Brighton Early Music Festival appoints co-directors

HANNAH ELY and OLWEN FOULKES have been announced as co-artistic directors of Brighton Early Music Festival.

A soprano specialising in Renaissance and Baroque music, Ely has performed internationally as a soloist and consort singer with ensembles including Collegium Vocale Gent, Vox Luminis and the OAE.  In 2012, she founded the Fieri Consort. She is currently half of the duo Accenti and a guest artist with the Monteverdi String Band. 

Ely has also worked as a choral coach in schools and was recently appointed music director of Purbeck Arts Week Festival.

Foulkes is a recorder player, curator and educator with a research focus on the early 18th-century London music scene. 

She performs with ensembles including the Academy of Ancient Music, London Handel Players and the Dunedin Consort, and founded chamber music group Ensemble Augelletti in 2019.

Foulkes is also assistant curator at Handel Hendrix House and an academic lecturer at the Royal Academy of Music.

MIRELLA MARLOW, chair of trustees, said: “We are delighted to welcome Hannah Ely and Olwen Foulkes as our new co-artistic directors. Their combined talents and innovative artistic vision will build on the festival’s reputation for excellence and accessibility. We can’t wait for our audiences to start enjoying events developed and curated by them.”