The Berkeley Ensemble is a British chamber music ensemble that explores little-known twentieth- and twenty first-century British chamber music alongside a more established repertoire. Founded in 2008 by members of

Southbank Sinfonia Southbank Sinfonia is a British chamber orchestra founded in 2002. Composed of young professionals from around the world, each year it brings together 33 graduate musicians for a programme of performance and professional development. The annual f ...

, the ensemble reached the finals of the 2009

Royal Over-Seas League The Royal Over-Seas League (ROSL) is a not-for-profit members' organisation with international headquarters in its clubhouse in central London, England. Founded by Sir Evelyn Wrench in 1910 as the Over-Seas Club, it was given a Royal Charter ...

music competition and has since performed regularly in the UK and abroad. Their recordings and performances are regularly featured in the national press. Their album ''Lennox Berkeley: Chamber Works'' was selected by ''

BBC Music Magazine ''BBC Music Magazine'' is a British monthly magazine that focuses primarily on classical music. History The first issue appeared in September 1992. BBC Worldwide, the commercial subsidiary of the BBC was the original owner and publisher toget ...

'' as Chamber Choice in 2015, and ''Lennox Berkeley: Stabat Mater'' was nominated for a Gramophone Magazine Classical Music Award in 2017. The ensemble revived the

Cobbett Competition Walter Willson Cobbett (11 July 184722 January 1937) was an English businessman and amateur violinist, and editor/author of ''Cobbett's Cyclopedic Survey of Chamber Music''. He also endowed the Cobbett Medal for services to chamber music. Wal ...

for chamber music composition (as The New Cobbett Competition) in 2014, with ''Sequenza'' for string quartet by Samuel Lewis as the first winner. Since 2016 the Berkeley Ensemble has curated the annual Little Venice Music Festival in London. It celebrated its 10th anniversary with a performance at the Purcell Room in September 2018. The ensemble is named after the British composers

Lennox Berkeley Sir Lennox Randal Francis Berkeley (12 May 190326 December 1989) was an English composer. Biography Berkeley was born on 12 May 1903 in Oxford, England, the younger child and only son of Aline Carla (1863–1935), daughter of Sir James Char ...

and

Michael Berkeley Michael Fitzhardinge Berkeley, Baron Berkeley of Knighton, (born 29 May 1948) is an English composer, broadcaster on music and member of the House of Lords. Early life Berkeley is the eldest of the three sons of Elizabeth Freda (née Bernstein ...

. Its patrons are

and

Petroc Trelawny James Edward Petroc Trelawny (born 27 May 1971) is a British classical music radio and television broadcaster. Since 1998 he has been a presenter on BBC Radio 3. Career James Edward Petroc Trelawny was born in Worcester and grew up in the Meneag ...

Albums

The ensemble has released a number of albums, most notably: * ''Cobbett’s Legacy: The New Cobbett Prize for Chamber Music'' (2019, Resonus Classics) received a 4-star review in ''The Guardian'' *''Winter Fragments'' (2018, Resonus Classics) was praised for the ensemble’s “endlessly responsive playing” by

Fiona Maddocks Fiona Maddocks is a British music critic and author who specializes in classical music. Described as "one of the UK's leading writers and commentators on classical music", Maddocks has been chief music critic of ''The Observer'' since 2010. She ...

in ''The Observer'' *''Stabat Mater: Sacred Choral Music by Lennox & Michael Berkeley'' (2016,

Delphian Records Delphian Records is an Edinburgh-based independent classical record label, founded in 2000 by two students of the University of Edinburgh, Paul Baxter and Kevin Findlan with start-up funding from two private individuals, and support from the Pri ...

) was nominated for a Gramophone Award *''Lennox Berkeley: Chamber Works'' (2015, Resonus Classics) received a 5-star review in ''BBC Music Magazine'' and positive reviews in the ''Telegraph'' and ''Sunday Times'' *''Clarion Call: Music for Septet and Octet'' (2014, Resonus Classics) received positive reviews in ''The Observer,'' ''Gramophone Magazine,'' ''The Strad'', and ''Classical Ear''.

References

{{reflist Chamber music groups British classical music groups Musical groups established in 2008