Ensemble Kopernikus are an exciting young chamber group based in London, dedicated to exploring the rich and varied repertoire available for a variety of instrumentations. Praised for their ‘imaginative and demanding’ programmes, they combine well-known works with rarely performed gems. The ensemble is becoming known for their sharp attention to detail and energetic, lyrical interpretations.

Having begun collaborating in various forms when they were students, the group have worked closely with many outstanding coaches including members of the Belcea Quartet, Krysia Ozostowicz, Daniel Tong, Matthew Jones, David Dolan, Caroline Palmer, Melissa Phelps, and are recent participants in the Chamber Studio at Kings Place, where they are coached by Richard Ireland. The group has been finalists in competitions including the St. Martin-in-the-Fields Chamber Competition and the 8th International Johannes Brahms Chamber Music Competition in Gdansk as well as winning the Ivan Sutton Chamber Music Award. They have performed at venues including St. Martin-in-the-Fields and Wigmore Hall and have given concerts at the City of London Music Festival and for festivals and concert societies including Shipston Song, Ripon Concerts, Blenheim Music Circle, St. Mary’s Perivale and Ripley Recitals. Their debut disc of chamber works by early 20th century British composer Percy Hilder Miles on the MPR label was released in February 2022.

The ensemble’s core members Kasia Ziminska (violin), Alice Purton (cello) and Ian Tindale (piano) are all individually much in demand as chamber musicians appearing in concerts and festivals across the UK and internationally. As individual performers they are engaged in a wide variety of creative work, including classical improvisation, orchestral playing, jazz and folk performance, song recitals, historical performance and experimental contemporary music. Notable individual appearances include the Musikverein, Vienna; the Mozarteum, Salzburg; UNESCO Hall, Paris; Lutoslawski Concert Hall, Warsaw; L’Auditori, Barcelona; the Grand Theatre, Luxembourg; and major London venues including the Barbican Hall, Royal Festival Hall and Cadogan Hall.

With the ensemble’s ties to Poland, both in terms of nationality and ancestry, we were drawn to the revolutionary Polish polymath Micolaus Copernicus (in Polish: Mikolaj Kopernik) whose multidisciplinary free-thinking changed the world. His name reminds us to explore new approaches and to find new directions in our music-making.