Matthew Truscott studied at the Royal Academy of Music in London, the Koninklijk Conservatorium in The Hague and in Bloomington, Indiana where his teachers were Erich Gruenberg, Simon Standage, Vera Beths and Mauricio Fucs. He now shares his time between period instrument performance and 'modern' chamber music, appearing with some of the finest musicians in both fields.

As a soloist and director Matthew has appeared with the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment at the Concertgebouw Amsterdam, Konzerthaus Vienna and London's Queen Elizabeth Hall, as well as with Retrospect, The King’s Consort and Florilegium at Wigmore Hall on numerous occasions.

One of the leaders of the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment, other engagements as concertmaster have included projects with The English Concert, Mahler Chamber Orchestra, Netherlands Chamber Orchestra, English National Opera, Dutch National Opera, The King’s Consort and le Concert d’Astrée. He is leader of St James' Baroque, the Classical Opera Company and the Magdalena Consort. Next season he will guest lead the Budapest Festival Orchestra in programmes of 18th century repertoire.

Recent recordings have included a complete set of Purcell trio sonatas with Retrospect Trio, as well as one of J S Bach chamber music with Trevor Pinnock, Jonathan Manson and Emmanuel Pahud.

Matthew teaches baroque violin at the Royal Academy of Music in London.

Sophie Gent  was born in Perth, Western Australia. Following her Bachelor’s degree, she studied at the Royal Conservatorium in The Hague with Ryo Terakado, completing a Diploma of Advanced Studies with the highest distinction.  She was a founding member of ensemble Opera Quarta which was awarded first prize at the International Van Wassenaer Competition and at the International Premio Bonporti Concours. Their first recording, a disc of trio sonatas by JM Leclair (ORF), received a Diapason d’Or in July 2007.

She is active as a soloist, orchestral leader and chamber musician with many early music ensembles including the Ricercar Consort, Pygmalion, Ensemble Masques, Il Gardellino, Les Muffatti, Il Complesso Barocco, Bach Concentus, and La Petite Bande.  She has performed in major international festivals such as Boston Early Music Festival, Montreal Baroque, Itinéraire Baroque, Edinburgh Festival, La Folle Journée de Nantes, and Bruges Early Music Festival.

Sophie plays on a violin by Gennaro Gagliano made in 1732, kindly on loan from the Jumpstart Jr foundation in the Netherlands.

Recent highlights include a series of recitals with harpsichordist Kris Verhelst of works by JS Bach for the concert series AMUZ in Antwerp and BOZAR in Brussels. She returned to Australia in 2011 as guest leader in several productions with Sydney-based Pinchgut Opera Company and will be principal violin with the Collegium Vocale Orchestra for a tour of Asia and recording of Bach’s Mass in B minor.

Image by Peter Adamik

Jonathan Manson enjoys a varied career as a performer on both cello and viola da gamba. He was born in Edinburgh and received his formative training at the International Cello Centre in Scotland under the direction of Jane Cowan, later going on to study with Steven Doane at the Eastman School of Music in New York. A growing fascination for early music led him to Holland, where he studied viola da gamba with Wieland Kuijken. 

He is a founding member of the viol quartet Phantasm, which has since toured worldwide and earned several record prizes, including Gramophone Awards in both 1997 and 2004. For ten years he was the principal cellist of the Amsterdam Baroque Orchestra, with whom he recorded more than 150 Bach cantatas and, together with Yo-Yo Ma, Vivaldi’s Concerto for two cellos. More recently, he was appointed co-principal cello of both the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment and The English Concert, and continues to play with many other leading early music ensembles.  As a concerto soloist, he has appeared during the last season at Wigmore Hall, Carnegie Hall and the South Bank Centre.

Jonathan is an active chamber musician, performing repertoire from the Renaissance to the Romantic, and a long-standing partnership with the harpsichordist Trevor Pinnock has led to critically acclaimed recordings of Rameau's Pièces de clavecin en concert and the Bach sonatas for viola da gamba and harpsichord.  In recent years they have teamed up with the flautist Emmanuel Pahud, leading to two recordings of Bach and successful tours of Europe, the USA and the Far East. Jonathan lives in Oxfordshire and is a professor at the Royal Academy of Music.