Very British: Lea Desandre, Thomas Dunford and the Jupiter ensemble

‘As the generation that grew up with it, it is now our responsibility to continue bringing it alive, while making it more modern, showing just how accessible it can be, and how much it touches our hearts.’ In the Jupiter Ensemble, Dunford brings together a collective of young musicians who take a free and undogmatic approach to their repertoire – leaving room for passion and emotion. With their flexible technique and imaginative ornamentation, the ensemble sheds new light on early music. Thomas Dunford, who graduated from the Paris Conservatoire at the age of 21 and now works with greats from the early music world as well as contemporary composers and jazz musicians, learnt to play the lute at the age of nine: ‘The great thing is that your fingers have direct contact with the instrument, unlike the harpsichord. As a child, you experience this magic in a playful way, and it never let go of me.’ After its debut at the 2022 Baroque Festival, Ensemble Jupiter now returns to the Philharmonie Berlin.

She is also at home in baroque repertoire, and is a regular guest at major international theatres such as the Opéra de Paris, the Zurich Opera House, the Liceu in Barcelona, Carnegie Hall in New York and festivals such as Aix-en-Provence. She trained in ballet, studied singing in Paris and Venice, and was awarded the ‘Singer Discovery’ title at the Victoires de la Musique Classique in 2017 and ‘Singer of the Year’ at the Echo Klassik in 2022. She made her debut at the Salzburg Festival with Offenbach's La Périchole and appeared there again in Offenbach's Orphée aux enfers, Monteverdi's L'incoronazione di Poppea and in Mozart's Così fan tutte. She made her debut with the Ensemble Jupiter in concerts organised by the Berliner Philharmoniker Foundation as part of the 2022 Baroque Festival.