Ceruleo

Formed in 2014 at The Guildhall School of Music and Drama, Ceruleo create dramatic programmes using spoken text alongside music for two sopranos and continuo. Every member of the group performs as a soloist, and they use all available combinations of instruments and voices to create innovative and captivating performances. They specialise in the music of Restoration England and 17th-century Italy.

They released their first album, ‘Love Restor’d – Songs from Restoration England’, in December 2022 and throughout 2023 brought the programme to audiences around the UK, with concerts in London, at the York Early Music Christmas Festival, and from Exeter in the south up to Helensburgh in Scotland.

Their critically acclaimed second album, ‘Voices of Longing’, featuring the music of Barbara Strozzi, was released in 2024. They have subsequently performed the programme throughout the UK and look forward to more performances over the coming season.

Their staged show about Henry Purcell, written by Clare Norburn and directed by Thomas Guthrie, toured around the UK in 2018-20. ‘Burying the Dead’ was performed at Festivals including the Buxton International Festival, Lake District Summer Music, Brighton Early Music Festival, Ryedale Festival and Baroque at the Edge at LSO St Luke’s. They also created ‘Rival Queens’, an immersive operatic experience for Handel Hendrix House in London.

They were selected to be part of the prestigious Brighton Early Music Festival’s Live! Scheme and have given recitals at venues including St John's Smith Square, St Martin-in-the-Fields, Handel Hendrix House in London, the Courtauld Gallery and for the Newbury Spring Festival, the London Handel Festival, the Folkestone Literature Festival and live on BBC Radio 3's 'In Tune'.