The Myrthen Ensemble

The members are Mary Bevan (soprano), Clara Mouriz (mezzo-soprano), Nicky Spence (tenor), Marcus Farnsworth (baritone) and Joseph Middleton (piano). They've enjoyed performances at Snape Maltings, Wigmore Hall, Concertgebouw, the Musée d’Orsay, the Sintra International Festival, and the NOSPR Concert Hall in Katowice. In the UK they have performed for BBC Radio 3 from the Bath MozartFest, Leeds Lieder, Newbury Spring, Norwich and Norfolk, Wimbledon, Northern Aldborough and St Magnus festivals. The individual artists can be heard in the world’s finest opera houses, musical centres and on numerous award-winning recordings. Their debut CD, Songs to the Moon, was released in 2016 on the Signum label.

The group takes its name from the composition Robert Schumann wrote as a wedding present for his wife Clara in 1840. Myrtles have for centuries been seen as the German symbol of marriage and their modest form seems an apt image for the relationship between words and music, singer and pianist, imagination and sound and performer and audience. The vignette the group use to display their name has been designed using the ‘ornamental binding’ which Schumann’s original score carried. Delving into the treasure chest that makes up the canon of the song repertoire, The Myrthen Ensemble explores all areas of art-song through illuminating and thoughtful programming.