Ensemble Renard

Ensemble Renard was founded in 2018 by musicians and friends from the Royal Academy of Music and the Guildhall School. A wind quintet at its core, Ensemble Renard puts on exciting and varied performances for audiences of all backgrounds. 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 most Ensemble Renard concerts feature works especially written or arranged for the ensemble.

Ensemble Renard have quickly emerged onto the scene as one of the UK's most promising young chamber ensembles. To date, they have been made Tunnell Trust awardees, Britten-Pears Young Artists, Stoller Hall Young Artists, and awardees of the Countess of Munster Musical Trust's Recital Scheme. Performance highlights of the ensemble's career so far include their European debut at the Dinard Opening Festival in Brittany, a recital at the Aldeburgh Festival, and an appearance on BBC Radio 3's 'In Tune' with Sean Rafferty.

Ensemble Renard champion new music and regularly commission works for wind quintet, having begun their career working with composers including Hans Abrahamsen and John Woolrich on performances of their repertoire. They were among the first artists to be awarded a grant from the Vaughan Williams Foundation in support of a new commission by Luke Lewis, and in 2023 they recorded their debut album of commissions by the Stomping Ground collective.

The Ensemble's members are some of the most promising young classical musicians of the moment, who can be found performing with the London Philharmonic Orchestra, London Symphony Orchestra, Philharmonia Orchestra, Aurora Orchestra, Riot Ensemble, Manchester Camerata, English Touring Opera, BBC Philharmonic Orchestra, London Sinfonietta, and the English National Opera, to name but a few.

Ensemble Renard's concert diary has something for everyone. They can be found performing traditional recitals at music clubs up and down the country, putting on family concerts with narrator and school-based workshops, recitals in collaboration with organisations including Wigmore Hall and Spitalfields Music, in addition to performances at new music festivals in collaboration with a host of different composers.

Ellie Blamires - Flute

Francesca Cox - Oboe

George Strivens - French Horn

Patrick Bolton - Bassoon

James Gilbert - Clarinet