The Little Baroque Company is a multi-national London-based ensemble specialising in 17th & 18th century music. Formed at the Royal Academy of Music, London in 2006, the group is directed by Australian violinist, Helen Kruger. The LBC performs on period instruments and are a regular fixture at the London Handel Festival, performing with Laurence Cummings.Performances by the Little Baroque Company include the Edinburgh Fringe Festival, Brighton Early Music Festival, Les Azuriales (Cap Ferrat) and concerts for the Victoria & Albert Museum, British Museum, Wallace Collection and St. Martin-in-the-Fields. The LBC has collaborated with the Esterhazy Singers for Handel's Ester and Haydn's Seasons and Creation, and the Merbecke choir at Southwark Cathedral. The ensemble has toured France, Spain, Scotland and Ireland and will be touring Australia in February and March, 2012. The LBC has broadcast live for BBC Radio 3 and will be releasing their debut recording with soprano Julia Doyle this year.
In February/March 2012 the group will make their exciting Australian debut tour. The LBC is joined by star international violinist and director Catherine Mackintosh, as well as the celestial voice of Swedish soprano, Marie Keohane, presenting two virtuosic programs of baroque masters: 'Il Furore' (Vivaldi) and 'If Music be the Food of Love' (Purcell and Handel).
The members of the Little Baroque Co. include Helen Kruger (violin), Manuel Minguillon (theorbo), Laura Tivendale (harpsichord), Kinga Gaborjani (cello and gamba), Frouke Mooij (violin and viola), Jacqueline Dossor (double bass), and Skye McIntosh (violin).
Helen Kruger
Australian born violinist Helen Kruger started the violin at the age of 8 and went on to receive a music/academic scholarship to Perth College, Western Australia. She gained a Bachelor of Music Degree at the University of Western Australia under Paul Wright before winning an award to study with Yury Gezentsvey in Wellington, NZ. Helen completed the PGDip program at the Royal Academy of Music in 2005 on modern violin, studying with Howard Davis, winning the RAM Development Award. She was awarded the San Martino scholarship and the Peter le Huray award to study towards a Masters Degree on baroque violin under Catherine Mackintosh, winning the John Baker Award and a Dominions fellowship. She is an Open Academy Fellow for the academic year 2008-9.
Helen plays for the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment, Australian Brandenburg Orchestra, New European Opera, Australian Classical Era Orchestra and freelances for various UK based ensembles and orchestras. She has worked with distinguished musicians such as Trevor Pinnock, Sir Charles Mackerras, William Christie, Laurence Cummings, Vladimir Jurowski, Catherine Mackintosh and Maggie Faultless.
She has a strong interest in education and has been a teacher at the junior department of the RAM for the past 5 years, recently accepting the post of director of chamber music for the FSE program.
Frouke Mooij
Dutch born baroque violinist, Frouke Mooij began her advanced violin studies at the Brabantsch Conservatorium, Tilburg, while she was still at secondary school. She furthered her studies at the Royal Conservatoire The Hague with Hans Scheepers. Frouke then specialized in historical performance and studied baroque violin and viola for 5 years at the Royal Conservatoire The Hague, The Netherlands with Ryo Terakado.
Frouke has performed extensively in early music festivals throughout the UK, Europe, Korea, New Zealand and Australia. She has lead the Academia Montis Regalis and the Contrasto Armonico and has performed with many leading and up and coming ensembles and orchestras such as the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment, the Gabrieli Consort, the European Union Baroque Orchestra, the New Dutch Academy, Barokensemble de Swaen, Bach Concentus, Harmony of Nations, Little Baroque Company, La Sfera Armoniosa, Salut! Baroque, Sydney, Australia, and AK Barok, Auckland, NZ.
She has worked with distinguished musicians such as Sir Simon Rattle, Ivan Fisher, Edward Gardner, Andreas Scholl, Nigel North, Elizabeth Walfisch, Rachel Podger, Pavlo Beznosiuk, Katherine McGillivray, Kati Debretzeni, Roy Goodman, Jaap ter Linden, Bartold Kuijken and Lars Ulrik Mortensen, amongst others.
Kinga Gáborjáni
Kinga Gáborjáni completed her postgraduate degree at the Royal Academy of Music in London with distinction in 2007. She studied the Baroque Cello with Jennifer Ward Clarke and the Viola da Gamba with Richard Campbell. Born in Hungary, Kinga gained her BMus degree in Budapest in 1999.
As a student at RAM she was principal cellist of the Academy's Baroque Orchestra, premiering Rameau's Dardanus with Laurence Cummings. She won the Academy's Early Music Prize for chamber music in both 2006 and 2007 and she was very highly commanded in the Herbert Walenn Prize for an unaccompanied Bach Suite.
This year Kinga is taking part in the English Baroque Soloists’ project of Bach’s Brandenburg Concertos, performing on both cello and gamba. She also plays in the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment as a participant of the’Ann and Peter Law Scheme for Young Players’. Kinga is principal cellist of the English Touring Opera’s Baroque Orchestra. She has played with several other groups, including La Serenissima, the Dunedin Consort and Players and Ex Cathedra.
Kinga is also an active member of several chamber groups. She performs regularly with the Four Temperaments, the first early music ensemble to be awarded a fellowship at the Royal Academy of Music. She performed at the Brighton Early Music Live Festival in 2007 with her ensemble Triologue and won the audience’s prize at the Fenton House Early Music Competition in 2008 with the Little Baroque Company.
She has worked with distinguished musicians such as William Christie, Laurence Cummings, Sir John Eliot Gardiner, Sir Charles Mackerras, Trevor Pinnock, Rachel Podger, Sir Simon Rattle and Andreas Scholl. Kinga has been generously supported by the Leverhulme, the San Martino and the Hungarian State Eötvös Trust. Her future engagements include further tours with the English Baroque Soloists, the Gabrieli Consort and Players, the English Touring Opera and La Serenissima
Laura Tivendale
Laura Tivendale graduated with first class honours and an LRAM from the Royal Academy of Music where she studied harpsichord with Virginia Black. Laura won the Harold Samuel Bach Prize two years running, as well as receiving the Howard Carr Memorial Prize in 2007 and a Foundation Award for general excellence in 2006. Laura enjoys playing a wide variety of repertoire both as a soloist and chamber musician and has made a special study of the virtuoso works of Scarlatti and Rameau.
Laura is harpsichordist of the Little Baroque Company, with whom she has given festival performances, education and community workshops and a live broadcast on BBC Radio 3. Laura has played in the Academy’s Period Instrument Baroque Orchestra and as both soloist and continuo player with the Capelle Baroque Orchestra. Laura has performed J. S. Bach’s Fifth Brandenburg Concerto and the Walter Leigh Concertino with the Stamford Chamber Orchestra. Future engagements include concerts with the Little Baroque Company for the 2009 London Handel Festival and a solo recital for the British Harpsichord Society at the Handel House Museum.
Alongside performing, Laura dedicates much of her time to music education, to which she is particularly passionate about. She teaches at the Junior Royal Academy of Music and at Queens College London. Laura has worked with many distinguished musicians including Laurence Cummings, Nicolette Moonen, Simon Standage, Catherine Mackintosh and Monica Huggett and has participated in masterclasses with Kenneth Gilbert and Trevor Pinnock.
Manuel Minguillón
Manuel Minguillón was born and raised in Madrid, Spain. He obtained his bachelor degree in guitar performance from the Conservatorio de San Lorenzo de El Escorial where he studied with Gerardo Arriaga. Captivated by the music of the Renaissance, he continued his studies in “Early Plucked Instruments” at the Conservatorio de Arturo Soria, in Madrid, with Jesús Sanchez. Subsequently, Minguillón perfected his skills under the guidance of master lutenist Hopkinson Smith in Basel, Switzerland. In 2004 he moved to Rochester, New York to complete a Master’s Degree and Doctorate in Lute and Early Plucked Instruments with the world renowned lutenist Paul O’Dette at the Eastman School of Music.
Manuel Minguillón has performed as both soloist and ensemble player in many countries (including Spain, Italy, France, Switzerland, Slovenia, Poland, Portugal, Canada, Mexico and USA), having appeared in several Festivals and Concert Halls in these countries. He is a founder of the vihuela Duo Deleitiae Musicae together with Jesús Sanchez which he plays throughout Europe and North America and has been broadcast by various national radios such RNE of Spain, RTP of Portugal and Radio France. Manuel currently lives and works in London, United Kingdom, where he collaborates with various ensembles such us Gabrieli Consort & Players, Charivari Agreable, Armonico Consort, Saraband Consort, The Rare Theatrical, The Little Baroque Company, Broschi Ensemble, and Earl’s Court Baroque, amongst others. He is also a member of the multidisciplinary research group The Hispanic Baroque where he is researching about the baroque Tonos Humanos in Spain.
