Concert by Thomas Adès and the Tenebrae Choir

He frequently leads performances of his orchestral works Asyla (1997), Tevot (2007), Polaris (2010), Violin Concerto Concentric Paths (2005), In Seven Days for piano and orchestra (2008); Totentanz for mezzo-soprano, baritone, and orchestra (2013); and the Concerto for Piano and Orchestra (2019).  His compositions also include numerous celebrated chamber and solo works.

September 2023 saw Thomas Adès conduct the Gewandhausorchester as part of his two-season residency with the ensemble which sees him appear as a conductor, pianist and composer in various concert formats. This autumn Thomas also began a two-season residency with the Hallé orchestra, which sees him conduct two orchestral concerts and curate a chamber programme. For the first appearance on 28 October, Thomas conducted the UK premiere of Tower, as well as the first UK concert performance of his ballet Purgatorio, alongside his Märchentänze for violin and orchestra with Anthony Marwood, which received its UK premiere at last year’s BBC Proms.

Thomas Adès has been the Artistic Partner of the Boston Symphony Orchestra since 2016 and he conducts the orchestra every year in Boston and at Tanglewood. He also regularly coaches Piano and Chamber Music at the International Musicians Seminar, Prussia Cove. 

As conductor, Thomas appears regularly with the Los Angeles and London Philharmonic orchestras, the Boston, London, BBC, Finnish Radio and City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestras, the Royal Concertgebouworkest, Leipzig Gewandhaus and the Orchestra of Santa Cecilia, Rome. In opera, in addition to The Exterminating Angel, he has conducted The Rake’s Progress at the Royal Opera House and Zürich Opera, and the premieres of three operas by Gerald Barry, including the Los Angeles world premieres of The Importance of Being Earnest and Alice’s Adventures Under Ground, of which he also gave the European premiere at Covent Garden. Recent highlights include Thomas’s debut concerts with the Vienna Philharmonic and his conducting debut with the Berlin Philharmonic. In Summer 2022 he conducted the world premiere of Air for violin and orchestra at the Lucerne Festival, a Roche commission for Anne-Sophie Mutter and the Lucerne Festival Contemporary Orchestra. 

His CD recording of The Tempest from the Royal Opera House (EMI) won the Contemporary category of the 2010 Gramophone Awards; his DVD of the production from the Metropolitan Opera was awarded the Diapason d'Or de l'année (2013), Best Opera recording (2014 Grammy Awards) and Music DVD Recording of the Year (2014 ECHO Klassik Awards).

His piano engagements have included solo recitals at Carnegie Hall (Stern Auditorium) in New York and the Wigmore Hall in London, and concerto appearances with the New York Philharmonic and Boston Symphony Orchestra. Recent piano releases include an album of solo piano music by Janáček and a live album of Winterreise with Ian Bostridge. His solo disc of Janáček’s piano music won the 2018 Janáček medal.

To date, Nigel has conducted the majority of the UK’s leading orchestras, including the Academy of Ancient Music, Aurora Orchestra, BBC Symphony Orchestra, Britten Sinfonia, English Concert, London Philharmonic Orchestra, London Symphony Orchestra, Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment and Royal Philharmonic Orchestra. Other orchestral recordings include Mozart’s Requiem with the Chamber Orchestra of Europe, and Nigel has also appeared as guest conductor with the BBC Singers, Leipzig’s MDR Rundfunkchor and the Danish National Vocal Ensemble.

Nigel has vast recording experience having conducted for many of the world’s major labels including Decca Classics, Deutsche Grammophon, LSO Live and Signum, as well as having contributed to a number of high-profile film soundtracks. In 2018, he received a Grammy nomination in the category of ‘Best Choral Performance’ for Tenebrae’s album of parts songs from the British Isles, ‘Music of the Spheres’, in 2025 won an Opus Klassik Award for ‘Orchestra/Ensemble Live Performance of the Year’ for Tenebrae’s performance of Handel’s Messiah at the Kurhaus Wiesbaden with the Academy of Ancient Music, and in 2026 won BBC Music Magazine’s Recording of the Year Award for Tenebrae’s Album ‘A Prayer for Deliverance.’ As a Gramophone award-winning producer, Nigel works with many of the UK’s leading professional choirs and vocal ensembles including Alamire, Ex Cathedra, Gallicantus and The King’s Singers.

Building on his early music expertise, Chad made his Opera Australia conducting debut with Purcell’s Dido and Aeneas and has led performances of Handel’s Messiah with the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra. For Victorian Opera, he arranged and conducted a new adaptation of Mozart’s Die Entführung aus dem Serail, presented under the title Abduction and praised for its freshness and contemporary perspective.

Chad’s arrangements and compositions have been recorded on the Sony and Channel Classics labels. A frequent collaborator with violinist Rachel Podger, his version of Bach’s Toccata & Fugue in D minor can be heard on her award-winning album Tutta Sola. He also created a pioneering arrangement of Bach’s Goldberg Variations for Rachel and Brecon Baroque, released in 2023 by Channel Classics. This reimagining of the work, in the spirit of Bach’s own transformative practice, earned critical acclaim for its inventive chamber adaptation.

Adept in the world of contemporary music, Chad has helped create new work by composers Thomas Adès, Hans Abrahamsen, and Mark-Anthony Turnage, and has workshopped several new pieces for the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden.

In 2025, Chad debuted with the Sydney and Queensland Symphony Orchestras, conducting music he co-wrote with the Australian band King Gizzard & The Lizard Wizard as part of their Phantom Island tour. In 2026, he makes major conducting appearances in Perth, Melbourne and Christchurch, and tours with the Australian Chamber Orchestra. In 2026, he conducts the Melbourne, West Australian and Christchurch Symphony Orchestras and leads Victorian Opera’s season of The Coronation of Poppea.

Educated at Cambridge University and the Royal Academy of Music, Chad became Lector in Music at Trinity College, Cambridge, and was elected Associate of the Royal Academy of Music in recognition of his contribution to the profession. He continues to mentor young musicians as a guest lecturer at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama and the University of Melbourne.

Sascha began his musical studies at the age of 5 first on violin and then viola, winning first prize for 5 consecutive years at the Romanian Youth Music Competition. He won a full scholarship to study with Gérard Caussé at the Escuela Superior de Música Reina Sofía in Madrid and then continued his studies with Thomas Riebl at the Mozarteum University of Salzburg, completing his master’s degree in Solo Viola cum laudae in 2008. In 2010 he went on to a post graduate quartet course in Basel with Walter Levin from the LaSalle Quartet.

Sascha began his experience as an orchestral musician in the European Youth Philharmonic Orchestra in Stade-Hamburg. He became a member of Camerata Salzburg in 2007 and has often played as principal viola, including on several international tours with conductors such as Sir Roger Norrington and Leonidas Kavakos. In 2007 he won the audition for the Solo Viola of the Zurich Chamber Orchestra. Sascha was also associate principal viola with Orchestre Révolutionnaire et Romantique, working with conductors such as John Eliot Gardiner, Louis Langrée, Sir Roger Norington, Philippe Herreweghe, Kent Nagano, Ingo Metzmacher, Heinz Holliger and Dennis Russell Davies.

In 2012 Sascha successfully auditioned for the Australian Chamber Orchestra and was appointed as a core member shortly after. He played as co-principal viola from 2012-2015 and acting principal viola 2015-2017 and had a major role in curating chamber music programmes and education projects.

Sascha has performed all around Europe, Asia, America and Australia, playing concerts regularly in venues such as Carnegie Hall, Walt Disney Hall, the Musikverein, Concertgebouw, Berlin Philharmonie, Wigmore Hall and the Sydney Opera House. Festivals he has played at include Salzburger Mozartwoche, Salzburger Festspiele, Salzburg Dialoge, Klanguspuren Schwaz, Festival Aix-en-Provence, Encuentro de Música de Santander, Festival Mitte Europa, Maribor Festival, Tanglewood, and the International Viola Congress in Würzburg with Thomas Riebl.

As a soloist, Sascha has performed with the Australian Chamber Orchestra, the Zurich Chamber Orchestra and Philharmonia Banatul amongst others, in venues around Europe and Australia including Auditorio Nacional in Madrid, Spain, the Tonhalle Zürich, the Kunst- und Kongresshaus Luzern, the Sydney Opera House and Melbourne Recital Centre.

Since relocating to London in 2017, Sascha has been playing as guest principal with a number of orchestras, including the Aurora Orchestra, Britten Sinfonia, London Mozart Players, Academy of Ancient Music, English Chamber Orchestra and Philharmonia Orchestra as well as chamber music with theprincipals of LSO and St Martin-in-the-Fields orchestra.

In addition to his activities as a classical musician, Sascha is dedicated to jazz and other forms of improvised music and regularly appears at jazz concerts and festivals.

Sascha plays on a Brescian copy English viola from 1830, a Hill & Sons modern bow 1910 and a J Dodd classical bow from 1820. His baroque viola is made by Jan Pawlikowsky.

Tenebrae has enjoyed collaborations with some of the UK’s leading orchestras, including the London Symphony Orchestra, Aurora Orchestra, the Academy of Ancient Music and Britten Sinfonia. The choir also undertakes regular session work, having contributed the vocals for Max Richter’s Voices (2020), Jean-Jacques Annaud’s Notre Dame brûle (2022), and blockbuster sci-fi movie Avatar: The Way of Water (2022) among others. Its extensive recording catalogue comprises a wide range of music on labels including Signum, LSO Live and Warner Classics, and has earned the choir three BBC Music Magazine Choral Awards, a BBC Music Magazine Recording of the Year Award, an Edison Classical Music Award, a Grammy nomination an Opus Klassik Award, and a German Critic’s Award.

Alongside its performance and recording schedule, the choir also runs a thriving Learning & Connection programme which encompasses partnerships with Music Centre London and London Youth Choirs, Tenebrae Effect workshops with amateur choirs, and a programme run in partnership with Ealing Music Service. Tenebrae Schools aims to embed a long-lasting singing culture in local primary schools which might otherwise face barriers to music-making. Tenebrae’s newest programme, Tenebrae Academy, works with teenagers who love singing in a choir but currently face challenges and limited opportunities to progress. Through its Associate Artist programme Tenebrae also provides talented young professional singers with vital experience and support in the early stages of their careers.

‘Passion and Precision’ are Tenebrae’s core values. Through its continued dedication to performance of the highest quality, Tenebrae’s vision is to inspire audiences around the world through dramatic programming, flawless performances and unforgettable experiences.