Figure
Music of the past, made present.
FIGURE asks what gave historical music its force — then creates performances that make it felt now.
FIGURE is a London ensemble making music of the past live in the present. Through period instruments, staging, recomposition and new commissions, it creates performances with the force of something happening for the first time.
Founded in the wake of the pandemic, our vision has been shaped by a burning desire to bring music back to live audiences; to offer more than be consumed at home; and to break free from traditional formalities.
In the first of a series of baroque and contemporary music as Guest Artist as LSO St Luke's, FIGURE is joined by Australian mezzo-soprano Lotte Betts-Dean, winner the 2024 Young Artist Award at the Royal Philharmonic Society Awards, and described by The Guardian as ‘a singer of rich and fearless versatility’.
Centred around Bach’s cantata Mein Herze schwimmt im Blut, BWV 199, the concert will feature three world premieres, commissioned by FIGURE in response to Early Music, from Alex Paxton, Lara Agar, and Oliver Leith, as well as more music by contemporaries of Johann Sebastian Bach.
MY HEART SWIMS IN BLOOD
4th November · LSO St Luke's · 7.30pm
We have our first recording coming out in March 2027 with Delphian Records:
Vivaldi's Four Seasons for Percussion and Strings, arr. Larter / Waxman
Enjoy this teaser from the recording sessions at British Grove Studio with our amazing soloist, James Larter.
The video was filmed and edited by Foxbrush Films.
Above is the world premiere of Isabella Gellis' Lament, which we commissioned in 2026, a piece composed in response to Biber's Battalia. Our first concert of early and contemporary music, SIDE BY SIDE, for which we commissioned Joanna Ward's piece A Sweet Romance, earned FIGURE the description from Flora Willson in The Guardian as being "unequivocally impressive, its sound invigorating, its commitment absolute". Below is a performance of Handel's Concerto Grosso in D major, Op. 6 No. 5 from the same concert, led by James Toll.
An extract from Reflections and Remembrance, our secularised Requiem (Charpentier / Fauré), with Donald Macleod.
Frederick Waxman
Founder and Artistic Director
Frederick Waxman a conductor and keyboard player from London. He is the Artistic Director of FIGURE, which reimagines work in the spirit of its historical context. Last year as artist in residence at Stone Nest, Soho, FIGURE was acclaimed in the national press – their contemporary and baroque project SIDE BY SIDE was described by Flora Willson in The Guardian as “unequivocally impressive, its sound invigorating, its commitment absolute”; and their production OUR MOTHER, a staging of Pergolesi’s Stabat Mater with new commissioned music by Alex Mills and starring Dame Emma Kirkby, was praised by Tim Ashley in The Guardian for its “timeless directness and simplicity”. Last summer Frederick was Assistant Conductor to Jonathan Cohen at Glyndebourne on their production of Handel’s Saul, and he has previously assisted Dinis Sousa with BBCSO. In November 2025 he conducted the world premiere of James Larter's concerto for percussion, TOROS, with Sinfonia Smith Square.
Alongside classical music he plays jazz and writes music for film and theatre – an all-time highlight being Timetravellers at Teatr Lesi in Lviv, working with a cast of refugees from the conflict then confined to Donbas. He recently recomposed Monteverdi’s Possente Spirto for Iestyn Davies to sing with the Berlin Soloists, a quartet comprising players from the Berlin Philharmonic. After its premiere in Istanbul on 14th June, they will perform it in various venues around the world including Carnegie Hall and Wigmore Hall.
Frederick read Experimental Psychology at University College, Oxford, where he was an Academic Exhibitioner and Choral Scholar, before completing further studies at GSMD.
Photo by Will Coates-Gibson, foxbrush films
