Handel were born, and, though our repertoire stretches over a thousand years, we do enjoy these two composers in particular.

If you would like to see us in action, or if you can think of an event we can enliven, please contact us — we would love to hear from you!