The group was formed in Manchester in January 2011. We are friends and colleagues who draw on a wealth of experience gained through many years of music-making. Since our formation, we have given over 200 concerts, and have an enormous and varied repertoire of chamber music. The Pleyel Ensemble was delighted to be chosen as Making Music Recommended Artists for the 2016/17 and 2019/’20 seasons and has appeared at Music Societies and Festivals all over the UK.
We take our name from the Classical composer Ignaz Pleyel (1757-1831), a brilliant musician and businessman, who, in addition to writing a large body of accessible chamber music, helped increase the popularity of this wonderful kind of music-making amongst amateurs and professionals as both music publisher and piano manufacturer in the early nineteenth century.
As an ensemble comprising wind, strings and piano we are able to offer a diverse repertoire with many instrumental combinations available. From a Trout to a Bumblebee or an Archduke to a Gypsy, anything is possible! We’re open to bookings!
Currently we are running our own series, ‘Beethoven Plus!’ in Didsbury, Manchester, exploring all his piano-based chamber music, having already completed similar series based on the works of Mozart & Haydn.
We make British music a priority. Between us we have commissioned or premiered more than a hundred works and recognise both the importance and necessity of continuing this work. The Pleyels have also recorded four CDs which include premiere recordings of much of the chamber music of the British composer Arnold Cooke (1906-2005), now available through our website here.
‘You are such wonderful communicators – both of the emotional range and variety of the music you played, and of your own infectious enjoyment – that Saturday’s concert was a very special one, hugely relished by the audience.’
Banstead Arts Feb. 2020
‘The (Middlewich & District) Society enjoyed a performance by the Pleyel Ensemble that members said was both ‘enthralling and exciting”.
Crewe Chronicle