The London Handel Players

Praised by the New York Times for their “soulful depth” and their “consummate skill and musicianship”, The London Handel Players captivate audiences across the world with their performances and recordings. Established in 2000, the Players appear regularly at leading venues and festivals in the UK, Europe and North America, performing baroque chamber music and concertos and collaborating with the world’s leading singers.

The ensemble has performed across North America, making their New York debut at the Frick Museum in 2012 and returning to perform at Carnegie Hall in 2014. Concerts have included performances at Wigmore Hall, Internationale Händel-Festpiele Göttingen, Halle International Handel Festival, East Cork Early Music Festival and in Spain, Ireland, Germany and Croatia. Committed educators at every level and holding professorships in early music at London’s Conservatoires, The London Handel Players give numerous masterclasses and workshops.

The 2021/22 season sees them return twice to Wigmore Hall with Bach secular cantata programmes as well as to the London Handel and Tilford Bach Festivals. They will be taking the complete Bach Brandenburg Concertos to Sligo, Ireland and further concerto programme to Wells and Canterbury and there are plans to return to Canada in the summer. Adrian Butterfield and Silas Wollston will be recording Bach’s sonatas for keyboard and violin in the Spring for Somm Records.

Their highly acclaimed discography includes four discs of Handel chamber music; his two sets of trio sonatas Op.2 and Op.5, his complete works for solo violin and a disc entitled ‘Handel at Home’. They have also recorded Geminiani’s complete Op.1 sonatas and a two-disc set of JS Bach’s flute sonatas interspersed with some flute arias from his cantatas sung by Elizabeth Cragg, Charles Daniels and Peter Harvey. Future releases include a disc of Vivaldi flute and recorder concertos.

Adrian Butterfield

Adrian is a violinist, director and conductor who specialises in performing music from 1600-1900 on period instruments. He is Musical Director of the Tilford Bach Festival and Associate Director of the London Handel Festival and regularly directs the London Handel Orchestra and London Handel Players as well as working as a guest soloist and director in Europe and North America. He has also led The Revolutionary Drawing Room for over 25 years.

The London Handel Players perform regularly at Wigmore Hall and throughout Europe and North America and made their debut at Carnegie Hall in 2014. Adrian’s world premiere complete recordings of Leclair’s first two Books of violin sonatas were released in 2009 and 2013 on Naxos Records and Book 3 is being released on 3 discs in 2022.

He is Professor of Baroque Violin at the Royal College of Music in London, gives masterclasses in Europe and North America and has taught at Dartington and Pro Corda Baroque. He also directs an annual baroque project with the Southbank Sinfonia.

He has conducted all the major choral works of Bach as well as numerous works by Handel and his contemporaries and directed ensembles such as the Croatian Baroque Ensemble in Zagreb, the Malta Philharmonic Orchestra and the London Mozart Players.

Plans for the 2021/22 season include conducting Messiah with the London Mozart Players, directing Bach cantatas at Wigmore Hall and the St. Matthew Passion at the Tilford Bach Festival as well as Handel and Vivaldi in the London Handel Festival. He will also be directing Bach’s complete Brandenburg Concertos with the London Handel Players and recording Bach’s sonatas for harpsichord and violin with Silas Wollston for Somm Records.