About
The Ensemble
The Florian Ensemble presents a unique vision of classical chamber music in which surprising historical evidence provides the inspiration to explore radically alternative ways of performing.
Described as ‘truly outstanding… entertainment and thought-provoking challenge’, the group’s expressive and engaging musicianship allows audiences to experience even the most familiar repertoire in brand new ways, while fostering a productive but critical attitude towards some of classical music’s most pivotal ideas.
The Florian Ensemble brings the modern craft of chamber music into contact with the now-familiar sound world of ‘period instrument’ practice — crucially, however, while embracing the evidence of recordings from the start of the twentieth century. The musicians have worked with acclaimed chamber ensembles across both ‘historical’ and ‘mainstream’ performance, including the Gildas, Elias and Consone Quartets, Manchester Collective, Propellor, the Jacquin Trio, K’antu Ensemble, the Lantivet Duo, and Phantasm viol consort. Members have also performed in groups such as Aurora Orchestra, Dunedin Consort, Gabrieli Consort, Hanover Band, Royal Northern Sinfonia, Britten Sinfonia, the Halle, BBCSSO, United Strings of Europe, Camerata Alma Viva, and many others.
The ensemble is closely connected to the academic research community, meaning their experimental and investigative work is in touch with the latest developments in contemporary performance. The ensemble’s playing was part of doctoral research completed in 2023, and pre-concert talks and other events bring those exciting new discoveries to life in accessible and musical ways. The main motivation of this research, however, is far from abstract: it is to find new ways of generating intensity of feeling, imagination, and communication in performance.
The group also runs a variety of projects beyond the concert stage, including Florian: Up Close — a chance to hear chamber music in small domestic settings; weekend chamber music courses; musical storytelling workshops with primary school children in Cornwall; and an innovative lecture recital exploring the idea of symmetry in music and nature.
“The Florians had the audience in the palms of their hands…”
— Donald Judge, Bollington Chamber Concerts
Performers
Kay Stephen
VIOLIN
Scottish violist and violinist Kay Stephen is passionate about ensemble playing in all of its forms, and loves the spontaneity and communication of making music with others.
As a chamber musician she has been a recipient of numerous awards including the Royal Overseas League Chamber Music Prize and the Audience Engagement Prize at the Franz Schubert and Modern Music Competition, Graz. She has been supported by the City Music Foundation, the Tunnell Trust and twice by the Park Lane Group, performing regularly at major UK venues including Manchester's Bridgewater Hall, the Wigmore Hall, the Cadogan Hall and frequently on BBC Radio 3.
Kay is a member of the Jacquin Trio alongside clarinettist Jessie Grimes and pianist Charis Hanning. The trio have performed all over the world, most recently touring New Zealand and making their debut at Manchester's Bridgewater Hall. She was violist with the award winning Gildas Quartet for nearly ten years, performing with them worldwide and recording for Champs Hill. Kay has also performed with ensembles such as the Consone, Elias, Navarra, and Edinburgh quartets, and the Manchester Collective, the Vonnegut Collective, Red Note Ensemble and the United Strings of Europe. Formerly co-principal viola with the Manchester Camerata, she appeared many times as principal and as soloist with the orchestra.
She has been invited as guest principal viola with the Amsterdam Baroque Orchestra, the Royal Scottish National Orchestra, the City of London Sinfonia, Camerata Alma Viva, as co-principal with the BBC Philharmonic and the Britten Sinfonia, and as a freelance player with the Academy of St Martin-in-the-Fields and the Aurora Orchestra. She also performs as violinist with orchestras such as the London Contemporary Orchestra, the Royal Northern Sinfonia, the Hallé and the Gabrieli Consort.
In 2020 she recorded works for piano quintet and sextet by Thomas Adès and Tullis Rennie with the Vonnegut Collective. The disc was described as: "Savagely elegant, approachable — and wholly satisfying," in BBC Music Magazine.
Through a long time musical collaboration with clarinettist and composer Jack McNeill, Kay joined twelve piece cross-genre ensemble, Propellor for their residency at Snape Maltings. The band has gone on to perform at some of the country's most prestigious music festivals, released their debut album, Loom, and contributed to the podcast, Flight, which also tours as a live show.
www.kaystephen.com
Joy Becker
VIOLIN
Joy Becker is a Manchester-based violinist, singer & songwriter. A graduate of Chetham’s School of Music and the Royal Northern College of Music, Joy is equally at home as a soloist, ensemble leader and band member. She has spent her career so far exploring and crossing genres, ultimately defining her own voice.
Alongside playing with the Florian Ensemble, she is guest leader of the Kaleidoscope Orchestra and a Principal member of Sinfonia Cymru, with whom she is she is leading and curating projects for the 2023-24 season. Following a Musician in Residence programme at the Banff Centre for Arts & Creativity, Canada, Joy co-produced her recent EP 'From Within' and also features on vocals, guitar, keys, violin and viola.
Joy enjoys combining her facets as a creative musician and bringing her ‘worlds’ together, from self-curated concerts to cross-genre collaborations and creative education workshops. She loves cooking, charity shops, wild swimming and board games.
www.joybeckermusic.com
Chris Terepin
CELLO
Chris Terepin is a versatile string player and musicologist. An unusual combination of modern cellist and viol player, his musicianship resists divisions between ‘early music’ and ‘mainstream performance’, in favour of imagination, experimentation, and collaboration.
He has worked with various period instrument ensembles including acclaimed viol consorts Phantasm and Fretwork, Figure Ensemble, Three Parts Vied, K’antu Ensemble, The Hanover Band, Liverpool Bach Collective, and Manchester Baroque. As a bass viol player he collaborates with harpsichordist Nathaniel Mander. Chris has appeared at Wigmore Hall, Bridgewater Hall, Cadogan Hall, Ronnie Scott’s Jazz Club, and many UK music societies, and has broadcast on BBC Radio 3, both live and on record. As a modern cellist - though on gut strings - he plays with the Fortescue Duo and Tresillian Trio, while freelancing with some orchestras including Suffolk Philharmonic Orchestra (as principal), Manchester Camerata, Outcry Ensemble, London Music Collective, and the London Musical Arts Orchestra. Recent solo appearances include concertos by William Walton and Gerald Finzi. He has also collaborated with the Gildas Quartet, the Lantivet Duo, jazz musicians Callum Au and Nigel Price, and singer-songwriter Sam Jefferson.
Chris grew up in the gently rolling hills of rural West Berkshire and read music at Magdalen College, Oxford before pursuing studies in cello at the Royal Northern College of Music, Manchester. He is now based in South London. His teachers included Raphael Wallfisch, Philip Higham, Laurence Dreyfus, and Jonathan Manson. He is a passionate coach of chamber music, and has taught at Benslow Music, as well as on regular courses run by the Florian Ensemble.
His PhD at King’s College London, (2023) was closely related to this interest in ensemble playing. Supervised by Prof. Daniel Leech-Wilkinson, it developed a radical perspective on the idea of musical ‘togetherness’ on the basis of fascinating evidence of early recorded string quartet playing.
www.christerepin.com