EUBO cellos and double bass

Carina Drury, Ireland

Cello

Cellist Carina grew up in Dublin. She was awarded a scholarship to the Royal Academy of Music in London in 2003, where she studied with Philip Sheppard and baroque cello with Jonathan Manson. As a chamber musician she has twice won the Royal Academy of Music Early Music Prize for ensembles, and was awarded a residency at the Cheltenham Music Festival. More recently she has performed with the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment (OAE) on the Experience scheme, and has worked on numerous education and outreach projects with the OAE, Sinfonia Viva, Glyndebourne Opera and Cheltenham Festival. Carina enjoys a diverse musical career and was a member of Sunharbour, a fourteen piece ambient jazz collective, performing at the Virgin Media Awards. She has worked with Matthew Robins and his band at the Royal National Theatre, and also in London and Paris in an improvisational Opera project with the Elastic Theatre Company.

Anna Carlsen, Norway

Cello

Anna was born in Norway and discovered the cello at the age of eight. After pre-professional studies at Barratt Dues Musikkinstitutt in Oslo, she moved abroad and in 2006 she finished her four year degree with Daniel Grosgurin at the music conservatory of Geneva, Switzerland. In 2007 she decided to remain in Geneva to pursue her studies specializing in early music with Bruno Cocset, and graduated with a master’s degree in June 2010. In the discipline of continuo playing Anna has gathered a lot of experience and inspiration working with musicians such as Blandine Rannou, Florence Malgoire, Gérard Lesne, Leonardo Garcia Alarcon, Ketil Haugsand, Gabriel Garrido, Wieland Kuijken, Serge Saitta. She is a member of the ensembles Affetti Cantabili and Douces Folies, and she plays on a baroque cello made for her by Robert Louis Baille in 2008.

Emily Smith, UK

Viola da Gamba

Emily read music at Clare College, Cambridge and now studies baroque cello and viola da gamba with Jonathan Manson at the Royal Academy of Music in London. Since joining the Academy in 2009 she has played in Handel’s Semele under Charles Mackerras, Cavalli's Il Giasone conducted by Jane Glover and all the recent concerts in the RAM/Kohn Foundation Bach Cantata Series. She has worked with musicians including Trevor Pinnock, Margaret Faultless, Lisa Beznosiuk, Laurence Cummings and Madeleine Easton, and recently performed with Rachel Podger in London's Wigmore Hall. Emily has recently participated in chamber music masterclasses on viola da gamba and cello with Daniel Bruggen, Elizabeth Kenny, Margaret Faultless, Rachel Podger and Anner Bylsma. Outside the Academy she has also played with Devon Baroque and the Cambridge University Collegium Musicum, and has given a series of chamber concerts with Dan Tidhar and Inga Maria Klaucke in Cambridge. Future concerts include a viola da gamba recital with harpsichordist Nathaniel Mander at the Cirencester Early Music Festival.

Marco Lo Cicero, Italy

Double Bass

Marco was born in Palermo and after having played rock'n'roll as a bassist for some years, he started studying classical and jazz double bass. He soon focused on contemporary repertoire and played in many festivals in Italy and abroad. Towards the end of his classical study Marco met some enlightening musicians like Enrico Onofri, Riccardo Minasi and Lorenzo Coppola and decided to study early music. Since 2008 he has been studying baroque bass, viennese bass and violone with Margaret Urquhart, viola da gamba with Mieneke van der Velden and modern double bass with Peter Stotijn at the Conservatory of Amsterdam where he also works with Alfredo Bernardini, Richard Egarr and Lucy van Dael. In The Netherlands he collaborates with several ensembles, such as De Swaen Baroque Ensemble and I Piccoli Olandesi and with the Royal Conservatory of The Hague. In 2010 he was the bass player of I giovani della Montis Regalis in Mondovì. Marco studied musicology in Palermo and Cologne and he hopes to graduate soon!