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ABOUT NLCE

OUR STORY

 

Championing New Music

The ensemble's commitment to new music is evident through their regular commissions and frequent world premiere performances, featuring renowned composers like John Woolrich, Philip Cashian, Martin Butler and Ailís Ní Ríain, as well as arrangements from Julian Philips and Sally Beamish.

 

The Discography

Their discography, available on Spotify, showcases a rich collection of wind chamber music, including works by John Woolrich (Cabinet of Curiosities, Meridian, 2007) including a new commission written in celebration of his 50th birthday; Carl Nielsen (Music for Wind and Piano, Meridian, 2009) voted CD of the year by MusicWeb International, and including the first performance of the Wind Quintet from the New Carl Nielsen Edition; chamber works by Lennox Berkeley (Naxos, 2010) and Martin Butler (NMC 2016) including a new nonet Rondes d’Automne recorded with the Navarra Quartet and bassist Leon Bosch and settings of Roald Dahl’s Dirty Beasts recorded with pianist Michael Dussek and narrator Simon Callow.

 

In Recent Years

In 2021 they commissioned and recorded Revelling and Reckoning by Ailís Ní Ríain featuring percussionist Dame Evelyn Glennie; released by NMC (2023), the work forms part of the Ailís’ critically acclaimed debut album The Last Time I Died. In 2024, the NLCE will be working with pianist Antony Gray recording all of Malcolm Williamson's chamber music including several unpublished works as well as a new album of wind chamber music for PARMA records.

 

A Quintet with a Difference

The New London Chamber Ensemble (NLCE) is a wind quintet with a difference. One of Britain's leading chamber ensembles, for over two decades the NLCE has challenged traditional ideas of chamber music with their innovative programmes that seamlessly blend classic repertoire with semi-staged works incorporating drama, speech and action.

 

Having graced stages globally, the NLCE has left an indelible mark with notable appearances in diverse settings. Highlights include collaborations with pianist Angela Hewitt at the Trasimeno Festival (Perugia) and Wigmore Hall; collaborating with percussionist Dame Evelyn Glennie in the performance of two world premieres at the Lake District Summer Festival; performances for Courthouse Music in Sweden and the Banff Festival in Canada; the Two Moors Festival performing Walton’s Façade with Prunella Scales and Timothy West; collaborations with the Dante Quartet at the Swaledale Festival and Wigmore Hall; The Forge London with pianist Michael Dussek; Saint-Saëns’ Carnival of the Animals at the Leeds International Concert Season; King’s Place London with composer/pianist Martin Butler and premieres at the Cheltenham Festival in 2011 and 2014.

 

 

 

A Committment to Education

Recognized for their outstanding contributions to musical outreach and education, the NLCE served as Ensemble in Residence to the National Youth Chamber Orchestra (NYCO) of Great Britain for over a decade, and currently work with music colleges and schools providing masterclasses and collaborating on side-by-side projects. In 2012, they commissioned Philip Cashian's dectet Settala’s Machine, as a side-by-side project to be performed with young musicians; since its premier at the RWCMD in Cardiff, they have performed the dectet with students from the Purcell School of Music, NYCO, Royal Academy of Music (Cheltenham Festival, July 2014), Trinity College of Music and most recently with students at the junior departments of the Royal College and Royal Academy of Music.

 

To mark their 25th anniversary in 2025, the NLCE will be collaborating on a new album of wind and chamber music with composer Julian Philips and touring an exquisite programme of nonets alongside the Dante quartet.

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Years together
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Recordings
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Live Concerts
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Countries Visited
  • Brimful of character…each instrumental part is given a dramatic role and personality
    Andrew McGregor
    BBC Radio 3
  • All the players’ instincts are in the right place… first rate recording quality and documentation.
    David Fanning
    Gramophone
  • Winning charm and a strong sense of coherence.
    Stephen Johnson
    BBC Music Magazine
  • Each player in the ensemble is a virtuoso, but as a group they seem to have effortlessly acquired those essential chamber music skills of ‘give and take’, which would grace a long-established string quartet.
    Guy Woolfenden
    Composer & Conductor