logo .jpeg
 
“This is a group that will go far”
 
An excellent, beautiful performance!
— Bill Douglas, composer
What a fine group! They played brilliantly
— Rhian Samuel, Composer

The Tailleferre Ensemble is a UK-based chamber collective, founded in 2019 by Nicola Hands and Penelope Smith, whose aim is to promote women in music. The group is a chamber ensemble of flexible line-up and size, offering recitals of varied instrumentation and musical genre, including established, lesser-known and contemporary works. They have a special interest in redressing the balance of works performed by male and female composers, and in promoting new works.

The group perform regularly around the UK, and have recently played for the Nottingham Chamber Music Festival and at St. John's Smith Square. They have also played for Aylesbury Lunchtime Concerts, Music-at-Hill, Leatherhead Concert & Arts Society, at St. James Piccadilly, St. Martin’s Epsom, Chapel Royal Brighton and All Saints High Wycombe, and the group has also collaborated with Façade Ensemble and the South Florida Chamber Ensemble (SFCE) in London. In October 2019 they premiered work by Welsh composer Rhian Samuel, who has since dedicated new work to the ensemble.

In March 2020 they gave a special performance to mark International Women’s Day at Conway Hall, London, and in 2022 marked the day with a concert in Clerkenwell. Their debut album "There Are Things to be Said" was released in February 2023. Reviewers have praised the group's "superb musicianship" and "effortless" performance on the recording, and Textura magazine said "The beauty and precision of the musicians' playing and their sensitivity to dynamics all help to distinguish this exceptional debut."

The Tailleferre Ensemble offers flexibility in programming and instrumentation, and their members are female musicians of very high calibre with impressive individual biographies. As a group, they have been praised for their fine performances and “extensive palette of timbres”.

Tailleferre Ensemble are musicians in residence at St. John’s Church, Notting Hill.

For bookings or general enquiries, please click here or email tailleferre.ensemble@gmail.com.

Virtuoso passagework, lyrical song-like playing and an extensive palette of timbres
— Canossa Choral Music