Oliver Webber | Violin

Sitting directly across from the leader in a Gabrieli concert, you will usually see Oliver Webber leading the second violins, but in addition to his playing, he's passionate about research. With leader Catherine Martin and a loan from the Gabrieli Trust, he commissioned two 'Monteverdi' violins from luthier George Stoppani, which feature prominently on the Gabrieli recording of Monteverdi's 1610 Vespers. We asked Oliver to talk to us about his varied life as a freelance musician.

How did you get your start in music and what inspired you to pursue period instrument performance?
I grew up in a musical household - my mother had been a talented pianist, and although sadly there was never space in our house for a piano, we would listen to her collection of LPs, ranging from J. S. Bach to Stéphane Grappelli. Much as I enjoyed listening to music, when my mother took me, unannounced, to Saturday morning music school one February morning in 1976, where I was handed a violin, I was extremely grumpy and took part with great reluctance!

Some years later I found myself at Wells Cathedral School, where the head of strings, Mark Knight, was a great supporter of period instrument performance. He instilled an awareness of style in all his students, and quite a few of us have ended up in the historical performance world.

My route was a roundabout one, as I ended up taking a science degree, but was persuaded (by Mark Knight) to give music a serious go, which was probably just as well, having achieved a barely respectable degree after flitting between disciplines for three years! I do strongly recommend History of Science as a basis for a career in early music, though...

As a freelance musician, you must have quite a varied life. What sorts of work do you do?
I work for several chamber ensembles, including The Parley of Instruments, the London Handel Players and Passacaglia, and lead the Greenwich Baroque Orchestra and Ludus Baroque. Like most of us, I freelance with many different ensembles, and cover repertoire from the earliest years of the violin's existence to the final decades of gut strings. I also direct my own ensemble, the Monteverdi String Band, specialising in early 17th-century Italian repertoire. My modern violin still plays a part in my life: I have an occasional contemporary ensemble "Coeur Simple" with viola and soprano, and I teach at Sevenoaks School.

I teach Classical Studies at the Guildhall School, and am a visiting professor at Trinity Laban, and occasionally visit other conservatoires around Europe to present my research to students.

I've never been one to shy away from the trickier questions that crop up in the field of early music: many years ago I began looking into the thorny issue of historical stringing, and I have been lucky enough to encounter many supportive friends and colleagues, especially within the Gabrieli fold, to put into practice what recent research has revealed. We took this kind of cooperation to a new level with the "Monteverdi violins" project. (Click here for more information on this fascinating project.)

What do you enjoy about working with Gabrieli Consort & Players and what makes the experience different?
Exactly this kind of approach: a happy synthesis of scholarship and practical musicianship, and a supportive environment in which it's possible to experiment and be daring.

Tell us some of your favourite repertoire.
I have a particular soft spot for the early Venetian repertoire, although I have enormously enjoyed the big classical projects. The all-gut Purcell's Fairy Queen in the BBC Proms in 2005 was a particular highlight - it was the first time we'd performed with a full string band using historical stringing. I remember especially the magical "Hush no more", with two muted violins playing on our gut G strings to a full Royal Albert Hall.

How did you initially get involved with Gabrieli?
Rachel Podger, another early influence on my career, was leading the Gabrielis when I had just started out, and thanks to her, one day in summer 1992, while wondering what to do after escaping from institutional life at the Guildhall, I got a message from my flatmate to the effect that "some bloke called McCreesh" had phoned, adding, "I think I've heard of him" and "did I want to go to France to play some Bach?" 17 years later I'm still here!