Hazel Brooks - violin, viola d'amore

Hazel studied languages at Clare College, Cambridge. After graduation she went on to study the violin at the Hochschule für Musik und Theater in Leipzig, and the Guildhall School of Music and Drama in London, where she specialised in early music. Here she won the Christopher Kite Memorial Prize and the Bankers Trust Pyramid Award, and she was a finalist in the international competitions in York and Antwerp.

As a baroque violinist, Hazel now works principally as a recitalist and in chamber ensembles such as the Brook Street Band, Fiori Musicali and the Sweelinck Ensemble. Recital venues have ranged from the South Bank Centre in London to the Barcelona Early Music Festival. Hazel is frequently asked to lead orchestras and enjoys appearing as a concerto soloist.

Hazel also has an interest in unusual instruments and her recitals often include the viola d'amore. She is much in demand as a medieval-fiddle specialist throughout Europe and America, and has released recordings with the Boston Camerata, USA (Warner Classics) and duo Trobairitz (Hyperion). She is currently involved in a fascinating project combining Western and Moroccan musicians.

'flexible and virtuosic' - Boston Herald, USA

'impressive solo from Hazel Brooks' - Early Music Review

'Hazel Brooks is an admirable stylist, phrasing in a pleasing and natural way.
This was truly music to ravish the ear.' - Petersfield Post

'A huge range of styles, tones and moods' - Richmond Times

'Hazel Brooks was especially captivating' - Boston Globe

'Hazel Brooks's beautiful tone fills the room like an organ.' - Delftsche Courant, Netherlands

David Pollock - harpsichord

David specialized in the harpsichord at the Royal Academy of Music where he won the Croft Early Music First Prize. Since then he has appeared at such venues as the Purcell Room and St John's Smith Square London, St George's Bristol and St. David's Hall Cardiff. David has given critically acclaimed recitals at the Fairfield Halls Croydon and has performed in international music festivals in Great Britain and abroad. In demand as a concerto soloist, he recently performed the complete harpsichord concertos of JS Bach.

An interest in new music has led to composers writing specially for David. He gave the premiere of a large-scale work Seven Mimicries for Solo Harpsichord (1996) by Gavin Stevens at The Chichester Festivities, and Colin Hand has composed Five Portraits for the Virginal (2008). Other composers are currently preparing pieces for David’s project of establishing a 21st century ‘Virginals Booke'.

Solo CDs are The French Harpsichord and O Mistris Myne:150 years of English virginals music on the London Independent Records label. He has a musical partnership with the guitarist Mark Ashford and is harpsichordist with The Parnassian Ensemble whose first CD A Noble Entertainment - Music from Queen Anne's London was released in 2006 on the Avie label.

'David Pollock plays with taste, poetry and richness...prodigious keyboard skill...
...very effective continuo playing' - The Recorder Magazine

'infectious cheer' - Early Music Review

'Pollock's account of Royer's Scythian March is a tour de force' - Musical Pointers

'an assured sense of style and commitment' - The Scotsman

'a remarkable technique' - The Croydon Advertiser

'a stylish and accurate performer...a real maturity in the French music' - The Chichester Observer