Inventions:
the harpsichord across time and borders
A new project has been added to the Theorbo Today stable: Inventions, the Harpsichord across Time and Borders. Thid is an ambitious collaborative project which took place throughout 2025 and 2026 in England, Wales, Ireland and Scotland to produce new commissions alongside unusual historical harpsichord repertoire, championing regional composers and focusing on female composers.
Sopriola Commissions
Janet Oates (Theorbo Today project leader) and Yu Hng Ng, who wrote for Theorbo Today part 2, have been commissioned by Sopriola to write works for 2024, as part of their new concert tour, ending at the 2024 Viola d'amore Congress in Palermo. Sopriola is an unusual duo of soprano (Rachel Godshill) and viola d'amore (Rachel Stott) - a beautiful cousin of the viol with sympathetic resonating strings, popular in the baroque period.
Performance dates will be posted here.
New YouTube channel
Theorbo Today now has its own video channel on YouTube - link below. We'll be adding new recordings as they are created, and linking to recordings of interest. If you'd like us to share one of your videos (of relevant contemporary music for theorbo or lute, early ensemble or similar) then contact us!
article in the NEMA newsletter
The National Early Music Association puts out two newsletters each year. The spring 2022 edition has now been produced, though owing to technical difficulties it won't be on their website for a month or two. But I've read it all and there is a wealth of fascinating articles in it, including a lovely big article on the Theorbo Today project, which will hopefully reach many performers and enthusiasts of early instruments!
Composer news
Janet Oates wrote a piece for harpsichord and toy piano, 'The Patchwork Personality', which has been performed several times by Yonit Kosovske and Xenia Pistova-Bennett.
Janet was also commissioned by Katarzyna Kowalik as part of the Anglo-Polish project 'Meditations for Harpsichord', with 8 commissioned composers across the two countries writing for and about meditation for the solo harpsichord. A published book and many concerts to come! Click here for more information
related repertoire
We've published a new page on this site to showcase repertoire that, though not written specifically for our project, is relevant to it: new music for historical instruments. Visit the site here to see pieces by project composers and other colleagues. Contact us if you'd like to have your piece linked on our website!
We're working with lutenist Ryan Closs to entabulate several scores from the first stage of Theorbo Today.
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It's an interesting challenge to incorporate the contemporary elements and complexities - the drafts are looking great! Contact us if you're interested in seeing these new pieces in tablature format.
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Below - extract of the draft entabulation (by Ryan Closs) of Peter Openshaw's An Even Sadder Pavane
scores in French tablature
