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2 August

Sunday, 2 August 2026
Music's measure
Zoe Brookshaw (soprano), Helen Roberts (director and cornett),
Aileen Henry (harp), Toby Carr (theorbo)

Cantate Domino: a taste of the early Italian Baroque

Join us for a programme of sacred and secular music from early seventeenth-century Italy performed by some of the UK’s leading historically informed musicians. Joyful devotional music meets anguished heartbreak in this emotional journey exploring repertoire from Claudio Monteverdi, Alessandro Grandi, Claudio Merulo, Lucrezia Orsini Vizana, Claudia Rusca and many more.

Zoë Brookshaw

Originally from Nottingham, soprano Zoë Brookshaw was a choral scholar at Trinity College, Cambridge, an apprentice in the Monteverdi Choir and a Rising Star of the Enlightenment with the OAE for their 2019-2021 season. Now an established soloist, notable performances include Bach Matthew Passion (Sir John Eliot Gardiner), Handel Israel in Egypt at the Royal Albert Hall BBC Proms (William Christie and the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment), ‘Aci’ in Handel Aci, Galatea e Polifemo with OAE, Mozart Exultate Jubilate with Noord Nederlands Orkest and Jos van Veldhoven, Bach John Passion at Wigmore Hall and Bach Fest Leipzig (Solomon’s Knot), Monteverdi Lamento Della Ninfa at Carnegie Hall (Gallicantus) and the title role in Handel Esther at Wigmore Hall (Solomon’s Knot). Opera credits include ‘Aerial Spirit’ in Opéra National de Lyon’s production of Purcell Indian Queen with Emmanuelle Haim, ‘Eurydice’ and ‘La Musica’ in Monteverdi Orfeo for Robert Hollingworth, ‘the statue’ in Rameau Pygmalion with John Butt and Dunedin Consort and soloist in Purcell Fairy Queen, King Arthur and Dido and Aeneas for Paul McCreesh. Other productions with Sir John Eliot Gardiner include Bizet Carmen, Weber Le Freyschuetz, Berlioz Benvenuto Cellini, and Gluck Ophée at Covent Garden. Uniting Zoë’s love of both concert and opera is her work with the unconducted baroque ensemble, Solomon’s Knot, “one of the UK’s most innovative and imaginative ensembles” (The Observer). With singers performing the music of Bach, Strozzi, Handel and others from memory, communicating and experiencing the music with the audience is at the heart of their ethos. Zoë has recorded Bach, Blow, Lennox and Michael Berkeley, Charpentier and Telemann on the Delphian, Hyperion, Resonus Classics, Signum Classics, Soli Deo Gloria, Sony, Prospero and CPO labels.

Helen Roberts

Helen Roberts first encountered the cornett during postgraduate research in musicology at Birmingham University. After initial studies with Jamie Savan, Helen went on to study at the Schola Cantorum, Basiliensis under Bruce Dickey, generously supported by Birmingham University's Centre for Early Music Performance and Research. Helen graduated from the Schola with a final concert programme exploring three centuries of cornetto performance practice, from the 15th-century Italian frottole repertoire to the large-scale sonatas of Johann Heinrich Schmelzer. Helen has continues to pursue research and editing interests, completing a PhD in 2019 examining the role of the cathedral wind band in seventeenth-century England. Helen is a founder of the innovative online publishing house Septenary Editions, which provides support to, and a platform for performer/editors working in the field of early music, and created Passaggi, the improvisation and ornamentation app for historical performers, released in 2020. Since 2022, Helen has worked as a Research Associate at Royal Birmingham Conservatoire developing creative digital platforms for historical performance research with a particular focus on the music of early modern Coventry.

Helen has performed and recorded with some of Europe's leading period ensembles, including the English Baroque Soloists, The Orchestra of the Sixteen, The Gonzaga Band, Concerto Scirocco, the Gabrieli Consort and Players, Gothenburg Baroque,and I Fagiolini. As a multi-instrumentalist Helen has worked on productions at Shakespeare's Globe Theatre, including Henry V on tour and in residence at the Globe and on Twelfth Night in the West End. Helen is a core member of His Majesty's Sagbutts and Cornetts, and now tours, records and performs regularly with the ensemble throughout the UK, Europe and the USA.

Aileen Henry

Aileen Henry is a Northern Irish harpist, now based in Oxfordshire, who specialises in historical performance. After gaining her BMus and MMus in performance at Trinity Laban with Gabriella Dall’Olio and Frances Kelly, she then studied historical harps with Mara Galassi at the Civica Scuola di Musica Claudio Abbado in Milan.

Both as a continuo player and as a soloist Aileen has worked with a large variety of organisations, from baroque opera with English Touring Opera to the music of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries with Sestina, Fieri Consort and many others.

With her husband, Toby Carr, Aileen has a harp and lute duo in which they explore the music of early baroque Italy.

Toby Carr

Lutenist and guitarist Toby Carr is known as a versatile and engaging artist, working with some of the finest musicians in the business. While studying the classical guitar at Trinity Laban he was introduced to historical plucked instruments, an interest he pursued during a postgraduate degree at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama, graduating in 2016, where he was welcomed back as a professor in 2021. Now in demand as a soloist, chamber musician and continuo player, his playing has been described as ‘sensuous and vivid’ (The Guardian), ‘Eloquent’ (BBC Music Magazine) and ‘Mesmerising’ (Opera Today).

Toby has performed with most of the principal period instrument ensembles in the UK and beyond, as well as with many symphony orchestras, opera companies and ballet companies. Highlights have included touring over a dozen shows around the country with English Touring Opera from 2016 - 2023, joining the orchestra of the Royal Opera House for Handel’s Jepthah in 2023, and performing at the BBC Proms 2022 with La Nuova Musica. He is a member of Ceruleo, Lux Musicae London and Ensemble Augelletti, works frequently with vocal groups Fieri Consort and Ensemble Pro Victoria, and has appeared on recordings with all of these groups.

Collaboration is at the heart of his work, from song recitals with singers such as Helen Charlston, Alexander Chance and Emma Kirkby, to unique projects such as De Pasión Mortal with tenor Nicholas Mulroy and lutenist Elizabeth Kenny, pairing modern Latin American songs with those of the 17th Century European tradition.

Performances have included the Ryedale, Lammermuir and Baroque at the Edge festivals, as well as Kings Place, London with Aurora Orchestra, and a recording was released on Linn in 2024, receiving a 5 star review in BBC Music Magazine. Other innovative partnerships have included with oud player Attab Haddad for a cross cultural concert organised by NW Live, as well as with pianist Christina McMaster for her ‘Lie down and listen’ series.

2022 saw the release of Battle Cry with Helen Charlston on Delphian Records, a recital featuring works by Monteverdi, Strozzi and Purcell alongside a newly commissioned song cycle for mezzo-soprano and theorbo by Owain Park, and works for theorbo by Kapsperger and de Visee. Battle Cry won a Gramophone award for best concept album and a BBC music magazine award for best vocal album, the only recording to receive both Gramophone and BBC music magazine awards that year.

Settled in Oxfordshire with his wife and collaborator, harpist Aileen Henry, Toby’s interests outside of music include reading, cooking and travelling, though when not working he generally tries to do as little as possible.

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