Reimagining Historical Voices
Tim Braithwaite
The initiative Cacophony! is primarily coordinated by founder and artistic director, Tim Braithwaite. Based in The Netherlands, Tim’s career is multi-faceted within the broad field of "Early Music."
Having read Music at Royal Holloway University of London, Tim continued his studies in Early Music Singing and Early Music Theory at the Royal Conservatoire in The Hague, where he now lectures on the history of singing alongside teaching practical classes on historical vocal pedagogy and improvisation.
As a performer, Tim enjoys a regular concert schedule, appearing both as a soloist as well as with a number of leading ensembles within the field of 'Early Music' including Cappella Pratensis, Amsterdam Baroque, Vox Luminis, and De Nederlandse Bachvereniging.
In addition to his active performing career, Tim is in demand as both a lecturer and workshop leader at a number of top European conservatoires, having been invited to teach at institutions such as the University of Amsterdam, Het Utrechts Conservatorium, and the Hochschule für Künste in Bremen, focusing particularly on issues in performance practice before 1600.
Photo by Sander Heezen

"I found the operatic tenors, the rubati and glissandi [in historical recordings of Renaissance polyphony] hysterical at first, but after the workshop I found the current mainstream baroque practice extremely boring. It really changed my way of hearing aspects of the piece, the parts, the parameters, the registers, and also made me rethink the meanings we attribute to sound."