Mark Levy
Mark won a mathematics scholarship to Cambridge University but soon succumbed to his other great passion and graduated with a first class degree in music, going on to a Master’s in historical musicology at King’s College, London, and on a Dutch Government scholarship to the Royal Conservatory in the Hague. Having taken up the viol as a teenager, he spent several formative years working with violinist Andrew Manze and harpsichordist Richard Egarr in The Cambridge Musick, performing at venues ranging from the Wigmore Hall in London to the Berlin Philharmonic. Now known as one of Britain’s leading ambassadors for the viol, Mark divides his time between solo and chamber recitals, directing his own ensemble Concordia, working with both leading symphony orchestras and early music groups, and recording early and new music for CD, radio, television and film.

Appearances in the past couple of seasons have included solo and chamber recitals at the Bruges Festival, the Wigmore Hall, the Covent Garden Festival, the Spitalfields Festival, the Bath Festival, the York Early Music Festival, the Leipzig Bach Festival, the Innsbruck Festival, the Handel House in Halle, and for the Dutch Early Music Network, and concert tours have taken him to Belgium, Holland, France, Spain, Greece, Germany, Austria, Slovenia, Denmark, Finland, Norway and Iceland, while recent broadcasts have included concerts for the BBC, Belgian and German Radio. Mark has recorded for Decca, DG, Harmonia Mundi, Hyperion and most of the smaller British labels, recently completing a complete Gibbons series with Concordia for the prize-winning Metronome label. The first disc in the series won several awards including the Choc de Musique from Le Monde de la Musique (France), an Outstanding rating from BBC Music Magazine, and an award Þfrom Fonoforum (Germany), while the second CD received the Diapason d’Or (France) and was an Editor’s Choice in Gramophone magazine.

During the Bach 2000 festivities he appeared with the London Philharmonic Orchestra and the English Chamber Orchestra at the Royal Festival Hall and Symphony Hall in Birmingham and other work outside the world of early music has included contributions to the soundtracks of movies such as The Governess, Titus and The Knight’s Tale. His hands were apparently visible in the recent BBC TV adaptation of the bestselling The Other Boleyn Girl.

In 2000-1 Mark was a guest Lecturer at Southampton University, and he has also taught at Nottingham University, at the Dartington International Summer School, and on courses in Israel and Poland. Mark was artistic director of the Wigmore Hall’s William Lawes 400th anniversary concert series in 2002, and their 2003 series celebrating The Elizabethans. He is a frequent guest on BBC Radio, most recently contributing to programmes on the painter Titian and on the music of Elizabeth I’s court, and he also appeared in a two-part BBC TV series on Lawes. He devotes a part of his time to researching and editing 16th- and 17th-century music. His edition of the complete Songs of Matthew Locke was published in 1996 by Stainer and Bell, and he is frequently invited to write feature articles and reviews for BBC Music Magazine, Classical Music, Early Music, Music Teacher, The Strad, etc.

Ashley Solomon
Ashley has performed extensively as a soloist and chamber musician throughout Europe, the Americas, the Far East and Australia. He has recorded many programmes for radio and television, and since 1993, has recorded exclusively for the Dutch company Channel Classics, both with Florilegium and as a solo artist. His recording of Volume 1 of Bach’s complete flute sonatas was released in October 2000 to critical acclaim. Gramophone magazine described the recording as “exceptional” and went on to select it as one of their favourite cd’s from 2001.

Born in Sussex, Ashley won a recorder and flute scholarship to the Royal Academy of Music where he was awarded first class honours. He went on to complete his post-graduate studies there with a scholarship from the Countess of Munster Musical Trust and in the same year won first prize in the Moeck International Recorder Competition.

The majority of his time is spent performing with Florilegium, the ensemble that he co-founded in 1991 and of which he is now the Artistic Director. Florilegium has made fourteen and regularly performs at prestigious UK and international music festivals and venues. In 1998 he was made an Honorary Associate of the Royal Academy of Music and this was followed in 2000 with an Honorary RCM. Much in demand as a teacher he has been professor at the Royal College of Music since 1994 and given master classes in Australia, The Americas, The Czech Republic, Bulgaria, Portugal and the UK.

Jonathan Tilbrook
Jonathan career to date has included conducting performances at major London and UK venues and abroad in East and West Europe, Scandinavia, and the Far East. He has recently appeared with the English Chamber Orchestra at the Barbican Centre; in France with the celebrated early music ensemble Florilegium (Bach’s St John and St Matthew Passion) and at the De Montfort Hall, Leicester conducting the Verdi Requiem. In 1992, as prize-winner in the conducting masterclasses and competition in Zlín, Czech Republic, he was appointed Assistant Conductor with the Bohuslav Martinuû Philharmonic. Subsequent guest-conducting engagements in the region have included the Kosice State Philharmonic (Slovakia), the Moravian Philharmonic, Janácÿek Philharmonic and the Olomouc and Kromeÿrÿízÿ chamber orchestras. Equally active in the field of opera, appearances in recent seasons have included the Brighton, Holland Park, Kings Lynn and Cheltenham festivals. He has also worked frequently as a musical assistant to Sir Charles Mackerras and presently holds the position of Mackerras Conducting Fellow at Nottingham University. Jonathan Tilbrook is also a committed exponent of new music - recent premieres have included a Spitalfields Festival commission by Matthew King - and he maintains close links with the Scottish contemporary music ensemble One Voice.