is led by ...

Joy Smith

Concert Harp, Arpa Doppia, Clarsach, Hammered Dulcimer & Psaltery

Joy was awarded a scholarship at the age of eight to study harp, flute, piano and harpsichord at Chethams School of Music in Manchester. During her time at school she was principal flautist of the National Children's Orchestra and semi-finalist in the International Audi Pianist of the Year competition. She went on to study English at Oxford University before winning a scholarship to attend the post-graduate harp course at Trinity College of Music, London, where she gained a first class diploma and the United Kingdom Harp Association Prize.

During her professional career Joy has played with groups such as the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra and the Belfast Opera as well as performing at festivals such as the Cheltenham International Music Festival, the Britten-Pears Festival and the Edinburgh Festival. She specialises in early music and recently toured with the Gabrielli Consort and Players, culminating in a Barbican Great Performers' Concert and a live Radio 3 recital.

Joy has played at such diverse occasions as the Proms at the Royal Albert Hall, a harp recital for HM the Queen, and at the Glastonbury Rock Festival with her electric harp. She has had her own jazz harp residency at London's Cafe de Paris and has made numerous appearances on television. She combines teaching with her busy performing schedule and is currently based in London.

Layil Barr

Recorders & Viol

Layil studied at the Jerusalem Rubin Academy of Music and Trinity College of Music, London with Philip Thorby. During this time she made broadcasts for the Jerusalem Music Centre and won several awards including the America-Israel Cultural Foundation Award, the Dorothy Stone Award and the TCM Silver Medal for Early Music. As a soloist Layil has performed with various orchestras including The Royal Artillery Orchestra and The Israeli Chamber Orchestra, and has toured the USA, China, Korea, Israel, Egypt, Italy, Spain, France, Ireland and the UK. Her chamber music activities include performances with La Concert Des Nations, under the direction of Jordi Savall.

During her studies at Trinity College of Music, Layil was introduced to the viol by Alison Crum. She also took lessons with Peter Wenland and Mark Levy.

Layil is a member of the early music ensembles Minerva and Siena, with whom she has performed in the Purcell Room, and made recordings of music by Salamone Rossi for the Classical Recording Company.

They are joined by:

Andres Ticino

Percussion

After studying Classical and Latin Percussion in Montevideo, Uruguay, Andres played with the Montevideo Philharmonic Orchestra. He was also a member of the contemporary music ensemble Perceum percussion quartet, touring Mexico, Argentina and Brazil. In 2001 he moved to London, where he plays the cajon flamenco with the Alma Flamenco Dance Company, with which he has toured in the UK and Ireland, performing in such venues as the Royal Albert Hall and Birmingham Hippodrome. He is also the percussionist with John Crawford's flamenco group.

Andres is a member of Guillermo Rozenthuler's Latin-American music trio, which has performed for the WOMAD Festival, the Thames Festival, and the Live Music Now! national scheme, as well as recording live performances for BBC Radio 3 and the World Service. He currently combines teaching, performing, and working with contemporary dancers at Roehampton University and the Greenwich Dance Agency.

Eligio Quinteiro

Theorbo, Lute and Early Guitars

Eligio Quinteiro was born in Las Palmas de Gran Canaria (Canary Islands). He studied classical guitar with Olímpiades García and Joaquín Prats, graduating in 1993. He studied lute and theorbo with Eugène Ferré in Toulouse (France), attending masterclasses with Paul O’Dette and Hopkinson Smith. In 1997 he moved to London to follow a postgraduate course in Early Music at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama. He is artistic director of the ensembles Capilla Cayrasco and Camerata Cayrasco, and is in great demand as a soloist and as an accompanist for recitals of baroque song (on theorbo) and romantic lied (on guitar). As a specialist in basso continuo, Eligio has performed and recorded with the leading early music ensembles in the UK and Spain. He has given masterclasses in chamber music, lute and guitar at the Royal College of Music (London), Real Conservatorio Superior de Música de Madrid and the Royal Welsh College of Music and Drama (Cardiff).  He made his stage debut at the age of 11, playing the snare drum in the “Toy Symphony” with the Orquesta Filarmónica de Gran Canaria.

Clare Norburn

Soprano

Clare has sung with a number of early music groups, including Eclipse, Mediva, Pastorella, The Troubadours and Vox Animae, with whom she has recorded Hildegard of Bingen’s music drama Ordo Virtutum. Her particular passion is for medieval music and, in particular, the troubadour repertoire. She has made a number of broadcasts on BBC Radios 3 and 4, including many appearances on In Tune, as well as Loose Ends, Woman’s Hour, Late Junction, Music Restor’d and The Early Music Show. Together with soprano Deborah Roberts, Clare is co-Artistic Director of the Brighton Early Music Festival.

Click here for more information about Clare.

Mor Karbasi

Flamenco & Ladino Singer

Described by London’s Jewish Chronicle as a purveyor of “Spine tingling Gypsy Music”, young London based Israeli singer Mor Karbasi sings in Ladino, Spanish, Hebrew and on rarer occasions, English. Fortune has brought her a wonderful singing voice and she puts it to most excellent use. Her performances are full of verve and her powerful voice is set to persuade audiences that Mor Karbasi can infect us with her very distinctive musical vision.

Her first album is due Autumn 2007 with special guests Trilok Gurtu, Kai Eckhardt and Ronu Majumdar sown together by Grammy Award winning producer Matt Howe.

Click here to visit Mor's website

Mariona Castells

Flamenco and Contemporary Dancer

Mariona was born in Barcelona and at the age of 10 joined the dance world. She studied ballet, contemporary dance and Spanish dance at the Institut del Teatre, Barcelona, doing her BA (Hons) in Dance and Choreography (Speciality Spanish Dance) between 1993 and 2001. She continued her studies with many other maestros in Madrid and Barcelona, such as Antonio Canales, Javier Latorre, Belen Maya, Mariquilla ... She also completed courses of interpretation with El Teatro de los Sentidos.

Mariona’s career in Spain has involved different flamenco dance companies and contemporary dance, such as Somorrostro Dansa Flamenca directed by Javier Latorre with Miguel Poveda’s music and voice, touring in Spain; Emilio Hernández, in performing in El Cairo Opera House, Egypt. 2000; Manolo Nuñez’s company in Scénic Barcelona, as a Resident Company show; among others.

Mariona also directs and performs in her own group of  Percussion and Flamenco Dance called Essència de Dansa i Percussió, established in 2004. In the UK she’s been performing with the contemporary dance company directed by Darren Johnston, touring Scotland, Holland, Ireland, Spain and Italy.

Mariona combines pure traditional Spanish style with the most cutting edge dance techniques. Her collaboration with Eclipse creates a fusion of Baroque Spanish Dance with modern Flamenco and Contemporary Dance, creating a unique and exciting dance form.

Click here for more information about Mariona

Natalia Garcia Huidobro

Flamenco and Contemporary Dancer

Natalia Garcia-Huidobro was born in 1975 in Santiago, Chile to a family with a strong theatrical tradition. She took to the stage at a young age, and aged fifteen she began her training in classical dance, modern dance and flamenco. From Chile, she moved to Mexico City from 1993-1996, where she continued to study contemporary dance with Xavier Francis and in the Mexican National Arts Centre; and flamenco in the academy of Mercedes Amaya, La Winy. While in Mexico she worked in the tablaos El Duende, Meson Triana, and Ole Sevilla and joined the contemporary dance company En Cruz, with whom she put on the shows Territorio Uno and Santa Fiesta.

In 1998 she travelled to Spain for a year, to study in the legendary flamenco academy Amor de Dios with the maestros La China and Alejandro Granados and additionally in Seville with Juana Amaya. During this time she choreographed and performed the solo piece Mi pieza para un abandono and danced in Miguel Cañas flamenco company in the work El quejio del silencio.

Returning to Chile in the year 2000, Natalia founded and directed the flamenco group Palo Santo along with the distinguished musicians Juan Antonio Sanchez and Jorge Bravo. With Palo Santo she created two flamenco shows of great cultural importance to Chile. The first of these: A Ras de Tierra, was put on in theatres and dance festivals throughout her native country and then went on to tour Mexico. The success of this work led Palo Santo to win a major financial award from the Chilean government: the Fondart (National Foundation for the Development of Arts and Culture). With this financing, Natalia and Palo Santo created Memorias del Viento – a show which toured Chile for an entire year to great acclaim. During this time Natalia also worked as a flamenco dance teacher in the Academia Albornoz.

Natalia was awarded a prestigious scholarship from the Chilean government to study in the Amor de Dios flamenco academy. Since then, she has lived in Madrid and developed her professional dancing and teaching career throughout Europe. She has studied with the major names of modern flamenco: Manuel Liñan, Rafaela Carrasco, La Tacha and Manuel Reyes amongst many others. She is a regular performer in tablaos in Madrid such as Cafe de Chinitas, Las Carboneras and El Corral de la Moreria and has run courses in Antonio Canales dance school in Madrid and in Minako Taketomi academy in Nagoya, Japan.

Click here to visit Natalia's website

Gabriela Rosa

Flamenco and Contemporary Dancer

Born in South Africa Gabriela began ballet at the age of 6 and started studying classical Greek and Spanish Dance shortly after, as well as various other forms of European national dance in which she developed an interest. While in South Africa, Gabriela performed and toured as a soloist with the Mercedes Molina Spanish Dance Company before going on to study Flamenco in Spain – both in Jerez and at the Amor de Dios dance studios in Madrid with some of the most respected Flamenco maestros.

 In the UK she has performed in a range of productions from tablao to theatre and television, including her own stage production in March 2005 titled "Journey in Dance", presented by Genesis Dance Theatre, of which she is co-founder and choreographer.

In her collaboration with Eclipse, Gabriela fuses the various dance forms in which she has trained (including traditional and modern flamenco dance and contemporary-flamenco fusions) in order to create a unique choreographic interpretation of the group's early Baroque Spanish music.

Click here to visit Gabriela's website