FAIREST ISLE FESTIVAL
EARLY MUSIC EXTRAVAGANZA ON THE ISLE OF WIGHT
15-17 MAY 2026
Sergio Bucheli
Born in Mexico City, Sergio Bucheli started playing the classical guitar before moving to the UK to study at the Yehudi Menuhin School thanks to a bursary funded by the Rolling Stones. In September 2016, Sergio was awarded the ABRSM and Christopher Hogwood Scholarships to pursue his undergraduate studies at the Royal Academy of Music with Elizabeth Kenny where he studied the lute, theorbo and baroque guitar.
A sought-after continuo player, Sergio is the principal lutenist of La Nuova Musica, The English Concert and is a “New Ensemblist” with Arcangelo. He also plays with The Irish Baroque Orchestra, Ensemble Marsyas, Early Opera Company, English Baroque Soloists and Fretwork.
Sergio is a keen chamber musician and is a frequent duo partner with soprano Ruby Hughes.
AMIDST THE SHADES - FRIDAY 15 May 2026
Vivien Ellis
As a singer and champion of group singing, Vivien Ellis is part of Natural Voice Network and believes we are all fundamentally creative and can express our unique creativity with our voice.
She collaborates with practitioners from the fields of arts, culture, education and science using early songs, often local and unusual, to create bespoke events, like Ballad Walks, which connect people more intimately with places. And works with programme and documentary-makers to research and perform songs for radio and film.
Vivien performs early and folk music with the duo Alva and previously performed and toured with early music groups including The Dufay Collective and The Carnival Band.
As an Associate of the Sidney De Haan Research Centre for Arts and Health, she is part of the growing field of arts and health research and practice, developing new training in this area for GPs and their clinical colleagues currently being trialled in Yorkshire – all part of her work to empower groups and organisations to incorporate arts into social prescribing.
Barley, Botanicals & Ballads - SATURday 16 May 2026
Phantasia
Phantasia, led by island musician Chris Hirst, are known for exploring lesser-known music on rare period instruments and for involving the audience in their performances. Their music is heard internationally through concerts, broadcasts and multiple viral videos.
Heritage Talk, Museum Tour & Short Recital - Sunday 17 May 2026
Nicholas Mulroy
Born in Liverpool, Nick studied Modern Languages at Cambridge and voice at RAM. He has sung all over the world as a tenor, in venues including Carnegie Hall, the Sydney Opera House, the Royal Albert Hall, and the Paris Opera. He appears on over 100 commercial recordings, including works by Bach, Handel, and Monteverdi but stretching back to music of the 14th century and including Piazzolla, Silvio Rodríguez and Dame Judith Weir. This programme reflects his passion for the music and culture of South America, where he lived for a period, and he is thrilled to be on the Isle of Wight for the first time.
Havana Nights - SATURday 16 May 2026
Robert Hollingworth
Robert founded I Fagiolini in 1986 and has since spent much of his life thinking about how audiences receive music, instead of just how performers want to deliver it. Aside from his work with I Fagiolini, he is a conductor, broadcaster, educator, editor and festival director. Robert has conducted orchestras including the English Concert, Academy of Ancient Music, BBC Concert Orchestra, Irish Baroque Orchestra and directed some of the world’s finest chamber choirs including Accentus (Paris), NDR Chor, RIAS Kammerchor (Berlin), Netherlands Chamber Choir, National Chamber Choir of Ireland, BBC Singers, Danish National Vocal Ensemble and Capella Cracoviensis. Robert is Artistic Director for Stour Music Festival and the new ‘Fairest Isle Festival’ on the Isle of Wight.
He has written and presented programmes on BBC Radio 3 and more recently created over 30 episodes of the YouTube choral series SingTheScore as well as co-founding and presenting the UK’s top choral podcast series, Choral Chihuahua, with Eamonn Dougan and Nicholas Mulroy, now in its twelfth season. Both are made by Polyphonic Films (Greg Browning). At the University of York, Robert directs two choirs and the UK’s only MA in Solo-Voice Ensemble Singing, now in its 13th year.
Festival Finale Concert - Monteverdi 1610 Vespers - Saturday 16 May 2026
I Fagiolini
In an age of AI, I Fagiolini is a hand-painted original. The group celebrates its 40th anniversary in 26/27 and its innovative work is now as much online as it is live, including collaborative cross-art projects on stages around the world and multi award-winning music videos with Polyphonic Films: search: Goosed! And The Stag Hunt.
The group’s YouTube series, SingTheScore, combines serious analysis with off-the-wall humour, while Choral Chihuahua, presented by Robert Hollingworth, Nicholas Mulroy and Eamonn Dougan, is the top UK choral podcast and is now in its twelfth season.
Signature projects include the fully immersive The Full Monteverdi and Betrayal (dir. John La Bouchardière); Tallis in Wonderland (with live and recorded voice); Simunye, the South African collaboration; and How Like An Angel with Australian contemporary circus company CIRCA for the 2012 Cultural Olympiad, and also at Perth International Arts Festival, Lincoln Center, New York and in cathedrals across Europe.
The group’s French 20th-century Amuse-Bouche included the first recording of Jean Francaix’s 12-voice Ode a la Gastronomie (also on YouTube). Monteverdi programmes include L’Orfeo (dir.Tom Guthrie) with masks and puppets, and 1610 & 1641 Vespers. Leonardo - Shaping The Invisible used projections of Leonardo’s art and designs and was co-presented with Prof. Martin Kemp.
I Fagiolini’s large-scale recording projects include world premieres of Striggio ‘Mass in 40 Parts’, Viadana Vespers, works by the Gabrielis and now three albums of Benevoli’s ‘Colossal Baroque’ multi-choir masses. Consort premieres include Byrd, Tomkins, Croce, Striggio, Francaix, Milhaud and Joanna Marsh.
I Fagiolini is an Associate Ensemble at the University of York and celebrates its 40th anniversary with, ‘We’re not Dead Yet’, Monteverdi Vespers of 1610 (including a new album release), Purcell Dido and Aeneas and Monteverdi L’Orfeo. I Fagiolini is managed worldwide by Percius. www.percius.co.uk.
Monteverdi 1610 Vespers, I Fagiolini & ECSE - SuNday 17 May 2026
English Cornett & Sackbut Ensemble (ECSE)
The English Cornett & Sackbut Ensemble is a virtuoso period instrument group with a host of distinguished recordings to its name. In addition to regular recital work, the ensemble collaborates with leading vocal ensembles such as I Fagiolini, The Tallis Scholars, Alamire, Resurgam, The Marian Consort, Westminster Cathedral Choir, and is a regular at major festivals and is also Ensemble in Residence at Holy Sepulchre, London, the National Musicians' Church.
ECSE is in demand as a recording ensemble, contributing to Gramophone Award-winning discs such as The Spy's Choirbook (Obsidian) in 2015, and the monumental Striggio mass in 40 parts Missa ecco si beato giorno with I Fagiolini (which scooped the Gramophone Award for Early Music 2011 and also the Diapason d'Or). ECSE celebrated its 25th anniversary in 2018 with a solo CD on the Resonus label entitled Music for Windy Instruments: sounds from the Court of James I.
Monteverdi 1610 Vespers, I Fagiolini & ECSE - SuNday 17 May 2026
Kinga Ujszaszi
Kinga moved to London to study at the Royal Academy of Music after graduating from the Franz Liszt Music Academy in Budapest. At the Academy she got interested in historical performance and picked up the baroque violin. Since then she has played with many of the leading period performance groups of England and Europe. She is a member of The English Concert and the Orchestra of Age of Enlightenment and she often appears with The Academy of Ancient Music, Irish Baroque Orchestra, and the Dunedin Consort. She is the director of Spiritato and she leads L’Arpeggiata. She often appears as a guest leader/director with numerous other ensembles, including the Irish Baroque Orchestra, Barokkanarne.
Her first solo album, ‘Assassini, Assassinati’ with baroque duo, Repicco features music from the very turbulent 17th century Italy. The album got high praise from the most prestigious music magazines and critiques and was awarded with 5 diapasons.
Kinga is dedicated to uncovering forgotten pieces from the past. With her Cabinet of Wonders project she is digging into the Schrank II collection of the Dresden Library, recording and performing a series of obscure and exciting violin sonatas from the 17th and 18th century. So far she has recorded two volumes (First Hand Records) with harpsichordist Tom Foster. With her chamber group, Spiritato, they also dedicated their last two discs (Delpian Records) to unusual, mainly forgotten repertoire.
In 2019 she was made an Associate of the Royal Academy of Music.
Brading Roman Villa - FRIday 15 May 2026
Come & Play - SATURday 16 May 2026
Sarah Hyndman
Type Tasting founder Sarah Hyndman is a multi-sensory experience designer, speaker, author and the founder of Type Tasting, launched in 2013. Her work began with typography and taste and now spans the full spectrum of multi-sensory experience design.
Sarah wrote Why Fonts Matter (Penguin), a bestselling book that helped change how we talk about typography by showing how fonts convey flavour, mood, and meaning. A sequel is in progress.
As the host of the Seeing Senses podcast, Sarah talks with expert guests across the multi-sensory world. This will also become a book exploring Multi-Sensory Thinking.
For over 13 years, Sarah has designed mass-participation experiments and interactive talks that turn sensory science into practical tools for engagement, learning, and storytelling. She has co-published papers with Professor Charles Spence (University of Oxford), and is chef Heston Blumenthal’s “experiential font science expert”.
Sarah was awarded an MA (distinction) from the London College of Communication, University of the Arts London. Her 2001 thesis is Eat your words: Food as a system of communication. Sarah is a regular judge and Jury President for the prestigious D&AD Professional and New Blood Awards.
Sarah has spoken internationally at major conferences and festivals including SXSW, Adobe MAX, Design Thinkers, GroupM and TEDx. She’s worked with organisations including global brands, cultural institutions, and broadcasters including BBC, adidas, Wellcome and WGSN.
Her work has been featured widely across television, radio, and print including CNN, Dazed, Wired, BBC Radio and UK TV shows like Channel 4’s Sunday Brunch. See the full list.
Gin & Senses - SATURday 16 May 2026
Ruby Hughes - Soprano
Photo Phil Sharp
Winner of First and Audience Prizes at London Handel Singing Competition 2019, Ruby Hughes is a former BBC New Generation Artist. She is building an impressive discography, in 2018 she released a disc (Chandos Records) with Laurence Cummings and the OAE dedicated to Giulia Frasi, Handel’s lyric muse. For the BIS label she released Heroines of Love and Loss which received huge critical acclaim including a Diapason d’Or award, a highly praised album (nominated for a Gramophone Award) of works by Mahler, Berg and Rhian Samuel with BBCNOW and Mahler Symphony No. 2 with the Minnesota Symphony under Osmo Vänskä. In 23/24 she was invited to curate and perform in a series of three concerts for BBC Northern Ireland as well as to present Inside Music for BBC Radio 3.
She has a passion for performing new repertoire and is a champion of female composers having had many commissions written for her including those by Helen Grime, Deborah Pritchard Judith Weir and Errolyn Wallen.
Recent and upcoming highlights include (Britten’s Les Illuminations) with Orchestre d’Auvergne under Christian Zacharias, (Rückert Lieder) with the Residente Orckest under Jun Märkl, Mahler 2 also with the Residente Orkest with Anja Bihlmaier and the Ulster orchestra under Daniele Rustinoi, Strauss Vier letzte Lieder with the Manchester Collective and Mozart programmes with Orchestre de Picardie, Orchestre National de Lille and
Warsaw Mozart Festival. Baroque performances include a solo baroque programme with Potsdam Kammerakademie, recitals with Fretwork, and Handel’s Israel in Egypt for the Göttingen Handel Festival under Klaus Stok. Ruby performed the world premiere of Helen Grime’s ‘It will be Spring Soon’ with Musica Vitae and Malin Broman in Sweden and with the Scottish Chamber Orchestra and Pekka Kuusisto.