The Consort of Twelve

Noticeboard posts:
22.10.25 Review: Portsmouth Baroque Choir with the Consort of Twelve – Handel and Scarlatti
04.09.25 Preview: Portsmouth Baroque Choir with the Consort of Twelve – Handel and Scarlatti
22.08.25 Preview: Ashley Solomon and the Consort of Twelve – The Italian connection
01.05.25 Preview: Concerti Spiritosi
13.03.25 Chichester’s Baroque ensemble, The Consort of Twelve, is marking its 4th decade
12.07.24 Review: Portsmouth Choral Union with The Consort of Twelve – Saul
13.06.24 David Gostick on Handel’s Saul with Portsmouth Choral Union and the Consort of Twelve
27.04.24 Preview: “L’Europe Galante” with Ashley Solomon
31.07.23 Profile: Helen Hooker, recorder player, educator and conductor
10.07.23 Portsmouth Baroque Choir and the Consort of Twelve Messiah in Chichester
30.06.23 Preview: Messiah (complete) by the Consort of Twelve and the Portsmouth Baroque Choir
19.08.22 The Consort of Twelve celebrates its 40th anniversary / a short history of the ensemble

The Consort of Twelve is an ensemble of musicians which specialises in the performance of Baroque music using the styles, techniques and instruments of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries.

The Consort was founded in 1982 and has hosted many concerts both in the Chichester area and further afield. It generally gives three concerts a year in the Sussex/Hampshire area. The concerts usually take place in churches, where the acoustics and intimate atmosphere are particularly suited to baroque music.

The make-up of baroque orchestras depends on the repertoire but, typically, it might consist of 13 string instruments, several woodwind players and a harpsichord. The players in such an orchestra are generally directed by the leader, the first violinist, though when working with a choir they might have a conductor.

Many of the players of the Consort regularly perform with some of the country’s most prestigious period orchestras, including The Academy of Ancient Music, The Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment, The Monteverdi Orchestra, Orchestra Révolutionnaire et Romantique, English Baroque Soloists, The Hanover Band and Florilegium and La Serenissima.