Il Capo
Baroque Ensemble
A seasoned baroque ensemble of accomplished and virtuosic musicians, blending years of expertise with the refined elegance of mature artistry. Their performances are characterized by a deep understanding of historical styles, emotional depth, and a masterful command of their instruments, delivering interpretations that resonate with authenticity and sophistication.
Our inauguration project is to perform and record the music of a Venetian composer Diogenio Bigaglia (1678 -1745 ).
Thanks to a musicologist Michael Talbot, we are delighted to introduce this unknown composer's beautiful vocal and instrumental work, joined by two award-winning singers, Isabelle Haile soprano and Meili Li countertenor, in our concerts and recording!
Inauguration concert "Caelum in Venetiis"
Music by Bigaglia and Scarlatti
Date : Sunday 7 September 2025
Time : 18:00
Venue : St Saviour Church Chalk Farm, London
tickets : £15 ( advanced online )
£20 (on the door)
Isabelle Haile soprano
with Il Capo
Asako Ogawa direction harpsichord
Oliver Webber baroque violin
Nikolay GInov baroque cello
Kristiina Watt theorbo & baroque guitar
A winner of an audience prize ( London International Handel Competition 2024)
Il Capo - Who we are,,
Asako Ogawa director, harpsichord
Asako Ogawa is one of the today’s most versatile performers on the keyboard, from virginals, harpsichord, fortepiano to modern piano. She is originally from Japan and based in London. As a harpsichordist, Asako performs both as a soloist, and as a continuo player in UK, Europe and Japan. She was also a baroque repertoire coach at Guildhall School of Music & Drama (2009-2023).
Recently she issued Handel’s 8 Great Suite album with the First Hand Records label (FHR142), which was critically acclaimed. The BBC Music Magazine awarded 5 stars and the critic Nicholas Anderson said “Asako Ogawa explores the rich variety of styles with rhythmic suppleness and a lively feeling for characterisation..” In the Gramophone Magazine, Jed Distler, wrote “In all, her Handel Suites count among the best recorded versions”. American magazine Fanfare said “ -do yourself a favour and take a listen to this release. You may hear qualities that you’ve never been aware before. And you may be surprised at just how dynamic the instrument can be in the right hands”. Her previous album, J.S Bach’s 6 Partitas album (FHR92), was also critically acclaimed and received four-star reviews in The Independent and The BBC Music Magazine.
Asako has been performing regularly in the London Handel Festival, Handel & Hendrix Museum, London and Händel-festspiele, Hallean der Saale, German . Her other main appearances include: Handel's Alcina and Gluck's Orfeo ed Euridice with Opera North, Handel's Messiah with ENO (broadcast on BBC2), Brighton Early Music Festival, BBC Radio 3, British Harpsichord Society recital, and the Georgian Concert Society, Edinburgh.
Oliver Webber has been exploring the world of historical violins and their relatives since the early 1990s. He has been a passionate advocate for bringing research and performance together: his work in the field of string-making has been transformative, inspiring individuals and ensembles worldwide, and his study of historical bow-holds has played a role in several important recordings, including Gabrieli’s award-winning readings of Purcell in 2019. For the Taverner Consort's recording of L'Orfeo in 2012, Oliver was invited to lead the string band, collaborating closely with Andrew Parrott on modelling every aspect of Monteverdi's own string band, including the elusive violini piccoli alla francese.
Oliver is a professor of baroque violin and viola at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama, London. He was appointed a Fellow of the Higher Education Academy in 2020, and used the absence of performing work to develop new teaching methods drawing on his passion for ornamentation: he now teaches courses on ornamentation in a range of styles for singers and instrumentalists at the Guildhall School, and his 2021 Resonus Classics recording of virtuoso Italian diminutions, Con Arte e Maestria, was described as ‘dazzling yet intelligent’ – Planet Hugill. He is regularly invited to give lectures and workshops on the topic of ornamentation internationally, most recently in Norway, Czechia and Germany.
He is the artistic director of the Monteverdi String Band, who have been immersing themselves in earlier baroque styles since being invited to perform with the Birmingham Opera Company’s Monteverdi cycle in 2003-5. Oliver's fascination for languages and the intermingling of art forms in the early seventeenth century has provided a rich vein of material for the Band; alongside consolidating a reputation for a deep understanding of standard repertoire such as Monteverdi’s Vespers, they have carved a niche for programmes exploring the wider culture of the era: over the years, programmes have at various times included sword fights, poetry, live scientific experiments and extravagant lighting effects. Their first recording, The Madrigal Reimagined, was released in summer 2024, and critics have variously described the disc as ‘an extraordinary CD’ (Early Music Review), ‘a great achievement and a model of creative programming and performance’ (Johann van Veen), and ‘a wonderfully satisfying recital’ (Planet Hugill).
Oliver lives in London with his wife and 2 sons, although they spend as much time as possible in the mountains of Liguria
Kristiina Watt lute, theorbo, early guitars
Kristiina Watt enjoys a busy concert schedule as an orchestral and chamber musician. She performs regularly with leading groups in the historical performance scene and beyond such as the Academy of Ancient Music, BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra, BBC Singers, The English Concert, Scottish Chamber Orchestra and Scottish Ensemble. Kristiina particularly enjoys working with singers and regularly plays for consorts such as Ensemble Pro Victoria, The Marian Consort, Musica Secreta and Vache Baroque.
Kristiina also performs as a singer specialising in renaissance and baroque repertoire and particularly self-accompanied performance practice. In addition to formal training at the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland she has been fortunate to receive coachings from Dame Emma Kirkby at the Guildhall School and continues her vocal studies with Dr Patricia Macmahon.
Kristiina is an enthusiastic advocate for the creation of modern repertoire for old instruments and is currently fundraising with her ensemble The Portrait Players for a new commission for soprano, theorbo and viol by composer Clare Elton on the sonnets of 16th century poet Louise Labe.
Kristiina is a graduate of the Guildhall School of Music&Drama, Royal Conservatoire of Scotland and the University of Glasgow
Nikolay Ginov baroque cello, viola da gamba, bass violin
Nikolay Ginov is a versatile Bulgarian-British cellist , born in Plovdiv and lives in UK. He performs on Modern, Classical and Baroque cello, Viola da gamba and Bass violin. His wide ranging repertoire includes masterpieces from 17th to 21st Centuries.
Nikolay was a member of the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment and performed under the baton of Sir Roger Norlington, Sir Simon Rattle in several concert tours and BBC PROMS.
As a chamber musician, Nikolay took part in several international festivals such as “Musica-Nova”Sofia, “ March Music Days” Rousse, in Bulgaria, “Oberstdorf Summer Music festival” Germany and “Banff Summer Music festival” Canada. Internationally acclaimed groups and artists he has worked with include the Freude Piano Trio, the Sonore String Quartet, London Schubert Players, Trevor Pinnock and Laurence Cummings to name a few.
Prior coming to UK, Nikolay was the soloist of “Dobrin Petkov” Symphony Orchestra in Plovdiv and “Pancho Vladigerov” Symphony Orchestra in Sofia. He made records for Plovdiv Radio, Bulgarian National Radio and Television.After moving to UK in 2001, Nikolay performed in major concert venues such as Wigmore Hall, St John’s Smith Square, Queen Elizabeth Hall, and Purcell Room with various chamber ensembles.
He has completed his MMus and Fellowship as a modern cellist under Stefan Popov at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama, and completed his PG Diploma as a baroque cellist with distinction under the late Jennifer Ward Clarke at the Royal Academy of Music. He was awarded a Dip RAM and the John McAslan Prize for his outstanding final recital. Nikolay is a founding member of various chamber music ensembles, including 'Scholars and Gentlemen' with whom he performed at the Valletta International Baroque Festival.
Bigaglia Project :
We are excited to introduce beautiful vocal and instrumental music by a Venetian composer Diogenio Bigaglia.
There are beautiful duets, motets, and sonatas!
The musicologist Michael Talbot, Emeritus Professor of Music at the University of Liverpool, writes:
It is a pleasure and a privilege to be contributing ideas and materials towards Il Capo’s planned recording consisting entirely of music by Diogenio Bigaglia, This Venetian composer (1678–1745), a monk belonging to the Benedictine community of San Giorgio Maggiore in his native city, has interested me for a long time, and in the past few years I have worked extensively on him, researching his life, writing articles about his music and editing some of his music.
There is much to investigate, for Bigaglia, despite the heavy demands of his “day job”, was a highly productive composer admired and appreciated all over Europe during his lifetime, who wrote sacred vocal music of many kinds (from oratorios and choral music down to lightly scored chamber works), secular vocal music (cantatas and canzonettas for solo voice and chamber duets) and instrumental chamber music (sonatas for a variety of instruments and a few concertos).
Recorder players and, to some extent, players of other instruments such as the violin, cello and oboe, “discovered” his music many years ago, but his vocal music in all genres mostly still awaits its entry into modern concert life and the world of recordings. In many ways, Bigaglia’s music resembles that of Vivaldi – hardly surprising since he was born only a week after his more famous fellow Venetian – but he has a very distinct musical personality that includes a liking for airy textures, a taste for experimentation, a natural feeling for melody and counterpoint and a rather un-monkish relish for humorous effects that reaches its peak in a pair of cantatas in Venetian dialect on mundane subjects of local interest. Lovers of Venetian baroque music are already familiar with three other composers contemporary with Bigaglia who were officially, like him, amateurs (dilettanti di musica): Albinoni and the two Marcello brothers. Now is the time to let Bigaglia take his place alongside them.
