Philippa and Harriet met at the Royal Academy of Music and discovered their passion for contemporary music as well as the wealth of rarely heard repertoire for two violins. Since they started performing together in 2007, highlights of their performing schedule include recitals at the Barbican Centre as part of the Park Lane Young Artists Series Mostly Mozart Festival, at Goldsmith's Centre for Russian Music, Bedford Park Festival, St James Piccadilly, Corsham Festival, West Road Concert Hall in Cambridge, a tour of Greece and as part of their involvement in the 2D2N Festival of contemporary Music in Odessa, Retorica performed seven new commissions by leading British composers for their project 'Continuous Spectrum – shades of play'. Music has been written and dedicated to the duo by such eminent composers as John McCabe, David Matthews, Dmitri Smirnov, Jim Aitchison, Robert Fokkens, Ben Ellin and Sadie Harrison As well as this exciting new repertoire, Retorica perform duos by Mozart, Haydn, Leclair, Wieniawski, Rawsthorne, Ysaye, Prokofiev, Ligeti, Telemann, Handel, Gorecki, Honneger, as well their arrangements of Bach Inventions and the famous folk-derived duos by Bartok. 

 

This summer, Retorica presented a concert series celebrating British and Kazakh new music at the Brunei Gallery, SOAS, London, in response to the exhibition ‘Kazakh Craftswomen of the rich Mongolian cradle’. Retorica have also recently recorded their debut CD with the support of the RVW Trust, the Rawsthorne Trust and the John Ireland Foundation. Future highlights include a tour of China, the recording of John McCabe's double concerto, concerto and recital performances as the ensemble in residence at the Presteigne Festival and the release of their debut CD featuring works by British composers for two violins.  

 

Hidden festival gem                                                            . 

Few could have expected the concert to be this good...it was a case of not just pretty faces…  for a show of dynamics David Matthews’s 8 Duos and John McCabe’s Spielend for two violins demonstrated the musicality of these two young performers. Their attack and bite was as youthful and invigorating as their obvious enjoyment of their fusion. They loved the sound they made; and so did the audience....it turned out to be one of the gems of the festival”

Reg Burnard, “This is Wiltshire”, Review of Corsham Festival performance, June 2009.

 

“Retorica were a big hit at the Bedford Park Festival” 

 

“Harriet Mackenzie and Philippa Mo are both exceptional violinists; together they have an instinctive rapport which makes them one of the most exciting duos around”