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Celebrating its 15th year in 2025, APOLLO5 continues to thrill, move and inspire audiences as one of Britain’s smallest but most impressive vocal groups. Comprising a soprano, mezzo-soprano, two tenors and a bass, the ensemble – which takes its name from the ancient Greek god of music – has become known for its ability to connect with intimacy and directness, showcasing with rich, dynamic and distinctive sound how powerful five voices alone can be. With a versatile approach to music programming, and a repertoire spanning renaissance, classical and contemporary choral works to folk, jazz and pop, the group’s five voices bring the music of five centuries to life.
APOLLO5’s busy touring schedule has taken the group to Europe, the USA and Asia. In addition to performing at prestigious UK venues such as the Wigmore Hall, Cadogan Hall, St John’s Smith Square, the Royal Albert Hall and the Barbican Centre, the group has toured extensively across France, Germany, and other European countries, including recent appearances with an orchestra and a brass band in Lisbon (PT) and Prague (CZ) respectively. The group is a regular guest on BBC Radio 3’s In Tune, and often receives airplay from the national broadcaster, as well as other UK stations Classic FM, Magic Classical and NTS Radio. 2024/25 tour highlights include a three-week trip to the USA under new agency representation, appearances at European festivals such as Common Ground (NL), La Folle Journée (FR), and Koorfestival Vlaanderen (BE), and a performance at the Barbican Hall as part of sister group VOCES8’s 20th Anniversary celebrations in June 2024.
The group has released six solo studio albums on the VOCES8 Records label. Haven, which explores the music of troubled, displaced and persecuted composers and features a full setting of William Byrd’s Mass For Five Voices, was released in 2023 to critical acclaim. Other albums include Where All Roses Go and O Radiant Dawn (both of which charted in the top 5 of the UK Classical Charts), winter disc A Deep But Dazzling Darkness, and Invocations, a piano-accompanied treasury of favourite songs recorded with composer and arranger Fraser Wilson. In January 2025, APOLLO5 will release their seventh album, Anam, a Gaelic-tinged programme of “music to move the soul”. During the pandemic, APOLLO5 was part of the launch of LIVE From London, a series of live broadcasts from many of the world’s leading vocal ensembles and orchestras. These online concerts brought music to the homes of millions during the pandemic, and raised funds for more than 500 artists, composers and production teams in the process; the festival continues to thrive online in today’s post-pandemic world.
As part of the VOCES8 Foundation, APOLLO5 works alongside VOCES8 and Paul Smith to deliver a transformative programme of workshops, masterclasses and concerts to over 40,000 young people annually in the UK, Europe, and the USA. Over the past few seasons, the group has worked with thousands of young people and adults across France as part of Association Sing’In projects, performing in such memorable locations as a football stadium, a circus and a royal abbey to large audiences. Much of APOLLO5’s UK-based education work is carried out at the Foundation’s home, the VOCES8 Centre at St Anne & St Agnes Church in the heart of London. The group has also helped lead an extensive singing project in the London boroughs of Hackney and Tower Hamlets, working with inner-city schools and supporting their teachers. Now in its eighth year, this project is supported by the Masonic Charitable Foundation, the Worshipful Company of Glovers, The Big Give Trust, and a number of private trusts and generous individual donors.
The Verbier Festival Junior Orchestra (VFJO) is an international orchestral training programme for musicians aged 15 to 18. Students are coached by a roster of established players from around the globe, many of whom are Verbier Festival Orchestra alumni and who now perform in prominent orchestras including London Symphony Orchestra, Luzerner Sinfonieorchester, Orchestre de Paris and Frankfurter Opern-und Museumsorchester. Over three weeks, these young musicians learn, rehearse and perform in Verbier and Le Châble. The VFJO’s Music Director is James Gaffigan.
Founded in 2005 and considered one of the top chamber orchestras in the world, the Verbier Festival Chamber Orchestra is made up of alumni of the Verbier Festival Orchestra training programme and who now hold positions in leading international ensembles. The extensive list of orchestras is impressive, and includes, among others, the Vienna, Berlin, and Israel Philharmonics, and the Metropolitan Opera, Royal Concertgebouw, Tonhalle, and London Symphony Orchestras. The VFCO is the resident chamber orchestra of the Verbier Festival, and the six concerts it performs at each summer’s Festival are led by both its acclaimed Music Director, Gábor Takács-Nagy, as well as other illustrious conductors such as Antonio Pappano, Michael Tilson Thomas, and Daniel Harding. The orchestra is often joined by soloists such as András Schiff, Leonidas Kavakos, Joshua Bell, Pinchas Zukerman, Martha Argerich, Yuja Wang, Daniil Trifonov and Gautier Capuçon. As an ambassador of the Verbier Festival, the orchestra’s celebrated tours have brought its electrifying energy to audiences at many of the world’s great concert halls and festivals. Its first recording was in 2006 with the violinist/conductor Maxim Vengerov, and was followed by a 22-concert tour in North America and Europe. Since then, the orchestra has toured regularly throughout the world and, since 2008, has taken up residence for a week each autumn at Schloss Elmau in Bavaria.
The Verbier Festival Orchestra (VFO) is a rite of passage for today’s exceptional young orchestra musicians aged 18 to 28. It is recognized as one of the best training orchestras on the planet. Since its founding in 2000, the orchestra has brought together rising talents with the foremost conductors and soloists of our time.