North Westmorland Arts 
Concerts in Appleby-in-Westmorland                           

Toby Carr & Gwen Martin

A versatile musician who performs in a wide range of styles and settings, Toby Carr is a guitarist and lutenist who grew up in Hertfordshire before moving to London to pursue further education.

Toby studied classical guitar with Graham Anthony Devine at Trinity Laban Conservatoire of Music and Danced where he also discovered lutes and early guitars under the tutelage of David Miller.  Going on to postgraduate study at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama with Bob Brightmore (classical guitar) and David Miller and William Carter (historical performance) he continued onto the MPerf course as a historical performance specialist, graduating in 2016. 

While still active as a classical guitarist and teacher Toby has developed a specialism in the performance of renaissance and baroque music, particularly that of seventeenth century England and Italy, performing in this context regularly as a soloist, accompanist and continuo player.  This has led to work with groups and organisations such as the London Philharmonic Orchestra, English Touring Opera, Glyndebourne Youth Opera and Dame Emma Kirkby's Dowland Works, including being a founding member of emerging ensembles Ceruleo and Lux Musicae London. 

Now settled in south-east London with his Harpist fiance, Toby is gaining a reputation as an innovative and exciting performer and educator, working with some of the finest musicians in the business.

Gwendolen Martin was brought up in Wiltshire and studied music and was a choral scholar at Worcester College, Oxford.  She received a scholarship to study singing at Trinity College of Music and now enjoys a career as a soloist and ensemble singer, performing with groups such as The Monteverdi Choir, The Gabrieli Consort, The Tallis Scholars and The Marian Consort.  

Recent highlights include step-out solos in Bach’s St. Matthew Passion (Monteverdi Choir, Sir John Eliot Gardiner), lute song recitals with lutenist Toby Carr alongside Dame Emma Kirkby, La Verginella Recital with Tom Primrose (Lake District Summer Music), Baroque Tales with Musica Poetica (Bath Recitals), Gluck’s Orphée et Eurydice (Chorus, Royal Opera House), Breaking the Rules; a music play about Gesualdo (UK tour 2016/17, Clare Norburn, The Marian Consort), soloist in Handel’s Dixit Dominus for Worcester College Choirs Tercentenary (St. John’s Smith Square, Nicholas Cleobury) and recitals with Harmonia Antiqua in Slovenia.  She’s looking forward to tours to Italy, New York, Switzerland and Lisbon with various groups in the coming months.  Gwendolen is also Curriculum Consultant for Southwark Music Service where she trains and mentors music specialists in primary curriculum

 

PROGRAMME

Details to follow