Jacqui Robertson-Wade studied cello and viola da gamba at Trinity College of Music, London. In 2002, she returned to Trinity College of Music with a scholarship to study the repertoire of the late viols, specialising in the smallest member of the viol family, the pardessus de viole. She established Rondo Publishing in 2005 with the publication of her first viol tutor, Viol Player, also published in French, which has received international critical acclaim.
A pioneer in the world of viol teaching for children, Jacqui started viol tuition in schools in 1998. With as many as 40 children learning the viol, she taught technique in group and individual lessons as well as consort sessions, on a weekly basis. Her viol syllabus equates the viol to other instruments and is based on the framework of the National Curriculum of England and Wales. In 2016 the Warwickshire County Youth Viol Consort ‘Gutted!’ was awarded the prestigious ‘Partnership Award’ in the National Festival of Music for Youth, enabling the group to have a workshop with Fretwork and to record a CD.
With viol player Alison Kinder, Jacqui founded Rondo Viol Academy in 2010. Together they coach students and give recitals; and recently Jacqui has published a series of consort books for Rondo Viol Academy linked to her Viol Player tutor books.
In 2017 Jacqui relocated to North Devon and continues to teach viols throughout the UK, for Rondo Viol Academy and Norvis summer school. Jacqui is also continuing to write further books of viol tutors and has recorded over 70 viol lessons on YouTube to accompany her tutor books. Viol Player on Line
She is an established performer and has worked for the Royal Shakespeare Company in Stratford-upon-Avon, as well with various other ensembles in the UK. Contemporary projects on viols include a collaboration with DC Fontana and the Know Escape and the world première of the Chantry Suite by Christopher Wood for the pardessus de viole.
“A beautifully judged account of Marais’ Folies d’Espagne, where the expressive potential of the bass viol was used to full effect.” Anders Östberg, Birmingham Post.
With her husband, Michael Williamson, Jacqui founded South West Baroque Orchestra in 2022, bringing baroque music, and especially concertos for viola da gamba, to audiences in the South West. She also performs with Artavian Baroque in North Devon. For previous concerts click here.
Peter Wendland, viol player and early music specialist, is an accomplished, versatile and sensitive performer on all instruments of the viol family from pardessus de viole to violone.
As a soloist he plays the viol repertoire from Ortiz to Abel. Contemporary projects have included a recording with the American cult composer “Moondog”.
As a performer of Bach, he has played the three celebrated sonatas for viola da gamba and harpsichord obbligato in the Bachhaus in Eisenach with Harald Hoeren and in the UK with David Roblou; he has also played the gamba solos from the Passions, and has performed and recorded the Art of the Fugue with the Koelner Violen Consort.
He is a longstanding member of the acclaimed Rose Consort of Viols, whose recent guest artists have included Emma Kirkby, Jacob Heringman, Jacob Lindberg, Catherine King and Timothy Roberts. In Germany he is a member of the Kölner Violen consort and has performed on radio, recorded CDs, created premières of new music for viols and collaborated with lutenist Konrad Junghänel, oboist Helmut Hucke and cornett player Friedemann Immer.
He has taught at Trinity College of Music in London as a visiting artist and at many summer schools and workshops throughout Europe, including Dartington International Summer School. He currently teaches regularly at Benslow music trust (Hitchin) and at several colleges in London.
He has coached and performed with early music ensembles ranging from viol consorts, choirs and recorder ensembles to renaissance wind bands.
His playing has been described as “Gambenmusik von ergreifender Schönheit” (viol music of soul-searching beauty) – by Westdeutsche Zeitung