The Nash Ensemble has built up a remarkable reputation as one of Britain’s finest and most adventurous chamber groups, and through the dedication of its founder and artistic director Amelia Freedman and the calibre of its players, has gained a similar reputation all over the world. The repertoire is vast, and the imaginative, innovative, and unusual programmes are as finely architectured as the beautiful Nash terraces in London from which the Group takes its name.
Not that the Nash Ensemble is classically restricted; it performs with equal sensitivity and musicality works from Haydn to the Avant Garde. Indeed, it is one of the major contributors towards the recognition and promotion of many leading composers. By the end of the 2009/10 season the group will have premiered around 258 new works, of which 148 have been especially commissioned, providing a legacy for generations to come.
An impressive collection of recordings illustrates the same varied and colourful combination of classical masterpieces, little-known neglected gems and important contemporary works. The Ensemble's British Composers series for Hyperion Records has received much acclaim: their CD of chamber works by Coleridge-Taylor was nominated for a BBC Music Magazine Award and was Editor's Choice in Gramophone. Recent releases include Beethoven's String Quintets, Mozart's piano quartets, Brahms's String Sextets and String Quintets, and Piano Quartets nos 1 and 3. Future recordings will include all of Mozart's String Quintets, Brahms's Piano Quartet No 2 and Clarinet Trio, and chamber works by David Matthews.
The Nash Ensemble makes many foreign tours; concerts have been given throughout Europe, the USA, South America, Australia and Japan. The Group are regular visitors to many music festivals and are heard on the radio, television, at the South Bank, the BBC Proms, at music clubs throughout the country and at Wigmore Hall, where their regular series have been enthusiastically received.
During the 2008/09 season the Nash presented a series at Wigmore Hall entitled 'From My Homeland. Smetana's violin and piano duo gave its name to the series featuring, in particular, the music of Dvorak, together with works by Dvorak's champion and friend Brahms. Other composers' works performed in the series included Suk, Janacek, Martinu and Smetana. The Ensemble commissioned David Matthews to make a new version of Dvorak's Love Songs for voice and string orchestra, which was sung by the eminent mezzosoprano Bernarda Fink on 14 March 2009. In March the Ensemble presented two contemporary music concerts: on 5 March the Group premiered works by Mark-Anthony Turnage, Julian Anderson, Huw Watkins and Michael Berkeley, and on 25 March celebrated Elliott Carter's 100th birthday.
The Nash's 2009/10 season at Wigmore Hall includes 75th birthday concerts for Peter Maxwell Davies and Harrison Birtwistle, with a new commission from each composer, as well as a Mendelssohn anniversary concert. A major series entitled "L'Invitation au Voyage" explores the music of France and Spain. Duparc's song L'invitation au voyage offers a journey to a land of "order and beauty, luxury, calm and delight". French composers such as Chabrier, Debussy and Ravel wrote some of the finest "Spanish" music while the Spaniards Granados, Falla and Turina all spent formative years in Paris. Outstanding singers join the Ensemble in a season-long festival.
The Nash tours throughout Europe and the USA: recent highlights include performances in the Berlin Konzerthaus, Musée d'Orsay (Paris), the Vienna Konzerthaus, Kennedy Center, Washington, Yale University and in New York and Boston, as well as residencies at Princeton University USA and the Lofoten Festival in Norway.
The Nash has received many accolades including The Edinburgh Festival Critics Award 'for general artistic excellence' and two Royal Philharmonic Society Awards in the chamber music category 'for the breadth of its taste and its immaculate performance of a wide range of music'.
The Nash Ensemble’s artistic director Amelia Freedman has received many honours including an FRAM and the MBE which was conferred upon her in 1989. In 1996 she was appointed Chevalier dans l'Ordre National du Mérite by the President of France for her services to French music. She has also been awarded the prestigious Leslie Boosey Award by the Performing Right Society and the Royal Philharmonic Society. Amelia Freedman was Head of Classical Music at the South Bank Centre from 1995 to 2006. She has been the Artistic Director of the Bath Mozartfest since 1995. In June 2006 she was awarded the CBE in the Queen's birthday honours for her services to music. This year she was awarded the Officier dans l'ordre des Arts et des lettres by the French Ministry of Culture, for her services to classical music.