The English Cornett & Sackbut Ensemble

2025 FESTIVAL | June 8–15, 2025

Songs without words: Music of Palestrina, Victoria, Grandi, Giovanni Gabrieli, and Merulo

Now in their 32nd year, the exceptional musicians of The English Cornett & Sackbut Ensemble make their much-anticipated BEMF début at the 2025 Festival. In addition to regular recitals, these Gramophone Award–winning performers are in high demand for collaborations with such powerhouse vocal groups as I Fagiolini, The Tallis Scholars, Alamire, and many others. Enjoy a program of music perfectly suited to the unique sounds of cornetts and sackbuts with the sensuous love poetry of the Song of Songs in settings by Palestrina, Victoria, and Grandi alongside instrumental canzonas and sonatas by Giovanni Gabrieli and Merulo.

I could listen all day to the wonderfully evocative sounds of the wind instruments played with such musicality and sparkling virtuosity.

—Early Music Review

ARTISTS

Doron David Sherwin & Conor Hastings, cornett; Emily White, Tom Lees & Adrian France, sackbut; Nicholas Perry, tenor cornett & dulcian; Silas Wollston, organ