A Baroque Sunday Afternoon

A magical afternoon of luscious baroque music to tickle the ears and stir the soul.

Sam Ng - Cello

Laurence Cummings - Harpsichord

Kathryn Pogson - Actor/ Poetry

Kathryn Pogson

Kathryn's career covers many new plays at the Royal Court, including  GIRL in The Arbor, and Lemon in Aunt Dan and Lemon for which she was the first British actress to be awarded an OBIE, also a Drama Desk Award in New York.  Acclaimed West End productions include playing Ophelia in Hamlet and Lady Anne in Richard 3rd. She played Rowena in the controversial play Masterpieces by Sarah Daniels and The Lucky Chance for The Women's Playhouse Trust also at The Royal Court.  Other work includes leading roles for the RSC. Joint Stock. The Old Vic. Lyric Hammersmith. Bush. Arcola. Donmar Warehouse. Riverside Studios and with Ivo Van Hove at the Barbican on the  European/USA tour of Antigone. She recently played Violet Venables in Suddenly Last Summer in Frankfurt.

Television credits include We'll Meet Again, Vera, Happy Valley, Midsommer Murders and many more. She will be appearing in the next season of Professor T.

Film credits include. Brazil. The Company of Wolves. The Arbor. Pure. Millions. Maude.

Kathryn trained at Drama Centre and was the Director of Fordham University (NY) London Dramatic Academy.

You might also have seen her walking her dog Heathcliff around her home in Mayfield.

Laurence Cummings is one of Britain's most exciting and versatile exponents of historical performance both as a conductor and a harpsichord player. He is currently Music Director of the Academy of Ancient Music, Musical Director of the London Handel Festival and Music Director of Orquestra Barroca Casa da Música in Porto. He was Artistic Director of the Internationale Händel-Festpiele Göttingen from 2011 - 2021. A noted authority on Handel, the Guardian has written of him “he now ranks as one of the composer’s best advocates in the world. Self-effacing on the podium, faithful above all to the score, he matches Handel’s energy and invention with unmistakable lyricism, generosity and dignity.”

Frequently praised for his stylish and compelling performances in the opera house, his career has taken him across Europe where he has conducted productions at houses including Opernhaus Zurich (Belshazzar, King Arthur), Theater an der Wien (Saul), Gothenburg Opera (Orfeo ed Euridice, Giulio Cesare, Alcina and Idomeneo). Théâtre du Châtelet (Saul) and Opera de Lyon (Messiah). In the UK he has been a regular at English National Opera (Radamisto, L’Incoronazione di Poppea, Semele, Messiah, Orfeo and The Indian Queen), Glyndebourne Festival Opera (Saul, Giulio Cesare and The Fairy Queen) and Garsington Opera (Vivaldi cycle: L’Incoronazione di Dario, L’Olympiade and La Verita in Cimento, Orfeo), as well as conducting at the Royal Opera House’s Linbury Theatre (Berenice and Alceste), Opera North (L’Incoronazione di Poppea and Orfeo in a version for both western and Indian classical musicians), and for Opera GlassWorks (The Rake’s Progress).

Equally at home on the concert platform, he is regularly invited to conduct both period and modern instrument orchestras worldwide, including Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment, The English Concert, Handel and Haydn Society Boston, Croatian Baroque Orchestra, La Scintilla Zurich, Juilliard415, Zurich Chamber Orchestra, Musikcollegium Winterthur, St Paul Chamber Orchestra, Basel Chamber Orchestra, Wroclaw Baroque Orchestra, Scottish Chamber Orchestra, Washington National Symphony Orchestra, St Louis Symphony, Kansas City Symphony, Frankfurt Radio Symphony, Jerusalem Symphony and in the UK with Royal Northern Sinfonia, Hallé Orchestra, Bournemouth Symphony, Royal Liverpool Philharmonic, Ulster Orchestra and Royal Scottish National Orchestra.

His recordings include discs with Emma Kirkby and Royal Academy of Music on BIS, Angelika Kirschlager and the Basel Chamber Orchestra for Sony BMG, Maurice Steger and The English Concert for Harmonia Mundi and Ruby Hughes and the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment on Chandos, as well as a series of live opera and concert performances recorded at the Göttingen International Handel Festival and released on Accent. He has also released numerous solo harpsichord recital and chamber music recordings for Naxos.

As well as his regular commitments his future plans include productions for Royal Opera House Covent Garden, Theater Basel, Glyndebourne Festival Opera and at Dutch National Opera.

He was an organ scholar at Christ Church Oxford where he graduated with first class honours. Until 2012 he was Head of Historical Performance at the Royal Academy of Music which led to both baroque and classical orchestras forming part of the established curriculum. He is now the William Crotch Professor of Historical Performance.