The Gesualdo Six & Owain Park
Biography The Gesualdo Six & Owain Park
The Gesualdo Six
is an award-winning British vocal ensemble comprising some of the UK’s finest consort singers, directed by Owain Park. Praised for imaginative programming and impeccable blend, the ensemble formed in 2014 for a performance of Gesualdo’s Tenebrae Responsories in Cambridge and has gone on to perform at numerous major festivals across the UK, Europe, North America, Australia and New Zealand. Notable highlights include a concert in the distinguished Deutschlandradio Debut Series, performances at Wigmore Hall (London) and Miller Theatre (New York), and collaborations with Fretwork, the Brodsky Quartet, London Mozart Players, Luxmuralis, William Barton and Matilda Lloyd.
The ensemble integrates educational work into its activities, regularly holding workshops for young musicians and composers. The Gesualdo Six has curated two Composition Competitions, with the 2019 edition attracting entries from over 300 composers around the world. The group has commissioned new works from Joanna Ward, Kerensa Briggs, Deborah Pritchard, Joanna Marsh, Shruthi Rajasekar and Richard Barnard, and coronasolfège for 6 by Héloïse Werner.
Videos of the ensemble performing a diverse selection of works filmed in Ely Cathedral have been watched by millions online. The group released its debut recording English Motets on Hyperion in 2018 to critical acclaim. This was followed by Christmas, a festive album of seasonal favourites; Fading, a collection of Compline-themed music; Josquin’s legacy, exploring pedagogy and patronage at courts in Renaissance Italy; Gesualdo’s Tenebrae Responsories for Maundy Thursday, inspired by the darkness and shadows of Holy Week; Lux aeterna, which illustrates musical responses to grief; and Byrd’s Mass for five voices.
Owain Park
was born in Bristol in 1993. As well as directing The Gesualdo Six, he maintains a busy schedule of conducting projects with ensembles including the London Mozart Players, Southbank Sinfonia, the Academy of Ancient Music and Capella Cracoviensis. Owain is Principal Guest Conductor of the BBC Singers and formerly Musical Director of Cambridge Chorale.
Owain’s compositions are published by Novello and have been performed internationally by ensembles including The Tallis Scholars and Aurora Orchestra. While at Cambridge University, he studied orchestration with John Rutter, before undertaking a master’s degree in composition. He is Composer-in-Residence for the London Choral Sinfonia, and was one of BBC Radio 3’s ‘31 under 31 Young Stars 2020’. An album of his compositions recorded by The Choir of Trinity College Cambridge was nominated for the 2019 BBC Music Magazine Awards. In 2020 the Epiphoni Consort released When Love speaks, an album of his secular choral works.
Owain is a Fellow of the Royal College of Organists (FRCO) and was awarded the Dixon Prize for Improvisation, having been Senior Organ Scholar at Wells Cathedral and Trinity College Cambridge. He was a Tenebrae Associate Artist for two seasons, and has worked with ensembles such as The Sixteen, the Gabrieli Consort and Polyphony.
