Musica Antiqua of London is a group of four instrumentalists specialising in the performance of Renaissance music. The group takes as its model the court bands of the sixteenth century, with their blend of virtuosity and versatility. Musica Antiqua is unique in that all its members are experts on a wide variety of Renaissance instruments, including recorders, viols, crumhorns and rebecs. This enables them to create ‘whole consorts’ (different sizes of the same instruments played together), and ‘broken consorts’ (mixed groupings of instruments from different families), as well as providing a shawm band and a number of other instruments of the period.

Musica Antiqua of London is the first group in the world to commission and use late fifteenth century viols and is the only group in Great Britain to play on matched sets of viols, crumhorns and recorders especially commissioned for the group, mostly copied from sixteenth century originals.

Concerts given by Musica Antiqua of London reflect the richness and variety of European Renaissance music – sacred and secular, popular and courtly – from England, France, Spain, the Netherlands and Italy. Programmes are meticulously planned to blend what are often miniature masterpieces into longer sequences, usually informally introduced from the platform by Philip Thorby, who is Senior Fellow in Early Music at Trinity College of Music in London.

Musica Antiqua of London’s concerts are usually given with one of more leading specialist early music singers such as Jennie Cassidy, Clare Wilkinson, Belinda Sykes, Geraldine McGreevy, Linda Hirst, Paul Agnew, John Potter, Julian Podger and Harvey Brough.
The group has made three highly successful tours on the Early Music Network, and has appeared in the York, Bath, Norwich and Belfast festivals, as well as giving many other concerts in Britain and Europe, including a series of concerts in the major London concert halls. Musica Antiqua has made a number of radio broadcasts, including one nominated for three international awards. Musica Antiqua of London can be heard on CD in their recordings of A Royal Songbook (Naxos), Master of Musicians – Josquin des Pres (Signum), The Triumphs of Maximilian (Signum), Word Play (Signum), Fire and Ice (Signum), A Songbook for Isabella (Signum) and Madame d’Amour (Signum).