Biographie de Barnaby Smith

Grammy-nominated, Barnaby Smith is Artistic Director of the internationally renowned vocal ensemble VOCES8, LIVE From London digital festivals, and the UK and US arms of The VOCES8 Foundation including its ensembles (Apollo5, Lyyra, The VOCES8 Foundation Choir), its Digital Academy and Milton Abbey International Festival and Summer School. Barnaby is in demand as a conductor, presenter, filmmaker, educator, countertenor and arranger.

Amongst a busy touring schedule with VOCES8 and ensembles around the world, recent projects have included Barnaby’s debuts conducting: Queensland Symphony Orchestra in Vaughan Williams and Tin; Nederlandse ReisOpera in Handel Messiah: Brahms Ein Deutches Requiem; the English Chamber Orchestra in Bach, Barber, Elgar and Faure; directing Jack Liebeck and VOCES8 in a new programme at a sold-out Sydney Opera House; directing and soloing in Bach Cantatas for Inon Barnatan’s La Jolla Summerfest; directing two solo-recordings Handel & Bach with the Illyria Consort, as well as producing and presenting the 14^th LIVE From London Festival. Collaborations with Eric Whitacre and Paul Simon continued, resulting in two new albums – Home and Seven Psalms.

Upcoming conducting/solo projects include: opening Festival Bach de Lausanne in a programme from Bach with the Illyria Consort; conducting world premiere commissions for choir and orchestra by Jocelyn Hagen (Rose Ever Blooming) and Taylor Scott Davis (Requiem Idyll); conducting The VOCES8 Foundation’s 20^thanniversary concert at the Barbican, London in June 2025; his debut conducting the Edvard Grieg Vokal Ensemble for The Bergen Kirkeautunnale.

Barnaby has performed at many of the world’s prestigious festivals and halls including BBC Proms, Royal Albert Hall, the Barbican Centre, Wigmore Hall, Bridgewater Hall, Sydney Opera House, Muziekgebouw Amsterdam, La Seine Musicale and Cité de la Musique in Paris, Elbphilharmonie Hamburg, BOZAR in Brussels, Tokyo Opera City, NCPA Beijing, Mariinsky Theatre Concert Hall, Victoria Concert Hall in Singapore, Palacio de Bellas Artes in Mexico City and Vienna Konzerthaus.

A passionate pedagogue, Barnaby teaches regularly at Academies and Universities across the world, and co-curated the Master’s course in ensemble singing at the University of Cambridge. Barnaby Smith is managed worldwide by Percius. www.percius.co.uk

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Biographie de Illyria Consort

Bojan Čičić originally founded The Illyria Consort to explore rare repertoire of the 17th and 18th centuries from the Venetian Republic and the Habsburg Empire. The group was invited to perform at early music festivals in Europe, such as Korkyra Baroque Festival in Croatia, Laus Polyphoniae Festival in Belgium, Festival de Sablé in France, Utrecht Early Music Festival in the Netherlands and York Early Music Christmas Festival in the UK.

Their recordings achieved great critical acclaim, as their debut recording of Giovanni Stefano Carbonelli: Sonate da camera Nos. 1-6 was chosen as one of Presto Classical’s “Presto Recordings of the Year” for 2017. 2019 saw the release of two projects, the second volume of Carbonelli: Sonatas Nos. 7-12 and a world première recording of Giovanni Giornovich: London Concertos. 2021 brought two further releases – an album titled Pyrotechnia showcasing virtuosic violin concertos by Vivaldi, Tartini and Locatelli, and a collaboration with Marian Consort in a recording titled Adriatic Voyage that presents music by composers born on the Croatian coast in the 16th century. This recording won them another Presto Recording of the Year Award for that year. Subsequent recordings were the first ever complete recording of Johann Jakob Walther: Scherzi da Violino Solo, an album of Christmas instrumental music titled La Notte and two albums with the countertenor Barnaby Smith exploring the vocal works by JS Bach and GF Handel.