"...musicianship, fluidity, and an ability to make exploratory contemporary classical music a glowing and tender encounter."
– Max Reinhardt, BBC Radio 3
Phaedra Ensemble is a chamber ensemble creating musical projects that combine compelling performance, bold programming and cross-disciplinary collaboration.
Working with flexible forces ranging from string quartet to larger mixed ensembles, Phaedra presents concerts, recordings and multimedia performances exploring experimental music and key repertoire from the last hundred years, alongside new commissions and original arrangements.
With a particular focus on today's most distinctive composers, the ensemble creates programmes that offer fresh perspectives on the music of our time.
In September 2026, Phaedra releases Realms, its debut album for Cantaloupe Music, created in close collaboration with the legendary composer, performer and vocalist Meredith Monk. Released by the New York label founded by composers Michael Gordon, David Lang and Julia Wolfe, Realms becomes part of one of the world's leading catalogues of contemporary music, joining albums by artists and ensembles including Bang on a Can All-Stars, Alarm Will Sound and John Luther Adams.
The launch concert at King's Place on 17 September marks the beginning of an exciting new chapter in the ensemble's long-standing relationship with the venue.
The ensemble has collaborated with artists including Caroline Shaw, Mira Calix, Masayoshi Fujita, Laura Jurd, Lotte Betts-Dean, Susheela Raman, the Rizwan-Muazzam Qawwali Group, Fred Thomas (ECM) and long-standing ensemble vocalist The Magic Lantern.
Phaedra performs regularly with the Sheffield-based chamber music series Music in the Round and has appeared at venues and festivals including the Barbican Centre, Southbank Centre, Royal Opera House, Howard Assembly Rooms, Cheltenham Music Festival, Bristol New Music, Café OTO, La Seine Musicale and NYU Abu Dhabi Arts Center, with multiple broadcasts on BBC Radio 3, France Musique, VRT and dublab.
Recent work has included retrospectives of the music of Steve Reich and John Adams, a national tour celebrating Gavin Bryars at 80, featuring the composer as a performer, and the collaborative release of co-director Jamie Hamilton's 2024 multimedia album, Versionland, on Don't Look Back Records, which was selected as The Quietus Album of the Week.
"...Phaedra's versatility was evident, their dynamism demonstrating ease in — and command of — both modal jazz and the sound worlds of Þorvaldsdóttir and Reich."
– Sequenza 21
