From Handel's Tamerlano to Walther's Scherzi da violino solo to Lampe's Dragon of Wantley: The Continuo Foundation awards its first round of grants

The Continuo Foundation has announced its first round of grants to UK period-instrument ensembles, supporting 23 projects involving over 300 freelance musicians. Established in October 2020, Continuo was set up by former City director and classical music lover Tina Vadaneaux to support the community of period-instrument ensembles across the UK, many of whom haven’t played together since March 2020 due to the Covid-19 pandemic. 

This first round as was intended to disperse £100,000 in grants but received 65 applications with grant requests totalling £475,000. However generous donations during February 2021 have meant that this first round dispersed £150,000 in recognition both of the urgent need and the abundance of excellent applications. 

The ensembles span both the long-established and the more recently formed, with music ranging from medieval dance music of Joglaresa to the world premiere of Errolyn Wallen’s new opera Dido’s Ghost by the Dunedin Consort. 

Other highlights include 

• The English Concert recording Handel's Tamerlano at the Sage Gateshead
• Fretwork recording music by the Flemish composer Leonora Duarte, the only 17th century woman composer for viol consort
• Barnstorming, the Consone Quartet chamber music tour of beautiful old barns around the UK
• the Brook Street Band reviving John Frederick Lampe's The Dragon of Wantley
• The Illyria Consort recording Johann Jacob Walther's Scherzi da violino solo, Op.1
• London Handel Festival's Messiah Re-imagined project
• Boxwood & Brass' intriguing-sounding New Sounds for Old Winds project 

Full details from the Continuo Foundation website.

Update: apologies for managing to get entirely the wrong Handel for the English Concert's recording, they are of course giving us his opera Tamerlano rather than the oratorio  Theodora.