An enchanting evening of music from Italy, England, Ireland, France and Spain from the 16th and 17th centuries. Ravishing lute songs and solo works for lute and baroque guitar by Dowland, Kapsberger, Guédron, Corbetta, Marini, Caccini and Merula.
Fiona Stuart-Wilson (soprano) read Music at Selwyn College, Cambridge, where she specialised in music of the renaissance period, and studied singing at Trinity College of Music. Over the years she has performed with many vocal ensembles in the UK and her solo concert career has seen her on many of the major London concert platforms as well as festivals in France, Italy and Spain. She has appeared on BBC and commercial TV, in broadcasts on BBC Radio 3 and in a number of recordings. In 2014 she co-founded The Archduke’s Consort, an early music group based in Mallorca with Spanish and English musicians. Their CD ‘Mr Dowland and his travels’ is due to be released shortly.
Stefano Rocco (archlute / baroque guitar) studied renaissance lute at the Verona Music Conservatory and graduated in Musicology from the University of Bologna. Over the years he has performed with numerous ensembles including Accordone, Barocchisti di Lugano, Orchestra Barocca di Bologna and Accademia degli Astrusi. He has participated in the major festivals of early music throughout Italy and Europe, as well as in New York, Cartegena, Mexico City, Montreal, Tokyo and Jerusalem. He has made broadcast recordings for ARTE, BBC, Radio della Svizzera Italiana, ORF (Radio Österreich), Deutschlandfunk, Radio Belga, Espace 2 (Suisse Romande) and RAI. He has recorded with Sky Classica, Alpha, Sony Classica, Opus 111, Arcana, EMI/Virgin, Cypres, Tactus and Bongiovanni.