Amanda Babington & Baroque In The North
Biography Amanda Babington & Baroque In The North
Baroque In The North
is a Manchester-based performing arts charity specializing in 16th-18th century music played on period instruments.
Since 2018, they have been developing several strategies in line with their charitable aims of improving accessibility to and knowledge exchange via live music. Music in Schools gives access to and participation in live music-making for KS2 children. Come and Play! days are aimed at music teachers, amateurs, students and young people. And Baroque & Beyond is a project initiative that takes live music (and tea and cake!) to rural communities in the North West.
Baroque In The North's debut album, Music for French Kings, was released on the Deux-Elles label and featured on Radio 3's Early Music Show in October 2022. The album was awarded four stars in BBC Music Magazine's December issue.
Since their inception in 2003, Baroque In The North has worked closely with choirs and continues to collaborate regularly with several choirs in and around Manchester.
Across their programmes, Baroque In The North is committed to offering professional work experience and further training opportunities to early-career performers, most of whom have completed their education in the North West.
Amanda Babington
is a musette player, baroque violinist and recorder player, specialising in historically informed performance. Artistic Director of Baroque In The North, she has played and recorded with many of the leading British and European period-instrument ensembles, as well as with chamber ensembles AB24, Four’s Company, and Aberdeen Early Music Collective.
Amanda’s debut solo album, Music for French Kings (Deux-Elles, 2022), was well-received: she was described in the BBC Music Magazine (December 2022) as ‘an accomplished virtuoso who is exploring [the musette’s] extensive repertoire’ and was interviewed about her research on the musette for BBC Radio 3’s Early Music Show.
She also appears on several recordings with Les Talens Lyriques and Ex Cathedra, as well as a recording of newly edited and previously unrecorded music by Giovanni Ruggieri (Aberdeen Early Music Collective, Vox Regis label, 2018) and another of music by Gottfried Finger (Harmonious Society of Tickle Fiddle Gentlemen, Ramée label, 2019).
Amanda is a Senior Lecturer at the Royal Northern College of Music and Executive Officer for the Royal Musical Association. She has given masterclasses at various universities and conservatoires in the UK, and at the Jāzeps Vītols Latvian Academy of Music in Riga, as well as talks at Göttingen International Handel-Festival, The Foundling Museum, London, and Manchester Camerata.
Amanda has published various articles on Handel, and her edition for the Hallische Händel-Ausgabe of Handel’s Dettingen Te Deum and Dettingen Anthem was published by Bärenreiter in 2016. Her book, Handel’s Messiah: The Creative Process was published in 2024. She is currently researching Musette repertoire at the Stuart Court in exile in Rome.
