|
Biographies 2008
Anne Allen flute
‘[Anne] had a profound impact on flute players and audiences alike. What has also always struck me about her flute playing is that she does not seem to have any technical problems that stand in the way of her natural, flowing style... inspiring talent... ’Wissam Boustany, International Soloist.
Anne Allen quickly became recognised as an exciting young flautist, graduating from Cambridge University and the Royal Northern College of Music with Distinction. Performing internationally, she has played in all the major UK venues and abroad in Europe, the Far East, Africa, Russia and South America. Anne has performed solo concerti with orchestras including the BBC Concert Orchestra and in June this year will be performing Frank Martin’s Ballade in the Cadogan Hall, London, accompanied by the Southbank Sinfonia.
Anne has won many prizes; in April 2007 she was chosen as the ‘outstanding’ woodwind winner of the Computers In Personnel International Concerto Competition. Anne was Norfolk Young Musician of 1997 and in 2001 she was a finalist in the BBC Radio 2 Young Musician of the Year. She has also performed on Radio 3, BBC TV and Sky TV. Anne was chosen as one of six musicians from around the country to be part of the Blackheath Concert Halls Young Artists’ Platform, 2003-4.
An accomplished orchestral player Anne has appeared with many professional orchestras and opera companies including the BBC Philharmonic and English National Ballet. Winning the Audience Favour Prize in Moscow and appearing as Principal Flute in the Orchestra of the World with the Russian Army conducted by Valery Gergiev have been highlights in her orchestral career so far.
Anne plays for many private occasions from parties and weddings to corporate events – even openings of buildings! Clients range from members of the Royal Family to companies such as Pricewaterhousecoopers. Highlights in this side of her career include performing a flute concerto to the Beckhams!
Anne enjoys the lighter side of music making, playing for shows and taking great pleasure in providing entertainment for a variety of occasions and events across the UK. Having spent a great deal of time in hospital recovering from a bone tumour, a highly valued side to Anne’s career is performing for the charity Music In Hospitals which brings entertainment to the ill and elderly within the community. Anne plays in various chamber groups that perform a wide range of repertoire in many locations and she takes great pleasure in tailoring each booking to the requirements of each client. It was the wide choice of musical styles and instrumental combinations that initially drew Anne to a career as a performer and the dialogue between instruments inspired the name Duologue for her latest CD of flute and piano works.
Anne was a Felicity Belfield Music Trust beneficiary and has played at the Meeting House several times in Trust Concerts. It is a pleasure to welcome her back.
‘Anne played the flute with sweet clarity every night’ The Times, Nov. 2006
Christopher Taylor pianist and composer
Chris Taylor trained at the Royal Academy of Music where he won an exhibition to study piano accompaniment. He is in regular demand for recitals throughout the UK and abroad and is as happy playing seventeenth century continuo as he is playing contemporary classical music and jazz. He was composer for Voice Truth and Invention Suite, works for large choir and orchestra premiered at the Royal Albert Hall in 2001 and 2003, and Imagine a World, a full length music-theatre piece performed at the Wimbledon theatre in July 2002. In 2004 he composed the opera Uncle Remus, premiered at the Hackney Empire, and a commission for the London Philharmonic Orchestra premiered at the Royal Festival Hall, then in July of that year co-wrote the music for the American Democratic Election Campaign's promotion video. He is currently busy with various new commissions and recitals and was just recently one of five winners of Greenwich Theatre's 'Ten Minute Musical Challenge'
Anna Devin soprano
Anna Devin is in her final year of her B.A. in Music Performance under Colette Mc Gahon-Tosh at the Royal Irish Academy of Music. Since October 2004 Anna has been a Young Associate Artist with Opera Theatre Company and in July 2006 she made her UK stage debut as Virtue and Damigella in Monteverdi’s The Coronation of Poppea with OTC at Buxton Opera Festival and Aldeburgh Proms. Last summer Anna participated in the Britten-Pears Young Artist Programme, she was a soloist in Purcell’s King Arthur conducted by Laurence Cummings and attended masterclasses on French song with Malcolm Martineau. Although still in full-time education Anna is highly sought after on the concert platform she was soloist with the Ulster Orchestra for Viennese Opera Gala Concerts in the New Year, tour including Millenium Forum, Derry and the Waterfront Belfast, broadcasting on Radio Ulster Classical Sounds. As part of the Samuel Beckett Centenary Festival, Anna performed the world premier of ‘One Fine Day’ by Micheal Holohan. She also performed a coffee concert for Belfast Festival at Queen, broadcasting on Radio Ulster. She has been described as “vocally expressive and flexible with a deliously burnished coloratura” Opera Now
Anna is multiple prizewinner at the Irish Feiseanna. Last year she also won the Thelma King Award for Young Singers in Bath, UK, the Audience Prize at the Handel Singing Competition 2007, the Acton Travel Bursary at the RIAM and received third prize at the Great Elm Awards in Wigmore Hall. Highlights of her solo work include Mozart’s Exsultate Jubilate and Requiem, Orff’s Carmina Burana, Pergolesi Stabat Mater, Rosinni’s Petie Messe Sollonelle, Handel’s Messiah, Belinda in Purcell’s Dido and Aeneas, Damigella and Virtue in Monteverdi's The Coronation of Poppea. Future Engagements include Handel’s Gloria at the NCH, Monteverdi’s Vespers at the Pro Cathedral, Bach’s St. John’s Passion at the NCH, and Music for Wexford Recital. Anna will be continuing her studies in the autumn on the Opera Course at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama, London. April 2007
Aoife O’Sullivan piano
Aoife O’Sullivan was born in Dublin and studied at the College of Music in Dublin with Frank Heneghan and later at the R.I.A.M. with Dr.John O’Conor. She graduated from Trinity College Dublin in 1998 with an honors degree in music. During the summers of 1996-1998 she studied at the Mozarteum in Salzburg with Andrejz Jasinski and Sergio Perticaroli. In August 1999 she studied with Mikael Eliasen at Centro Studi Italiani and then with Wolfram Rieger at the Max Reger Tage in Germany. In September 1999 she went as a Fulbright Scholar to study with Mikael Eliasen who is Head of Opera and Voice at the Curtis Institute of Music and In 2001 she went on staff for her final two years. She worked on staff at the Chautauqua Festival in NY from 2000-2003, a course run by Marlena Malas. She has played for masterclasses given by Ann Murray DBE, Sir Thomas Allen, Thomas Hampson and Anna Moffo. Aoife worked on Zaide at the Britten Pears Young Artist Programme in June 2004 and then on Turn of the Screw for the Cheltenham Festival wth Paul Kildea. She was awarded the Geoffrey Parsons Trust Award in March 2005. In September 2005 she performed with Ann Murray in chamber arrangements of Mahler and Berg and also in recitals with Gweneth Ann Jeffers and Wendy Dawn Thompson all at the Wigmore Hall. She will also be performing there in the young lieder recital series in early 2008 with Sinead Campbell and Allan Clayton. Aoife was on the music staff at the Wexford Opera Festival in 2005 and 2006 and was repetiteur for Opera Ireland on Dead Man Walking for their Winter Season in 2007. She also coaches at the National Opera Studio in London.
Ensemble na Mara
Tom Hankey violin
Jessica Beeston viola
Eilidh Martin cello
Alasdair Beatson piano
The prizewinning Ensemble na Mara is a group of young musicians committed to accomplished and energetic chamber music performance. Whilst music for string trio and piano quartet form their core repertoire, the ensemble regularly explores works for different and more exotic instrumentations.
Recent performances include concerts in Garsington Manor, the Rosehill Theatre, Sheffield's Crucible Theatre and London's Reform Club. As a result of winning the 2006 Royal Overseas League Chamber Music Prize, the ensemble has also performed in the Brighton Festval, Edinburgh Fringe Festival, Cadogan Hall and Wigmore Hall. They hold additional awards from the Tunnell Trust Music Club Scheme and the Kirckman Concert Society.
The Ensemble's commitment to contemporary music has led to performances of music by Stuart Macrae, Edward McGuire, Philip Cashian, James MacMillan, Cheryl Francis Hoad, Johnny Herford and American composer Mathew Fuerst. With assistance from the RVW Trust, they commissioned a new piano quartet from the composer Timothy Salter - a greatly rewarding collaboration which will lead to a CD recording.
Musical Opinion Magazine listed Ensemble na Mara amongst their Rising Stars.
The Oboe Band
Chamber, Theatrical & Ceremonial Music from the 17th & 18th Centuries Performed on Period Instruments.
The Oboe Band brings together four young professional musicians who specialise in historical performance. The group was formed in 2004 to revive this once hugely popular ensemble of oboes and bassoons and to explore its rich and varied repertoire. Their music includes pieces for theatre by Purcell and his contemporaries, ceremonial music and chamber sonatas from composers throughout Europe.
In September 2006 The Band was appointed Ensemble in Residence at the Royal College of Music. From this prestigious position its members have aimed to promote Historical Performance and its many aspects through coaching for students, giving concerts and lecture recitals. The Residency has now been extended to the academic year 2007-8, when the current activities will expand to include further research into manuscripts held in the College's library culminating in a staged performance of a Restoration Play with its original incidental music.
Past performances have included recitals at the Tilford Bach Festival, The Pangbourne Festival and the York Early Music Festival, as finalists in the Young Artists Competition. Future plans include a performance at the London Handel Society's annual gala dinner, a lecture recital at Huddersfield University and series of recitals for both the Handel Society in the West and the Tilford Bach Society.
"The Band has abundant vitality and freshness" Early Music Today, Volume 14 no. 6 Jeremy Barlow
"I'm personally thrilled to have these four excellent ambassadors to promote the riches of historical performance" Muso Magazine, October / November 2006 Colin Lawson
|
Members of The Oboe Band
Sarah Humphrys oboes is a regular performer at Shakespeare's Globe Theatre, and for the summer season 2007 will appear as a musical director. She studies at the Royal College of Music and the Schola Cantorum Basiliensis in Switzerland. Since finishing her post as Principal Oboe with the European Union Baroque Orchestra she has worked throughout Europe, including with Cantus Cölln, and as a concerto soloist with the Freiburg Baroque Orchestra. Other engagements include those with the Gabrielli Consort, Charivari Agreable, the Hanover Band and the Dufay Collective. Sarah has just finished a film recording for "Shrek 3".
Frances Norbury oboes studied at St. John's College, Cambridge and the Royal Academy of Music, and now works as a freelance oboist throughout the UK and Europe. She plays regularly with The King’s Consort and The Gabrieli Consort, and has also worked for The Sixteen, Irish Baroque Orchestra, The Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment, Musica Antiqua St Petersburg, Classical Opera Company and The Early Opera Company. In 2004 Frances was awarded a Fellowship by the Winston Churchill Memorial Trust, and spent a month in Paris, Berlin and Vienna researching baroque dance. Future plans include tours with the European Brandenburg Ensemble.
Joel Raymond oboes studied at the Birmingham Conservatoire and the Royal Academy of Music. He now works as an orchestral player and soloist throughout the UK. He has also performed chamber music in Germany, Holland, Sweden, and regularly plays principal oboe with Barokanerne in Norway. He has also been principal oboe with The European Union Baroque Orchestra and is a regular performer with The Hanover Band. In 2005 Joel set up a workshop to make oboes and other wind instruments based on historical originals.
Rebecca Stockwell bassoon currently holds a post with Les Siècles of Paris, an orchestra specialising in the performance of music from all periods on historical instruments. She studied at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama, and completed her orchestra training in Saintes, France, on the Advanced Performance programme. Her regular freelance engagements in the UK include those with the Academy of Ancient Music, London Baroque, the London Handel Orchestra and the Hanover Band. Rebecca has also worked with orchestras based in Norway, India and Denmark. She has just finished recording a set of Bach's Weimar Cantatas for Chandos with Emma Kirkby and the Purcell Quartet.
DYAD PERCUSSION DUO
Toby Kearney and Dan Jones
Toby Kearney and Dan Jones met at the Royal Northern College of Music Junior School in 2004 and have been playing as a duo since 2005. Over the last year the Duo has appeared at Wigmore Hall, St. George’s Bristol and venues up and down the country. This year they give a series of concerts in the West Country, in Liverpool and give the world premiere of a new work by Dave Onac at the RNCM. Their repertoire includes music by the hugely popular Japanese composers Minoru Miki and Keiko Abe, alongside music by the marimba virtuoso Eric Sammut and music from America by Wayne Siegel, Steve Reich and Chick Korea.
Toby Kearney
Born in 1988, Toby studied percussion with Andrea Vogler at the Royal Northern College of Music Junior School, in 2006 receiving the Director’s award. He is currently studying percussion with Ian Wright, Liz Gilliver and Dave Hassell at the RNCM on a graduate course. He has participated in masterclasses given by the world renowned marimba player and composer Eric Sammut, Simone Rebello and the percussion quartet 4-MALITY and recently attended an intensive masterclass at the French Académie Musicale de Villecroze, to study with the legendary marimba soloist Keiko Abe.
In 2006 Toby was a concerto finalist in the BBC Young Musicians Competition performing James Macmillan’s Veni, Veni Emmanuel with the Northern Sinfonia under Yan Pascal Tortelier. Since then his engagements have included a tour of Kuwait, Oman and the United Arab Emirates, and recitals at Wigmore Hall and St. George’s Bristol. In June 2007 Toby performed the world premiere of a percussion concerto Hard-Boiled Wonderland and the End of the World by Matthew Sergeant at the Royal Northern College of Music with conductor Clark Rundell and the RNCM chamber orchestra.
Toby was a member of the National Youth Orchestra of Great Britain for two years, and previously played in the National Children’s Orchestra and National Youth Music Theatre where he worked with composers writing music for two new musicals – Born of Glass and Goblin Market. He has been working with the NYO Band on an outreach project at schools in Tower Hamlets in London which will continue throughout 2007.
Dan Jones
Dan has been playing percussion for nine years. From 2001 to 2006 he studied with Ian Forgrieve at the Royal Northern College of Music Junior Department and is currently in his second year studying Music on the Joint Course at the University of Manchester and the RNCM with Ian Wright, Liz Gilliver, Paul Patrick and Dave Hassell.
In 2006, Dan won the Rotary Young Musician of the Year competition and went on to become a Semi-Finalist in the BBC Young Musician of the Year competition in the same year. He was a member of the National Children’s Orchestra, the National Youth Wind Ensemble and, most recently, the National Youth Orchestra.
Last year, Dan worked with the National Youth Orchestra Band on outreach projects at schools in inner-city areas of London. He also planned and ran his own workshops at primary schools in Nottinghamshire and Leicestershire and is interested in continuing with similar ventures in the future. Recent engagements have included concerts at St. George’s Hall, Bristol, Wigmore Hall and RNCM.
Sara Deborah Struntz violin
German-born violinist Sara Deborah Struntz, 23, is enjoying a wide-ranging performing career as a recitalist, soloist and chamber musician, playing both on modern and period instruments. She graduated from the Guildhall School of Music and Drama in 2004 with First Class Honours and finished her postgraduate studies with Natalia Boyarsky and Adrian Butterfield (baroque) at the Royal College of Music with a Masters of Music and Artist Diploma. In 2006/07 she held an RCM award as a Leverhulme Orchestral Mentor, and was awarded a place at the Harrison Professional Development Programme. For the academic year 2007/08 she has been appointed the Phoebe Benham Junior Fellow at the RCM.
Recently she appeared as soloist with the Vienna Jeunesse Orchestra, Eastbourne Symphony Orchestra, RCM Baroque Orchestra and Vogtland Philharmonie and in October 2006 she played her debut at the Wiener Konzerthaus, Schubert-Saal. She appeared in festivals in the UK, Germany and Italy including York Early Music Festival, Fraenkische Musiktage, London Handel Festival and Quartetfest Manchester and participated in masterclasses across the globe including IMS Prussia Cove, Keshet Eilon and Carl-Flesch-Academy learning with eminent musicians like Yehudi Menuhin, Yfrah Neaman, Ana Chumachenco, Andras Keller and Gabor Takacs-Nagy as well as Rachel Podger, Catherine Mackintosh, Robert Levin and Sir Roger Norrington. Sara has performed in hospitals, care homes and prisons with organizations live music now! and Crescendo and was involved in Wigmore Hall Education and LSO St Luke’s Discovery Series. She broadcast on Bayerischer Rundfunk and recorded a CD with works by Mozart, Brahms and Bloch together with pianist Stephen Gutman. Sara Deborah performs with her classical string quartet Chiaroscuro on period instruments - upcoming performances include the Wigmore Hall and York Early Music Centre - and has been finalist of the York Early Music Competition 2007 with her early music group Ensemble Amaranthos. She has been invited by the UK’s leading baroque ensembles including OAE, The Sixteen, Florilegium and The King’s Consort. Prizes include the Richard III prize 2006 for Early Music at the RCM, Eastbourne Young Soloist Competition 2006, Chartered Surveyors String Quartet Prize at the GSMD 2003, Lions Prize Nürnberg 2000 and South-West German Chamber Music Competition 1998.
Being aware that every given talent bears a responsibility, Sara Deborah strives for bringing music’s message and beauty to life and reaching to her listeners’ hearts.
Alessandro Timossi piano
Alessandro Timossi, born in Genova, studied piano, composition and conducting in Italy (Genova, Rome and Pescara) and in London (Guildhall School of Music & Drama). As a pianist, he gave concerts in several cities in Italy and abroad and recorded for RAI, the Italian TV and Radio broadcasting company.
As a composer, he took part in the composition courses in Genazzano-Italy (with Sylvano Bussotti), Opera Lab-UK (with Robert Saxton), Tanglewood-USA (with Mario Davidovsky and Louis Andriessen) and on Hoy-UK (with Peter Maxwell Davies and Robert Saxton). He was also invited to the Composers’ Conference in Wellesley-Boston, USA, directed by Mario Davidovsky.
He was commissioned by the Ondine and Continuum ensembles in London, by the Accademia Filarmonica Genovese in Italy, the A-Devantgarde Festival in Münich, the Ergo Ensemble in Toronto and the Albatross Ensemble in Italy and the GSMD. Performances of his music have been given in Italy, UK, Germany, France, Canada and USA. He was Music Director of the Moto Perpetuo International Arts Festival in Pescocostanzo (Italy) from 1996 to 1998.
He is the Head of Undergraduate Music at the Guildhall School of Music & Drama in London where he teaches composition and counterpoint. Currently he is also reading for a Dphil in composition at the University of Oxford.
|
|