Ensemble Renard

Founded in 2018 by musicians from the Royal Academy of Music and the Guildhall School, Ensemble Renard are an exciting young wind quintet pushing the boundaries of wind chamber music. After less than six months of playing together, Ensemble Renard won the Royal Academy of Music’s Nicholas Blake Prize for wind chamber music, and from there have gone on to give regular recitals and workshops across the country, to much acclaim. 

Ensemble Renard carefully curate compelling and contrasting programmes tailored to each audience, aiming to take repertoire rarely given the light of day to audiences from London to the Hebrides and beyond. From Gershwin to Knussen, each piece they play demonstrates the kaleidoscopic versatility of the ensemble and its constituent instruments. 

In 2021, Ensemble Renard were awarded a Chamber Music Fellowship at the Royal Academy of Music, where they continue to explore more diverse repertoire, commission new works, and expand the boundaries of their ensemble beyond the wind quintet format to include repertoire with strings, piano, and voices. Members of Ensemble Renard regularly coach chamber ensembles at the Academy, run open rehearsals and give instrument-specific classes throughout the year. In 2021, they performed Ligeti’s ‘Sechs Bagatelles’ at the Royal Academy of Music Bicentenary Chamber Festival, curated by Tamara Stefanovich. 

Ensemble Renard champion new music, and are currently awaiting 5 new commissions from graduates and postgraduates of the Royal Academy of Music and the Julliard School. They have given a number of recitals at the Royal Academy of Music, working with and learning from esteemed composers including Hans Abrahamsen and John Woolrich in preparation for performances of their repertoire.

Ensemble Renard are committed to making their work accessible to as diverse an audience as possible. They regularly perform family concerts and give school-based workshops and recitals, and their members are linked to several different music education charities.

Ensemble Renard are holders of a prestigious Tunnell Trust Award, which will see them give recitals throughout Scotland in 2022 and 2023. Most recently, they have reached the semi-final of the Royal Overseas League’s Mixed Ensembles Prize.