Kerenza is inspired by many different styles of music. She led the Pavão Quartet on five albums and 15 years of tours throughout the world. She is a regular concerto soloist with the Trafalgar Sinfonia in St. Martin in the Fields. Kerenza’s solo and chamber discs have received 5-star reviews. Also centre- stage in her career is her work with alternative bluegrass band the Coal Porters. And collaborations with artists in the classical and pop worlds have led to her playing on Grammy-Award winning discs, and many no. 1 albums in the Classical and Pop Charts. Kerenza studied at the Royal Academy of Music with Howard Davis, and was a Leverhulme Chamber Music Fellow for 2 years. It was at the Academy that the Pavão Quartet met in 1998, leading to a successful recording career, and extensive radio play on Classic FM, BBC Radio 3 and BBC Radio 2. Their disc of Elgar and Bax Quartets (“an ensemble of real depth and musical distinction” Classic FM Magazine, “an intoxicating warmth and emotional spontaneity” The Strad Magazine), was followed by their ‘Dreaming’ CD, which was described as “Chamber music for a new century” on Radio 2. Their Christmas CD became the soundtrack of Christmas for many people, on disc and on radio. Their concert tours took them everywhere from the Wigmore Hall to Ronnie Scott’s jazz club, and to the Wailing Wall of Jerusalem and the Great Wall of China. The Quartet toured extensively with the Henri Oguike Contemporary Dance Company, and collaborated with jazz musicians including Guy Barker, Dom Alldis and Iain Ballamy.

Oliver Davis Oliver Davis graduated from the Royal Academy of Music in 1994 and has since composed numerous concertos, ballet scores, albums, soundtracks and television scores working with many of the major London orchestras.

Davis’ debut album Flight, recorded by the London Symphony Orchestra with soloist Kerenza Peacock, was released in March 2015 and quickly rose to number 2 in the UK Specialist Classical Charts with 5-star reviews in both the UK and US. In addition, it was chosen as Featured Album of the Week on Classic FM and was broadcast daily on the station. Several pieces from the album Flight were used for a ballet choreographed by Ma Cong for the Tulsa Ballet Company in Tulsa, Oklahoma.

After the release of Flight came Davis’ second album Seasons in October 2015. This album featured his work Anno, a contemporary take on Vivaldi’s Quattro Stagioni. This album also charted in the UK top 10 and was Album of the Week on Classic FM and in the Mail on Sunday. Following this release came Dance, recorded by the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra at Abbey Road studios and released in September 2016. This too became Classic FM’s Album of the Week and featured in their ‘Best of 2016’ show. Various pieces from Dance and Flight were used to create the ballet Dance Odyssey, choreographed by Peter Walker and performed by New York City Ballet. Following the ballet’s premiere in January 2018, The New York Times described the music as ‘charming, lyrical, Arcadian’.

Davis’ fourth album, Liberty, was released in February 2018. This reached number 1 in the iTunes Classical Chart and was also Classic FM’s Album of the Week. Pieces from Liberty formed a new ballet Bacchus, choreographed by Matthew Neenan for Pacific Northwest Ballet and premiered in March 2019. Davis’ next album, Arcadia, featured a piano piece of the same name, which on its release achieved over a million streams on Apple Music. The album reached number 1 in the iTunes Classical Charts, number 4 in the UK Classical Charts and 15 in the US Billboard Charts. Simon Mayo chose to feature Arcadia as Scala Radio’s Album of the Weekend, and interviewed Davis live on his show.

Also in 2019, Davis and choreographer Edwaard Liang worked together to create Constant Light, a ballet for Ballet West’s Choreographic Festival which premiered in May in Salt Lake City, Utah. In September 2019, they premiered Lineage at New York City Ballet’s prestigious Fall Fashion Gala, which featured costumes designed by fashion icon Anna Sui. Davis and Liang are currently collaborating on a new work to be premiered by Pacific Northwest Ballet.

Davis’ latest album, Solace, was made during the lockdown of 2020. He explains how creating Solace differed significantly from the production of his other recordings: ‘I had originally planned the production of my sixth album in a similar way to previous albums, a method that had to be abandoned when social restrictions were enforced at the onset of the pandemic. In addition to amending the production process, most of the repertoire I had originally planned to record was also going to need to be replaced owing to key artists and studios unable to be involved. It presented a huge logistical and creative problem, but also an interesting challenge. Would it be possible to create an album, largely orchestral based, without being in the same room as the orchestra and conductor? The only way this could be achieved was by recording the orchestra and many of the soloists remotely. During the lockdown period I had briefly worked remotely with the Budapest Scoring Orchestra, and that experience gave me the confidence to tackle this project. I decided to create a template by recording all the principal elements first. I recorded all the key orchestral parts individually with five musicians and this enabled me to have enough control of these parts to then create a master chamber music version of all the orchestral pieces on the album. I then mapped out the exact tempos and dynamics in the orchestral scores and only then did I record the Budapest Scoring Orchestra on top of this chamber recording. In addition, many of the pieces were written for soloists who were based abroad and were now unable to visit the UK as planned. I therefore had to record their parts remotely and incorporate those recordings into the mix. I achieved this using the internet and recording studios and engineers all over the world, recording a violinist in Los Angeles, a piano duo in The Netherlands, a guitarist in Argentina and the Budapest Scoring Orchestra conducted by Péter Illényi in Budapest. This painstaking process became a labour of love and has led me to appreciate the many benefits of being in the same room as the artist!’

Grace Davidson is an English soprano who specialises in the performance and recording of Baroque music. Winner of the prestigious Early Music Prize whilst studying singing at London’s Royal Academy of Music, she has since carved a successful international career working with the leading Baroque vocal ensembles of our day under the batons of Sir John Eliot Gardiner, Paul McCreesh, Philippe Herreweghe and Harry Christophers. As a Baroque soloist Grace has appeared on many of the world’s most famous stages, from Purcell’s Come Ye Sons of Art at London’s Barbican to his Ode to St Cecilia and Bach’s Magnificat at the Amsterdam Concertgebouw to Bach’s St Matthew Passion at the Lincoln Centre, New York. Her discography includes a decade of CDs with The Sixteen, many of which feature her as a soloist: Handel’s Jephtha (as “Angel”) and Dixit Dominus, Monteverdi’s 1610 Vespers and Pianto Della Madonna and the Lutheran Masses of Bach; she is also the soloist for a recording of Faure?’s Requiem by Tenebrae and the LSO: “Grace Davidson made Pie Jesu the simplest and most precious of gifts.” The Times.

Future solo performing engagements include a UK tour of Monteverdi’s Vespers with Harry Christophers, and performances of Purcell’s King Arthur in France and Germany for Paul McCreesh. Recording projects include Handel’s Silete Venti and Gloria for Signum Records plus a recording of Dowland lute songs.