Formed in early 2001, the new london chamber ensemble (Lisa Nelsen – flute, Melanie Ragge – oboe, Neyire Ashworth – clarinet, Stephen Stirling – horn and Sarah Burnett – bassoon) came together as a result of a passionate love of performance and a mutual desire to communicate their musical energy. To this end they have undertaken theatrical training, performed works from memory, staged and choreographed both music and the spoken word and commissioned new music. Their programmes range from the finest centrepieces of the chamber music repertoire to fully staged theatrical works, all designed to entertain, provoke, surprise and enthral their audiences.

The members of the nlce are all very highly established professional musicians whose orchestral and chamber music experience includes: Endymion Ensemble; London Mozart Players; The Fibonacci Sequence; The Academy of St Martins; Scottish Chamber Orchestra; Chamber Orchestra of Europe; Cambridge New Music Players; and The City of London Chamber Ensemble. Between them, they work at some of Britain’s leading conservatoires and music schools, including the Royal Academy of Music, Trinity College, Wells Cathedral School, and the Purcell School of Music, and as a quintet they coach the National Youth Sinfonia.

The Ensemble’s mission to explore the theatrical and staging possibilities of performance has led to exciting collaborative work with a choreographer, inspiring several staged/semi-staged works in their repertoire, including Berio's Opus Number Zoo. It has also led them to commission new works, including two (Public/Private for Quintet and Metronome and Doublings and Couplings) from Edward Longstaff and a work by John Woolrich to be performed as part of the composer’s 50th birthday celebrations in 2003-4.

The quintet have given concerts in the UK and internationally including appearances at the Two Moors Festival with percussionist Adrian Spillet and narrators Prunella Scales & Timothy West, at Canada House, Forde Abbey and Whitstable Music Club. In August 2002, they undertook a Canadian tour incorporating concerts in the Pacific Rim Festival, a residency at Banff Centre for the Performing Arts and a concert at the International Double Reed Conference.

Future plans include concerts at the Swaledale Festival, a residency with East Sussex Youth Wind Orchestra, the opening concert of the Borenstein Festival at St. James’s, Piccadilly, and a series of concerts in the South East Arts region. The quintet has also been invited to return to Canada and to give a series of concerts in Moscow in 2004.

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