ABOUT US
The TFG (as we say) was founded in 2006 in London by a group of leading players in London's early-music scene with the core goal of devoting ourselves to overlooked repertoire. It started slowly, with a few concerts in London and Liverpool, but since then have recorded five critically-acclaimed CDs and performed at many of Europe's most prestigious festivals and also on radio broadcasts.
'Fleet footed' — The Observer
'Purveyors of uplifting and exhilarating music' — BBC Radio 3
'A star-studded ensemble' BR Klassik
The Harmonious Society of Tickle-Fiddle Gentlemen is built around a core group of leading players. The ones you probably heard on CD or in concerts (though almost certainly not all at once!) are usually:
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Violins: Tassilo Erhardt, Ben Samson, Elly Harrison, Simone Pirri, Dominika Fehér, Amanda Babington (also to be heard playing the recorder), Sarah Deborah, Ellen O'Day
Viola: Joanne Miller, Alexandria Lawrence
Cello: Kinga Gaborjani (sometimes Henrik Persson)
Double bass/bass viol: Robert Rawson
Oboes/recorders: Mark Baigent, Leo Duarte (also don't miss his traverso solo in Venus and Adonis!), Cait Walker
Bassoon: Sally Holman/Nat Harrison
Trumpets: Will Russel, Russel Gilmour
Horns: Anneke Scott, Kate Goldsmith
Harpsichord/organ: David Wright
'Among the world's finest', BachTrack
About the name…
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Of all the colourful characters in London around the end of the 17th- and into the 18th century, few can compare with Thomas Britton, ‘the musical small-coal man’ who in 1678 started organising concerts in the loft above his coal shop in Clerkenwell (London). The poet Ned Ward described them as a 'Harmonious Society of Tickle-Fiddle Gentlemen'. We could not resist! The first concerts were held in a tiny room at the top of the house – only accessed by a ladder from outside. According to Ward, the room was lit by a window ‘no bigger than the bung-hole of a cask’. Eventually Britton moved the concerts a slightly larger room next door in the hope, according to Ward, that ‘the company might not stew in the Summer-time like sweaty dancers at a Buttock ball’. The concerts became the talk of the town and even rivalled the Kit-Kat Club as the place to be. The concerts were frequented by an amazing cross-section of society, Handel and Pepusch were both performers and attendees even included the likes of the Duchess of Queensbury.
ROBERT RAWSON completed his Bachelor of Music at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor where he studied the double bass with Stuart Sankey and the viola da gamba with Enid Sutherland, which he also later studied with Sarah Cunningham in London. In 2002 he earned his PhD from Royal Holloway. He performs and records throughout Europe as a bass violist and double bassist and director/conductor. The focus of his work with The Harmonious Society of Tickle-Fiddle Gentlemen is to combine scholarship with performing. He is a former research fellow in music at both Oxford and Cambridge University and is currently Professor of HIP and Musicology at Canterbury Christ Church University.
TASSILO ERHARDT studied baroque violin with Ryo Terakado and Enrico Gatti at the Royal Conservatory in The Hague and with Pavlo Besnoziuk in London. He gradu- ated in Musicology from Utrecht University and in Theology from Oxford University's St. Benet's Hall. As a violinist he has worked for a number of world-renowned baroque orchestras, including The Academy of Ancient Music, The King's Consort and The Parley of Instruments. His chamber-music ensemble Apollo & Pan has performed regularly at renowned early music festivals and has made numerous radio and CD recordings.
DAVID WRIGHT graduated with distinction from the Royal College of Music, where he won the Richard III and the Century Fund Prizes and whilst still a student there he also won The Broadwood Harpsichord Competition, held bi-annually at London’s Fenton House, where he subsequently became artist-in-residence. David works regularly with some of the worlds leading ensembles and musicians and has directed concerts from the keyboard, As a soloist, David has performed concertos with a number of baroque and modern orchestras; in his pare time he tours the world extensively with the ever-popular group Red Priest.
KINGA GÁBORJÁNI gained her Bachelor of Music degree in Budapest in her native Hungary in 1999. She completed her postgraduate degree at the Royal Academy of Mu- sic in London with distinction in 2007, where she studied the baroque cello with Jen- nifer Ward Clarke and the viola da gamba with Richard Campbell. She has performed with many of Europe's finest baroque ensembles, including the Amsterdam Baroque Orchestra, the Gabrieli Consort and Players, Dunedin Consort and Players, The English Concert, Ex Cathedra, Feinstein Ensemble, the Hanover Band, the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment.
MARK BAIGENT specialises in music from baroque to modern using period instruments. He regularly records, performs and broadcasts throughout Europe with leading period instrument orchestras including Orchestre Révolutionnaire et Romantique, English Baroque Soloists, Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment, The King’s Consort and Classical Opera. As a chamber musician he has premiered and recorded new works with his oboe trio Pipers 3, and with his ensemble Charme du Hautbois explores 19th- and early 20th-century repertoire; in 2017 Mark released a CD of chamber music for oboe by Rutland Boughton.
SALLY HOLMAN studied bassoon at the Royal Northern College of Music in Man- chester. In 1996 she was granted a Countess of Munster award to study baroque and classical bassoon with Donna Agrell in The Hague, The Netherlands. Sally now per- forms with many of the leading period instrument ensembles in England and Holland and is equally in demand as a soloist and chamber musician. Sally is a founder member of the trio Apollo & Pan, Winner of the 2001 International Early Music Network Young Artists' Competition. Sally is a regular with baroque ensembles across Europe, including the AAM.
BEN SANSOM completed an MA Degree in Architecture at the Royal College of Art before crossing Kensington Gore to study Baroque Violin at the Royal College of Music with Catherine Mackintosh and Andrew Manze. Since then his playing has taken him all over the world (Australia, Canada, Venezuela) with many of the leading period-instrument orchestras (Gabrieli Players, Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment, Sonnerie) and exciting new chamber groups (Apollo & Pan, Arte Resoluta, Denner Ensemble). Ben has broadcast as a soloist on BBC Radio 3 and France Musique, and recorded with many of the UK's leading early-music groups.
JOANNE MILLER completed her undergraduate degree at the Royal Scottish Academy of Music and Drama before moving to London to study Historical Performance at the Royal Academy of Music.She has performed with the Academy of Ancient Music, Dunedin Consort, New London Consort and with a number of groups as principal viola including the European Union Baroque Orchestra, Armonico Consort, English Touring Opera, Longborough Opera, Solomon’s Knot, Oxford Baroque and St James’ Baroque. Joanne has also contributed to numerous CD recordings and has appeared live on BBC radio, on television, and at the Proms.
