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PAST CONCERTS AND BROADCASTS

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Swaledale Festival, 31/05/21
I loved your amazing show in Grinton! It's just so charming and wonderful and the sounds of the instruments are amazing. All so brilliant. It's such a beautifully conceived programme and the trumpet marines sound spine shimmeringly incredible.

Brighton Early Music Festival (BREMF@HOME), 30/10/21
Quirky, charming, interesting, educational. The Tromba Marina film was a delight.

Bogazici University, Istanbul, Turkey, 27/11/19
Thanks very much to all of you for the wonderful concert and amazing performance. The audience enjoyed the concert a lot! Your performance on stage was incredible; your energy was so high that the whole audience felt the same enthusiasm.


Shakespeare's Globe, 22/12/18 and 23/12/18
Had a fun, festive afternoon at #winterwassail @The_Globe this afternoon. Wonderful music by Society of Strange and Ancient Musical Instruments @SSAI13

Lakeside Arts Centre, Nottingham, 08/11/18
I don’t know very much about early music at all so to hear the instruments playing such a variety of repertoire was delightful.
Absolutely fascinating!

Brecon Baroque Festival, 21/10/18 Saw you in Brecon tonight. Blown away! You were all fabulous! Can’t wait to see you again.

St George's Bristol, 15/06/18
What an amazing performance, and you could have heard a pin drop. Fabulous.

BBC Radio 3, In Tune, 13/06/18
I really enjoyed your slot on in tune today! Thank you! I love your sound world and find the combination of nyckelharpa, harp and guitar really fascinating.

The Workshop, Lewes, 17/12/17
Thank you so much for a fabulous concert on Sunday. I felt so privileged to be listening to those beautiful sounds in that space. You are doing something that is truly original with your group

The National Centre for Early Music, 16/12/17
I loved every minute of it.

Little Missenden Festival, 15/12/17
Just a quick thanks to you, Benedicte and Jean for last night’s wonderful performance. Subtle and atmospheric at times; forceful, merry and energetic at others. Worked a treat in our magical environment.

The Samovar Tea House, Ely, 14/12/17
Just a few snaps from our wonderful Longest Night concert with The Society of Strange and Ancient Instruments. Thank you so much Clare, Jean and Benedicte. It was magical :)

The Colyer-Fergusson Hall, Kent University, 06/12/17
Strange, ancient, devilish and divine: huge thanks to @SSAI13 @claresalaman for a by turns atmospheric, dancing and celestial lunchtime concert to close our season this term!

Two Moors Festival, 18/10/17
I'm sitting in a church in Ashburton listening to the sublime sounds of the Society of Strange and Ancient Instruments…Riveting and beautiful… altogether, a properly good night out.

Cambridge, 07/10/17
It was well worth enduring the pouring rain to hear this lovely repertoire again in such an extraordinary setting.

Swansea International Festival, 05/10/17
Such an enchanting evening with @SSAI13 at the beautiful @The_Waterfront last night.
I now know what a trumpet marine looks and sounds like. Thanks to brilliant concert @SSAI13 @SwanseaFestMA


Shoreditch Town Hall, 07/07/17 - 08/07/17
Ledbury Poetry Festival, 30/06/17 - 01/07/17
It was an absolute pleasure and privilege to work with you on this project. The music was absolutely the spine of what we did, and the highlight for many. The image of you, Viv and Leah emerging from the mist in the Malvern Hills will be long imprinted on my memory, as will the wonderful song. Tom Chivers, Penned in the Margins

Swaledale Festival, 06/06/17
Thank you so much. You were brilliant!


Music in Lyddington, 20/5/17

Thanks for a wonderful concert. We very much enjoyed the show

Leamington Music, St Mary's Church, Warwick, 14/02/17
Thank you so much for your wonderful concert tonight. I enjoyed the instruments very much but also want to send a special 'thank you' to Terence Wilton for his performance of the beautiful words of Francis Bacon. It was a real pleasure to hear them spoken so well.

Spitalfields Music Winter Festival, 08/12/16
What a lovely event - so nice to see a large and enthusiastic crowd so engaged with your heady brew of ancient and modern. Fabulous players and I liked all the treatments through the lap top and PA. It's a fantastic room and I thought that added some magic too; whenever Francis loomed into view it was as if he'd been researching his latest theory and was compelled to share it with us.

Brighton Early Music Festival, 13/11/16
That was a glorious gig and a totally brilliant end to the festival. Apart from anything else it got me reading A New Atlantis, which is weird and wonderful.

BACHFEST, London, 08/11/16
A fascinating and refreshing evening.

Totnes Early Music Society, 03/11/16
It doesn't need me to say how much everybody enjoyed Nine Daies Wonder on Friday night, that much was apparent from the audience response at the end. I hope you all received the compliments which were flying around - there were of course many, many people who told me how much they enjoyed the show.

Millfield School, Somerset, 03/11/16
I hugely enjoyed your Will Kemp entertainment the other night. It was great fun and interesting to hear your unusual instruments being played so expertly. I heard very good reports from the audience and, despite the odd eyebrow being raised at some of the more bawdy moments, they found it refreshingly different.

The Stables, Milton Keynes, 02/11/16
A fabulously bonkers show!

Cambridge Early Music, 25/06/16
What a wonderful evening! For me, with a love both of Early Music and electro-acoustic music, this was a perfect fusion. Thanks!

Cottiers Chamber Project, Glasgow, 15/06/16
Really amazing show at @CottierChamber tonight w/@SSAI13. Very imaginative response to texts, conjuring incredibly vivid sound worlds!

Bury St Edmunds Festival, 24/05/16
Another triumph! I've spoken to a few people since who said how brilliant they thought it was. Nick Wells, Festival Director

Big Bang Festival, Athens, 22/05/16
I enjoyed that so much!

Royal Welsh College of Music and Drama, 02/03/16
What I enjoyed most was the seamless and tasteful mix of electronics and ‘ancient’. It was so well done, one hardly noticed what should have been an outrageous and sacrilegious breach of tradition and good judgement. Just the opposite, as it turned out. I think you have opened a most interesting musical door.

Frome Concerts Group, 06/12/15
Many, many congratulations on a really wonderful and interesting programme last night.

York Illuminating Festival, 30/10/15
The best early music concert I have ever gone to

Petworth Festival, 28/07/15
Musically… adorable!

Cheltenham Festival, 11/07/15
Thanks again for a brilliant show, which works fantastically on many, many levels - wonderful music

Lichfield Festival, 08/07/15
Thank you for a superb show on Thursday in Lichfield, we thoroughly enjoyed your first class entertainment.

Stour Music Festival, 21/06/15
We, and clearly the rest of the audience, enjoyed 9DW tremendously.

Gregynog Festival, 14/06/15
@SSAI13 Thanks so much again for everything. Lovely comments all day including some for whom it was a first-ever concert. #Moustaches rule!

Swaledale Festive, 28/05/15

@SSAI13 @SwaleFest @TheGTRoyal Your Nine Daies Wonder in Richmond was hilarious and brilliant. Thank you!
Tweeted by the BBC Music Magazine

Aldeburgh Music Open Session, 28/02/15

This was a wonderful performance; I hope to hear it recorded sometime...
Heard some beautiful musical sounds I can honestly say I have never heard before with @SSAI13 today at @aldeburghmusic thank you!

Keele Concert Society, 4/02/15

Absolutely brilliant show last night! Fantastic performances from everybody but so good to see a galliard danced as it should be!

Royal Northern College of Music, 16/12/14

Fabulous performance at the RNCM tonight. Wonderful music and outstanding dance!


Turner Sims Concert Hall, Southampton, 11/12/14

Saw this last night at Turner Sims. Amazing uplifting experience. This really brought the music to life, not to mention William Kemp!


Spitalfields Music Winter Festival, 10/12/14

Player’s dancing was sublime as he switched from serene galliard or graceful pavane to kickabout jig.

The Times 4 stars

Kent University Lunchtime Concert Series, 3/12/14

A magic concert today - you had us all entranced!

The long reach of history was felt in the Colyer-Fergusson concert-hall today, as the Society of Strange and Ancient Instruments wove ancient magic in the last of this term’s lunchtime concerts.
University Blog

St Andrews University Early Music Weekend, 22/11/14

A quite exceptional concert.

Brighton Early Music Festival, 7/11/14

Thank you so much for such a gorgeous evening! A real and genuine taste of the seamier side of Tudor England. You could see how much the audience enjoyed it so I hardly need to point that out! There wasn’t a dull moment. Deborah Roberts, Director of The Brighton Early Music Festival

The Georgian Concert Society, Edinburgh, 11/10/14

Thank you for the wonderful opening concert you gave for the Georgian Concert Society
Susan White, administrator

Beverley and East Riding Early Music Festival, 22/05/14

Thanks again for a great performance, knock out show! 
Delma Tomlin, Director, National Centre for Early Music

Bury St Edmunds Festival 21/05/14

I hardly stopped laughing throughout - a great thing - and the music was of course wonderful. Thank you

I just wanted to say a big thank you for bringing Nine Daies Wonder to Bury St Edmunds – I loved it and the incredible joy in the room was palpable.
Nick Wells, Director of The Bury Festival

Newbury Spring Festival, 13/05/14

Does it really take the guts of four sheep to make a bass string?
Absolutely thrilling concert, thank you. A privilege to hear live in an intimate setting.

Lakeside Arts Centre, Nottingham 24/04/14


My friend postured on the way home ' Do you think such amazing talent is innate or can it be learned?' I think you have put something very special together & it shows. I came away feeling inspired and enlivened.

Britten Studio, Snape Maltings 19/04/14

Had a riotous, fabulous, harmonious and beastly time at #ninedaieswonder @SSAI13 @aldeburghmusic

The Strange and Ancient ones head off now for one-night gigs till November, and it’s worth trying to catch them. You won’t find anything else quite like it. Libby Purves

University of Leeds International Concert Series 23/02/14

Fantastic concert at Leeds on Sunday, thanks very much!
The best concert I have ever been to.


St Catharine's College, Cambridge 25/10/13


Seriously wonderful
Beautiful, fabulous


Stour Festival 28/06/13

The throng of people around the stage, not really wanting to go home but full of questions about the instruments, tells you how much your concert was enjoyed!

Southwold Concert Series 25/05/13

We finally got to see you at Southwold on Saturday night, and the concert was hugely enjoyable – thank you all very much! As well as the superb music it was great hearing about each of the ‘strange’ instruments!

Hastings, St. Leonards 24/05/13

Went to your concert last night. Stunning and beautiful. You all compliment each other so well; some tracks were mesmerising. Thanks you very much. Best gig I have been to in a long time.

Oundle Festival 05/05/13

Oundle Music Trust would like to say a big THANK YOU to you all for a truly wonderful concert on Friday evening. And by judging the CD sales and comments from the audience it was enjoyed by all! Thank you!

Walthamstow 17/01/13

Great concert on Friday in Walthamstow. It was really amazing to hear that ancient ethereal sound.

BBC Radio 3 – The Early Music Show 23/12/12

Awesome stuff! early music is the new rock & roll!

Royal Northern College of Music 08/12/12

The concert brought back nostalgic memories of the 1970s, the great days of early music. Thank you.

Totnes Early Music Society 01/09/12

What a fantastic concert. Your playing was lovely.

Holmfirth Arts Festival 18/06/12

Absolutely spellbinding performance in Hepworth tonight.

The Idler 10/05/12

I so enjoyed your concert last night at The Idler. The music goes straight to the heart.

Frome, Rooks Lane Arts Centre 16/12/11
Thank you for the fabulous concert last night, I don’t think I have heard such an effusive use of superlatives following such an event before! They loved it, as did we all!
Promoter, Rook Lane Arts Centre

York Early Music Christmas Festival 06/12/12
We really loved your concert last night in York, it was a great way to end our 6 days at the Christmas Early Music Festival.

BBC Radio 3, In Tune 21/11/11
I heard you playing (for the first time) on radio 3 this week and I was captivated!