Ensemble Arcadiana

Ensemble Arcadiana is a flexible-roster, British chamber ensemble led by violinist Thomas Bowes, performing repertoire ranging from the Classical tradition to works by living composers. What sets it apart from most British chamber groups is the central role it has assumed as the principal performing and recording vehicle for the chamber music of Eleanor Alberga, one of Britain's most distinctive contemporary composers. The ensemble's performances are noted for their energy and directness, qualities that suit Alberga's rhythmically driven, expressively immediate musical language, which draws on her Jamaican background, her years working with the London Contemporary Dance Theatre, and a modernist compositional approach that never loses sight of emotional communication. In 2025, it presented three of Alberga's larger-scale works for chamber orchestra: Dancing with the Shadow, On a Bat's Back I Do Fly, and Langvad, conducted by Thomas Kemp.