What happens when you invite an audience to a concert without telling them what they're going to hear?
For Echor Music, it's become something of a tradition. Since 2021, Echor has brought together some of the UK's finest musicians to create imaginative musical experiences in the Chiltern Hills. From solo performances to full orchestras, intimate chamber concerts to ambitious theatrical collaborations, no two events are quite alike, and audiences have come to enjoy not knowing exactly what's in store.
Founded in 2020 by violinist Eva Þórarinsdóttir and her partner, violist and conductor Nicholas Bootiman, Echor was born from a desire to bring together the exceptional musicians residing in the Chilterns to create extraordinary live performances for their local communities.
It began with Nordic Giants, an atmospheric exploration of Grieg, Sibelius and Nordic folk music in a remote agricultural barn, complete with blazing braziers and a hidden choir. Since then, Echor has explored Mozart's life in Amadé, brought actor Anton Lesser into the world of Ravel in Voyage, and reflected on music through war and peace in Standstill.
More recent highlights include The Door, bringing Kafka's Metamorphosis to life through music, theatre and movement; Parasite, a twisted imaginary dinner party with some of classical music's most notorious composers, staged throughout multiple chambers of a historic paper mill; and Tenebræ, a candlelit musical reimagining of the ancient Easter ritual. A three-day midsummer festival, Helios, celebrated folk and fable through classical music, blues, poetry and storytelling, including The Talemaker, a theatrical production in which actor Robert Wilfort brought the extraordinary world of Sergei Prokofiev to life.
Most of Echor's creative work happens in-house. Eva writes original scripts and shapes the visual identity of each event, while Nick composes original music, including a score for F. W. Murnau’s Nosferatu. Both perform, arrange and shape each production from its earliest ideas down to the smallest details, sometimes quite literally, as when they found themselves screwing miniature doorknobs onto individual concert programmes for The Door.
Performing in atmospheric churches, barns, mills and unexpected spaces across the Chilterns, Echor has built a wonderfully loyal audience whose trust and curiosity have become central to its identity. Its ambition remains simple:
to inspire local communities by creating breathtaking musical experiences right on their doorstep.