Features
Meet the OBS Team: Katie Ambrose
Get to know the OBS Team working hard behind the scenes! This is Katie Ambrose, our Executive Director. Tell us a bit about yourself and your background. I’m a freelance mezzo-soprano, researcher, educator, and arts manager. Alongside depping work in...
Meet the Musician: Rosie Moon
In this new series, you'll get to know OBS's principal musicians. In the style of a Q&A, you'll learn about their musical journeys so far, highlights with OBS, what they like to do in their free time, and more. Next, we have bassist Rosie Moon. Tell...
Meet the Musician: Frances Norbury
In this new series, you'll get to know OBS's principal musicians. In the style of a Q&A, you'll learn about their musical journeys so far, highlights with OBS, what they like to do in their free time, and more. Next, we have oboist Frances Norbury. ...
Meet the Musician: Yu-Wei Hu
In this new series, you'll get to know OBS's principal musicians. In the style of a Q&A, you'll learn about their musical journeys so far, highlights with OBS, what they like to do in their free time, and more. Next, we have flautist Yu-Wei Hu. Tell...
Meet the Musician: Anhad Arora
In this new series, you'll get to know OBS's principal musicians. In the style of a Q&A, you'll learn about their musical journeys so far, highlights with OBS, what they like to do in their free time, and more. Next, we have harpsichordist Anhad Arora....
Meet the Musician: Henrik Persson
In this new series, you'll get to know OBS's principal musicians. In the style of a Q&A, you'll learn about their musical journeys so far, highlights with OBS, what they like to do in their free time, and more. First up, we have cellist and gambist Henrik...
The Towns and Cities of J. S. Bach
In this newsletter, we explore the cities and towns where Bach took up residence and composed his great cantatas. Eisenach Johann Sebastian Bach was born in Eisenach in 1685, a small town in Thuringia, Germany. He was the seventh and youngest child of Johann Ambrosius...
Q&A with our Artistic Director, Tom Hammond-Davies
What have been your highlights so far in 2019 with OBS? One of my highlights this year was discovering the unique Cantata 152 Tritt auf die Glaubensbahn (Walk on the path of faith) scored for recorder, viola d’amore, viola da gamba, and oboe. Mark Baigent...
The story behind Bach’s Leipzig audition
On 7th February 1723, Johann Sebastian Bach was called to audition for the role of Cantor at the Thomaskirche in Leipzig after the death of its incumbent, Johann Kuhnau, a year earlier. This role would lead to some of Bach’s finest compositions as he began his cantata...
Performer Focus: Josef Laming
Tell us a bit about yourself, and your training and career to date? My first musical training was as a chorister at Leicester Cathedral, and it wasn’t long before I started piano and then organ lessons. I was interested in the harpsichord as a teenager but regrettably...