Rachel Podger, Brecon Baroque, Modestas Pitrenas
Biography Rachel Podger, Brecon Baroque, Modestas Pitrenas
Rachel Podger
“the unsurpassed British glory of the baroque violin” (The Times), has established herself as a leading interpreter of the Baroque and Classical music periods. She was the first woman to be awarded the prestigious Royal Academy of Music/Kohn Foundation Bach Prize in October 2015, Gramophone Artist of the Year 2018, and Ambassador for REMA’s Early Music Day 2020. A creative programmer, she is the founder and Artistic Director of Brecon Baroque Festival and her ensemble Brecon Baroque. Rachel is Patron for the Continuo Foundation.
Following an exciting and innovative new collaboration, A Guardian Angel, with the ‘impeccable’ (Gramophone) vocal ensemble VOCES8, Rachel was thrilled to be one of the Artists in Residence at the renowned Wigmore Hall throughout the 2019/2020 season. The series features Rachel in all-Bach performances as a soloist and with Brecon Baroque. Alongside this, Rachel and Christopher Glynn recorded the world premiere of three previously unfinished Mozart sonatas which were completed by Royal Academy of Music Professor Timothy Jones for release in March 2021.
Rachel featured in The VOCES8 Foundation’s LIVE From London festival in a new advent version of A Guardian Angel. She performed solo Bach for Gramophone Magazine’s Winners’ Digital Gala, appeared in Bitesize Proms, BOZAR at Home, Living Room Live, Baroque at the Edge, and a collaborative disc by Musicians For Musicians Many Voices on a Theme of Isolation. Rachel presented BBC Radio 3’s Inside Music and directed a new arrangement by Chad Kelly, The Goldberg Variations Reimagined. Upcoming engagements include recording a selection of Beethoven sonatas and performances of Mozart and Beethoven with Christopher Glynn, a return to Philharmonia Baroque and San Francisco Early Music, a Four Seasons collaboration with Academy of Ancient Music, and further performances of Bach Cello Suites, The Goldberg Variations Reimagined, and A Guardian Angel.
Rachel is a dedicated educator and holds an honorary position at both the Royal Academy of Music and the Royal Welsh College of Music and Drama. She also has a relationship with The Juilliard School in New York.
Brecon Baroque
The dynamic ensemble Brecon Baroque consists of an international line-up of world-class virtuosi in the period-instrument world. Together they specialise in one-to-a-part repertoire including Vivaldi, Biber, and Bach that brings them into the spotlight alongside their director Rachel Podger.
Highlights have included Wigmore Hall as part of Rachel Podger’s Artists in Residence in 19/20, Edinburgh International Festival, tours of continental Europe and Japan, and performances at their very own Brecon Baroque Festival which went virtual in 2020. Future engagements include performances and a recording of Chad Kelly’s new arrangement, The Goldberg Variations Reimagined, written especially for Rachel and Brecon Baroque.
Rachel and Brecon Baroque’s debut CD, Bach Violin Concertos, attracted universal critical acclaim and was quickly hailed as a benchmark recording of these works. The complete recording of Vivaldi L’Estro Armonico concertos won the 2016 BBC Music Magazine Concerto Award and Biber Rosary Sonatas won the 2016 Baroque Instrumental Gramophone Award. Additional disc releases include Bach Art of Fugue (2016), Grandissima Gravita (2017), and Vivaldi Le Quattro Stagioni (2018).
