Amyas & Emily Baines
Biography Amyas & Emily Baines
Emily Baines
is one of the most exciting and versatile musicians working in the UK today. A specialist recorder player, she is also a skilled multi-instrumentalist performing worldwide on shawms, bagpipes and other early reed instruments.
Emily’s work as a performer involves a myriad different roles, from concerto soloist and chamber musician to theatre band and actor/musician roles.
As a musical director Emily is in increasing demand, her main work is currently in drama from the medieval, renaissance and baroque eras using both period and more contemporary musical styles.
As a researcher Emily is predominantly interested in the performance of historical music. Her current research is investigating the style of playing found in eighteenth-century mechanical musical instruments and how that might influence contemporary attitudes to playing eighteenth century music. However research plays an important role in all avenues of Emily’s professional life from leading foot-tapping ensembles to scoring bloodthirsty Jacobean theatre.
Amyas
are a period instrument group specialising in exuberant performances of historical repertoire. The core members are Emily Baines and Arngeir Hauksson. All performers are specialists in the historically informed performance, with many leading the way in cutting-edge research into earlier practices. The group are committed to an understanding of history but also to embracing the 21st century and new possibilities for performance spaces and techniques. Similarly, they are passionate both about discovering unknown early sources and also improvisation and composition. Their performances range from the well-loved classics of the eighteenth century (imbued with their typical flair of course!) to electronic manipulation of medieval songs and dances – and everything in between!
