New-Zealand born violinist Penelope Spencer (1970) studied violin from 1986 – 1990 with Professor David Nalden at Auckland University, New Zealand. She then went on to study Baroque violin with Professor Sigiswald Kuijken at the Royal Conservatory in The Hague from 1991 to 94, and from 1995 with Professor Alda Stuurop at the University of Utrecht graduating in 1998 with the highest performance diploma Uitvoerend Musicus, cum Laudae.
In the period 1993 – 95 Penelope toured internationally and recorded with La Petite Bande (directed by Sigiswald Kuijken). In 1993 Penelope co-founded the Baroque ensemble Spiritus Novus with harpsichordist Naoki Ueo, and backed by organizations such as the Nederlands Impresariaat, performed 27 chamber music concerts in the Netherlands, Spain, and Japan.
From 1995 to 2001 Penelope was a member of the Nederlandse Bachvereniging orchestra, touring and performing in 14 major projects including the Bach Passions and Cantatas, and works by Mozart, Haydn and Handel with emminent conductors including Gustav Leonhardt.
In 1999, Penelope was invited to join the first violin section of the English Baroque Soloists, directed by Sir John Eliot Gardiner. In the four years she was a member of that orchestra she performed in 78 concerts internationally and recorded on over 45 CDs. During the Bach year (2000), she performed and recorded 158 Bach Cantatas as part of Gardiner´s famous Bach Cantata Pilgrimage.
From 2001 until 2003 Penelope was also a member of John Eliot Gardiner’s Orchestre Romantique et Revolutionnaire with which she performed in 24 concerts internationally and recorded on 3 CDs of music by Carl Maria von Weber, Haydn and Mendelssohn.
In 2002 Penelope founded the London - St. Albans concert series Realm of Music, the aim of which was to bring world-class Baroque performances to a wider audience. Between 2002 – 2005 she concieved, sold, organised and performed in 9 corporate events in major London venues, and established a regular concert series in St. Albans Town Hall, which was hailed as the hottest classical music ticket in town (St. Albans Observer, 03/02/2005). In 2006 and 2007 Penelope took time off to have her two children!
In 2008 Penelope was appointed Concertmaster of the New London Consort and violinist in the chamber ensemble Musicians of the Globe (both directed by Philip Pickett). She went on to perform in as principal violinist with Pickett for a further 7 years with 32 international tours in 27 different countries. As well as the standard Baroque repertoire, Penelope also enjoyed the cross-over collaborations with Musicians of the Globe, Folk-Rock legend Richard Thomson, and the brilliant Galician Folk-rock Piper Carlos Nunez.
From 2015 to 2017 Penelope performed and toured with the Armonico Consort orchestra and chamber ensemble in 24 concerts, including a number of innovative concert-events with the British wine writer, television presenter and broadcaster Oz Clarke. Penelope’s passion to bring Baroque music to a wider audience also inspired the collaboration with author-illustrator James Mayhew, with a number of sell-out performances of Vivaldi’s Four Seasons and Shakespeare’s music, during which Mayhew painted in real time to the music.
In 2017, Penelope moved to Munich with her husband and two children. She performs regularly as Concertmaster with various baroque orchestras in Germany, for example in the Weihnachtsoratorium, Mathäus Passion and Johannes Passion, and is also to be seen regularly at the Himmelfahrtskirche in München Sendling leading the Bach Cantata performances, or playing for the Church services.
Penelope is a passionate teacher, and is in demand as a tutor for masterclasses and seminars, as well as teaching privately to a rapidly growing class of baroque violin students in west Munich. To accommodate long-distance learners and international students, she continues to develop her online baroque violin school, available in both English and German and at both modern and baroque pitch for both violin and viola. The videos are based on the famous Geminiani Violin method of 1751.
In September 2021, she was soloist and director in an innovative multimedia production of Vivaldi’s Four Seasons at the Tage der Barockmusik Schrobenhausen Festival, featuring projections of nature photography onto three huge screens behind the orchestra combined with atmospheric lighting and sound design. Alongside this she has initiated other innovative projects and concerts, also involving schoolchildren (more videos can be found on her Youtube Channel).
Penelope has founded Munich’s first Amateur Baroque Orchestra, the Greifenberger Barockorchester, which meets monthly for workshops and gives public Concerts.
Penelope’s project to record lecture-recitals of all six solo sonatas and partitas by J.S. Bach is well underway, and the first and second videos have met with much appreciation and acclaim from both students and performers internationally.
Penelope plays on a violin by Gennaro Vinaccia, Naples ca.1755.