She is Artistic Director of Musica Donum Dei, a professional period-instrument ensemble and orchestra based in Nottingham. She has recorded two cds of Elizabethan music for The Gift of Music label (playing Renaissance flute, recorder and treble viol), and three with Musica Donum Dei : Ring a Ring O’; Roses, For the Love of Shakespeare and Gaudete: Music from Christmas Past (playing recorders, Baroque flute and tenor viol).

Wendy plays recorders by Anthony Arnold

Stewart McCoy (lute, theorbo, renaissance and baroque guitars, viola da gamba)

Stewart McCoy has a Diploma in lute teaching from the Royal College of Music, and a Master's degree in Historical Musicology from King's College, London. He has performed in Russia, the Baltic States, the Czech Republic, Australia and the USA. For a season he was lutenist for the Royal Shakespeare Company in Stratford, and has taken part in a recording of Christmas music with Emma Kirkby.

He is a regular tutor at the Norvis Summer School, and on courses run by the English Lute Society. He has contributed articles to Early Music and The Lute, and has edited music for the Viola da Gamba Society, the Lute Society, and Fretwork Editions. Stewart and Wendy have recently recorded two cds of Elizabethan music for The Gift of Music label.

Ian Gammie (viola da gamba, renaissance and baroque guitars)

Ian enjoys a wide ranging career in music, as a performer on viola da gamba and violone, also as a guitarist, teacher and publisher. He has toured throughout Europe and North America, and recorded with the Early Music Consort directed by David Munrow, the Deller Consort under the direction of Alfred Deller, I Solisti Veneti with Claudio Scimone, The Consort of Musicke, The English Consort of Viols, The Parley of Instruments, and Opera Restor'd.

His recent work has included the compilation of a catalogue of music belonging to Jane Austen, which has led to three recordings of Georgian domestic music on the ISIS label, and also two CDs of 19th century guitar songs. He is director of Corda Music Publications which specialises in publishing string works of the 16th-18th century, as well as 20th-century music. He has published more than 100 works for guitar ensembles, a major contribution to broadening the use of the guitar in music education. For relaxation, he plays jazz guitar and researches the more obscure corners of 17th and 18th century history.

Galliarda is often joined by one of the following singers:

Sara Stowe (soprano)

Sara Stowe was awarded a Foundation Scholarship to study piano and harpsichord at the Royal College of Music where she won the Raymond Russell and Harpsichord Continuo prizes. She went on to win a British Council Bursary to study singing in Italy and completed her vocal studies with Peter Harrison in London.

She has made several tours for the British Council and for the Early Music Network and has appeared at major contemporary and early music festivals including Darmstadt, Bath, Spitalfields International Festivals, Xenakis

Festival-Greece, Berio Festival-Vienna, Beverley, Bruges and Utrecht Early Music Festivals. Musicians she has performed with include Sirinu, the Academy of Ancient Music, New London Consort, Musicus Concentus & Luciano Berio, James Wood and Matthew Spring. She has recorded for the BBC and for Hyperion and Chandos. Her recordings for the Gift of Music can be heard in stately homes, galleries and museums world-wide.

Christine Jones (mezzo-soprano)

Christine Jones was brought up in Nottinghamshire, and sang with Cantamus Girls Choir from 1986 to 1991. She attended Nottingham University where she gained a first in Music, and she then worked as advisory teacher for The Voices Foundation in London and the home counties.

Christine was assistant director with both Surrey and Hampshire county youth choirs. In 2003 she returned to Nottinghamshire to take up the post of singing teacher at the High School for Girls in Nottingham, and she now lives in the area with her husband and young daughter.

Michael Sanderson (baritone)

Michael Sanderson graduated in music from Nottingham University in 1986. After three years singing as a lay-clerk at St. George’s Chapel Windsor, he sang as a soloist with the baroque opera company Opera Restor’d. He performed with the company at the Edinburgh, Leeds and Utrecht Early Music Festivals, and recorded the CD of Lampe’s opera Pyramus and Thisbe. Michael now performs with several chamber groups specialising in the early music repertoire, which include Musica Donum Dei and Café Mozart. Last year, he began a project with the guitarist Ian Gammie to record the classical repertoire for voice and guitar. The first CD is of the songs of the Irishman Thomas Moore. Michael combines his singing career with the part-time post of Head of Student Music at Brunel University. His series of song recitals there have included German Lieder as well as programmes of French, American and English song.

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This page last updated 11 August 2009