“Lizzie Ball lit the place on fire with her solos”  San Francisco Chronicle

Named as one of the most 50 inspirational women of 2018 by The Daily Mail  ‘Femail at 50’ feature, and awarded an honorary degree from the University of Derby for her services and contribution to classical music, Lizzie is recognised increasingly for her refreshing and unique approach to classical music performance. Her creation of Classical Kicks, a unique brand of energetic reinvigorated classical music shows at Ronnie Scott’s Jazz Club in London, has seen continued success. She is also known for her solo violin/vocal collaborations with numerous artists such as British violin superstar Nigel Kennedy (as a soloist with him and leader of his Orchestra of Life for 8 years), and legends Jeff Beck and Brian Wilson (as a featured frontline band member), Brit pop legend Bryan Ferry and more recently as lead violin for Ariana Grande and Hugh Jackman. Performance highlights include headlining at Madison Square Garden NY for Eric Clapton’s Crossroads Guitar Festival, several critically acclaimed US-wide tours, and directing the historical Palestine Prom for BBC Proms 2013 in the Royal Albert Hall. Her brand new co-production with Producer/Writer/Director Emily Blacksell Corrido-A Ballad for the Brave a musical and visual storytelling of the life and times of Frida Kahlo received widespread acclaim at its premiere alongside the V and A’s celebrated Frida Kahlo Making Her Self Up exhibition.

Lizzie is passionate about outreach projects and has given hundreds of workshops for various orchestras and projects over the years, involving visits to a wide range of establishments from private boarding schools to Pupil Referral Units, and loves working with young people. More recently Lizzie has been working locally with the brilliant Sheffield Music Hub on a number of projects, including an original commission for a piece for Electric violin and orchestra called The Lone Star in partnership with Hugh Sykes Charitable Trust. This piece was composed by Andy Smith together with the children of 6 schools of over 200 children in the Sheffield are in who all also participated in the concert premiere of the piece in December 2017 in Sheffield Cathedral.  Lizzie has also become Ambassador for PRISMA, a charity founded by her colleague Morgan Szymanski to help children in need in Mexico by providing arts workshops to rural underdeveloped areas of Mexico. So far the project has reached over 15,000 children in just two years of existence.

Lizzie has been regularly director of the Mikroorkestra – a young and exceptionally talented group based in Vilnius, founded by accordion virtuoso, Martynas Levickis. Before lockdown in 2020, Lizzie was a special guest artist in an Arena Tour of Lithuania with Martynas and the orchestra, performing to audiences of over 20,000 in Martynas’ spectacular audio-visual production ‘Cinema Live’.

www.lizzieball.com

Callum Au is a professional trombonist, composer, orchestrator, and arranger. Based in London, Callum has worked with some of the UK’s top big bands and orchestras, and has fast made a name for himself as one of the UK’s finest young musicians.

Callum was privileged to be taught in his youth by veteran trumpet player Terry Reaney, pianist Brian Harrison, and top UK jazz trombonist Mark Nightingale. He was a member of Bill Ashton’s National Youth Jazz Orchestra from 2005 – 2010, during which time he played lead trombone and was one of the band’s principal arrangers.

Callum works as a trombonist and principal arranger at Ronnie Scott’s Jazz Club, alongside illustrious bandleader and clarinettist Pete Long. In this post, he has worked with many of the world’s top professional jazz and commercial artists, including Joss Stone, Seth MacFarlane, Jason Robert Brown, Liane Carroll, Tim Minchin, Peter Erskine, and two thirds of the Spice Girls!

Callum is active as a freelance trombonist and has worked with many of the top ensembles in the UK, including the John Wilson Orchestra, Echoes of Ellington, and in the pit of several West End shows. In 2014, he performed at the BBC Proms Battle of the Big Bands in the James Pearson Big Band, where he also contributed several of the arrangements.

As a freelance composer and arranger, Callum has written or arranged music for a huge variety of ensembles and artists, including the BBC Big Band, Jamie Cullum, the RTE Concert Orchestra, Clare Teal, and the Swingle Singers. Callum is in high demand for his orchestration skills, and has arranged music for several major touring shows including ‘Lorna Luft: The Songbook of Judy Garland’, ‘The UK Salutes Frank’, and ‘From Rags to Ritzes: the Irving Berlin Story’. Callum has also arranged and orchestrated a variety of TV, film and library music including the film ‘A Royal Night Out’ starring Emily Watson & Rupert Everett.

In 2014, Callum was selected as one of seven up-and-coming arrangers from around the world to participate in the Metropole Orchestra Arrangers’ Workshop, where he worked with composer/ conductor Vince Mendoza, and vocalist Gregory Porter. Since then, Callum has been invited to work with the Latvian Radio Big Band, in a project arranging the music of J.S. Bach for big band, featuring accordion soloist Ksenija Sidorova.

Callum is the orchestral manager and musical director of the Callum Au Big Band, which features some of the finest jazz musicians in the UK. The band released its debut album ‘Something’s Coming’ in 2012, which featured as its centrepiece a suite of music based on the musical ‘West Side Story’. The band has also worked on an arrangement of George Gershwin’s masterpiece ‘Rhapsody in Blue’, which premiered at Ronnie Scott’s in 2014 and featured pianist James Pearson. Callum also performs with his jazz quintet, co-led by baritone saxophonist Richard Shepherd, and inspired by the Brookmeyer/Mulligan group.

Callum is the trombonist and principal arranger for the ‘Close To You’ ensemble, a collaboration between the acclaimed Tippett Quartet and the James Pearson Quintet. A unique chamber ensemble featuring both jazz and classical elements, this hand-picked group explores the canon of the Great American Songbook, working with top vocalists Matthew Ford, Claire Martin, and Anna-Jane Casey.

In Autumn 2014, Callum was appointed as the guest MD of the Leeds College of Music Contemporary Jazz Orchestra, where he directed the band through his West Side Story Suite for a term. Callum has also directed workshops with the National Youth Jazz Orchestra, and his arrangements are played in many schools and colleges around the world.

In his free time, Callum likes tropical fish, Asian food, Star Trek, and strategy games.

http://www.callumaumusic.com

“The piano concerto is full of detail and deftness. Sophia Rahman, known for her deep velvet playing in late-Romantic music, shows that she can be just as articulate when adopting a more brittle and brilliant style”.  The Daily Telegraph

Sophia Rahman has recorded concertos with the Scottish Ensemble, the BBC National Orchestra of Wales and twenty-five chamber discs for companies including Linn Records, CPO, Guild, Naxos, ASV, Dutton/Epoch, Meridian and Resonus.

She has acted as a class pianist for IMS/Prussia Cove for Kim Kashkashian, Atar Arad, Hartmut Rohde and, for the last six years, Steven Isserlis. Since 1994 she has acted as official accompanist for the Lionel Tertis International Viola Competition, and has also appeared for the Barbirolli International Oboe Competition and the Samling Foundation, as well as the 2013/14 inaugural Australian Cello Awards. She was a class pianist for the last few years of masterclasses given by William Pleeth at the Britten Pears School.

Together with colleagues Robert Plane (clarinet) and Philip Dukes (viola), she was Artist- in-Residence at Queen’s University, Belfast for eight years, where she developed her love of teaching. She is currently a guest-coach on the string Masters programme at the University of Limerick.

Alongside her touring schedule she has given masterclasses at conservatoires throughout the UK and in Russia, China, Kazakhstan, Sweden, Finland (coaching chamber music at Sibelius Junior Academy), Estonia, Sri Lanka and New Zealand. She is also a member of Trittico with John Anderson (oboe) and Nancy Ruffer (flute). She has appeared in recital with Steven Isserlis, Thomas Riebl, distinguished wind players such as Karl Leister and Alex Klein, and also works regularly with her partner, the violinist, violist and conductor Andres Kaljuste.

Sophia Rahman studied at the Yehudi Menuhin School with Peter Norris, with additional guidance from Vlado Perlemuter and Louis Kentner.

She took a first-class honours degree in English from King’s College, London and completed her piano studies at the Royal Academy of Music with Alexander Kelly and Malcolm Martineau.

She was the winner of the Royal Overseas League’s Accompanist Award and the Liza Fuchsova Memorial Prize for a chamber music pianist in consecutive years.

www.sophiarahman.com

Australian born guitarist Craig Ogden is one of the most exciting artists of his generation. He studied guitar from the age of seven and percussion from the age of thirteen. In 2004, he became the youngest instrumentalist to receive a Fellowship Award from the Royal Northern College of Music in Manchester.

One of the UK’s most recorded guitarists, his recordings for Virgin/EMI, Chandos, Nimbus, Hyperion, Sony and Classic FM have received wide acclaim. Craig’s six chart topping albums for Classic FM are regularly played on air.

Craig Ogden has performed concertos with many of the world’s leading orchestras in countries including Latvia, Russia, South Africa, Denmark, Spain, Sweden, Germany and Australia. In recent seasons he has performed with the Hallé, BBC Concert Orchestra, Orquesta Sinfónica de Navarra (Spain), Spanish Symphony Orchestra, RTÉ Concert Orchestra (Dublin), London Philharmonic, Ulster Orchestra, Orchestra of Opera North and the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic. In 2015, Craig was asked to step in at short notice for the indisposed Miloš Karadaglić and performed a series of concerts on tour with the Royal Northern Sinfonia at major UK concert halls and again in 2016 with the Royal Northern Sinfonia and the English Chamber Orchestra, both tours receiving critical acclaim. This season Craig performs concertos with orchestras including the Hallé, London Mozart Players, Manchester Camerata, English String Orchestra and the Darwin Symphony Orchestra, Australia. Craig enjoys performing new works for guitar and gave the world premiere of a concerto written for him by Andy Scott with the Northern Chamber Orchestra in Manchester in November 2017, followed by the Australian premiere in Perth in September 2018. He gave the world premiere of ‘Il Filo’, a double concerto for guitar and accordion by David Gordon with Miloš Milivojević in summer 2019 and composer David Knotts is currently writing a concerto for Craig.

Sam is a stalwart of the UK jazz scene. As well as appearing on numerous film soundtracks such as ‘Bridget Jones’s Diary’ and ‘Hannibal’. Sam’s thumping, pounding, relentlessly driving bass lines have been heard accompanying the likes of Bob James, Billy Kilson, Gary Novak, Joe Lock, Dave Kekowski, Guy Barker, Dave O’Higgins, Pete King, Gareth Williams, Claire Martin, Jim Mullen, Alan Barnes, Tim Whitehead, John Horler, Gwyneth Herbert, John Dankworth, The BBC Big Band and Robbie Williams. He is also a composer and songwriter for the film and pop genres, and a member of the Ronnie Scotts All Stars quintet and the James Pearson Trio. 

“Fretwork is the finest viol consort on the planet” The London Evening Standard

In 2021, Fretwork celebrates its 35th anniversary. In these last three  and a half decades, they have explored the core repertory of great English consort music, from Taverner to Purcell, and made classic recordings against which others are judged. 

In addition to this, Fretwork have become known as pioneers of contemporary music for viols, having commissioned over 40 new works. The list of composers is like the role call of the most prominent writers of our time: George Benjamin, Michael Nyman, Sir John Tavener, Gavin Bryars, Elvis Costello, Alexander Goehr, John Woolrich, Orlando Gough, Fabrice Fitch, Peter Sculthorpe, Sally Beamish, Tan Dun, Barry Guy, Andrew Keeling, Thea Musgrave, Simon Bainbridge, Poul Ruders, John Joubert, Duncan Druce & Nico Muhly.

The group now frequently presents programmes consisting entirely of contemporary music.

They made their Carnegie Hall debut in February of 2010, and now tour the United States most years.

In that year, they also curated a week-long concert series of concerts at Kings Place. The culmination of this week was the world premier of ‘The World Encompassed’ by Orlando Gough, a 70-minute piece describing in musical terms Drake’s circumnavigation of the globe in 1577-80. 

In 2011, The National Centre for Early Music, in collaboration with the BBC, hosted a competition for young composers to create a four-minute piece for Fretwork. They workshopped the shortlisted pieces at the NCEM in York in October, and then the winning entries were premiered in Kings Place in December 2011.

“Classical music lovers may also want to experience an evening which incorporates other genres. How often do we come across such eclectic nights? Not often enough, but Classical Kicks – the brainchild of musician Lizzie Ball – does just that. Ball is mixing things up superbly…” Fringe Opera

The creation of violinist and vocalist Lizzie Ball, Classical Kicks is a unique night of classical music performance which has an exclusive quarterly residency at the world renowned Ronnie Scott’s Jazz Club in Soho, London. Hailed by Classical Music Magazine as “genre-bending”, Classical Kicks strives to bring the most talented, exciting and also diverse classical artists into the intimate and special space that is Ronnie’s Bar, and to maintain the best quality of musicians and musicianship, but most importantly within a fun and relaxed atmosphere. Classical Kicks also has an adapted touring version of its own unique brand of classical music which has featured in some great UK festivals including Henley, Music in the Garden for Dame Cleo Laine, and a performance for the English Speaking Union. Classical Kicks Records was formed in 2013 as a means to provide further promotion for exciting young artists and new ways of performing classical music, and released its first EP in the same year. Classical Kicks now runs a brand new series running at St.James Studio, which explores themes from opera and song to jazz and whiskey, in a more ensemble focussed bespoke manner, whilst Ronnie’s mash up of different ensembles and bands continues to be the flagship residency.

Previous artists who have performed include Thomas Gould (violin), Martynas Levickis (accordion), Aquinas Piano Trio, Barbara Barradas (soprano), Njabulo Madlala (bartione), Morgan Szymanski (guitar) and Machaca, G Project (cello and percussion), Filip Kowalski (viola), Bernard Gregor-Smith (cello), James Pearson (pianist and Artistic Director at Ronnie Scott’s), Blue Topaz Trio, Navarra Quartet, Sideris Wind Quintet, Una Palliser (viola/vocals), Classico Latino, Eclectica, Thomas Kemp (Violin), Adrian Bradbury (cello) and many more…

www.classicalkicks.com

“…warm, contemplative and deeply rewarding performances.” Wholenote

Thomas Bowes is one of the UK’s most versatile and accomplished violinists – as a soloist, chamber musician, concertmaster and artistic director.

His concerto work in the UK, Germany and the USA has included performances of the Elgar, Walton, Britten and Szymanowski concertos. At the invitation of the late Lady Walton, Tom spent three weeks on Ischia studying the history and score of the Walton concerto. His subsequent critically acclaimed recording of the work (along with the Barber concerto) reveals a special connection to Walton’s music.

Tom undertook an extensive ‘Bach Pilgrimage’ in 2013, giving fifty concerts of the unaccompanied Sonatas and Partitas of JS Bach in churches across mainland Britain and raising over £20,000 for various charities. His recording the works is due for release in early summer 2018 when he will be again be making a Bach Pilgrimage across Britain. Further Pilgrimages are planned for every year.

Tom’s partnership with his wife, the composer and pianist Eleanor Alberga, has played a significant role throughout his career. As the duo “Double Exposure” they toured extensively across the USA, made a ground-breaking trip to China in 1997 and gave regular performances and broadcasts in the UK. The Duo established a reputation for adventurous programming and regularly performed commissions and world premieres of American and British composers.

As an enthusiastic champion of the music of Eleanor Alberga, Tom gave the world premiere of her first Violin Concerto with the Scottish Chamber Orchestra conducted by Joseph Swensen. A second Alberga concerto is in the midst of composition and a premiere is planned for the 2019/20 season.

Chamber music has been a major part of Tom’s artistic life – he was the founding leader of the Maggini Quartet – and between 2003 and 2016 he was the Artistic Director of the Langvad Chamber Music Jamboree in northern Denmark. More recently, with Eleanor Alberga, he founded the music festival Arcadia in north Herefordshire, England. Central to the ethos of both festivals is to bring fresh, authentic and vibrant music making to local communities and their audiences.

Equally at home in the commercial recording studio, Tom is in great demand as soloist and concertmaster and works closely with many of today’s most eminent film composers. Amongst numerous film credits are such hit-movies as the Bond films “Spectre” and “Skyfall”, The Hunger Games trilogy, “The King’s Speech” and “The Da Vinci Code”. Tom is privileged to own and play a violin by one of the great Cremonese makers – a splendid 1659 Nicolo Amati.

www.thomasbowes.com

“Breathtaking…” The Financial Times

Nicholas Daniel has long been acknowledged as one of the world’s great oboe players, and is one of Britain’s best known musicians. In a distinguished career that began more than four decades ago he has become an important ambassador in many different musical fields, and has significantly enlarged the repertoire for his instrument with the commissioning of hundreds of new works.

Nicholas dedicates his life to music in many varied ways. He records and broadcasts widely, including regular recordings on the Harmonia Mundi Label, and he boasts a huge following internationally on social media. He is proud to support and patronise many important initiatives, charities and trusts, and has directed several music festivals and concert series, most notably in Germany and Dartington, and has been Music Director of the Leicester International Music Festival and lunchtime series for many years. He is highly sought after as a teacher, being Professor at the Trossingen Musikhochschule in Germany and at the Guildhall School of Music in London.

Following his BBC Proms conducting debut in 2004, he works with many fine ensembles in wide-ranging repertoire ranging from Baroque to contemporary, and from small groups to opera. He is Music Director of Triorca, an orchestral project which brings together talented young musicians from Serbia, Germany and the UK. In recognition of his achievements he was honoured in 2012 by Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II with the prestigious Queen’s Medal for Music, and cited as having made
“an outstanding contribution to the musical life of the nation”. In October 2020 he was awarded an OBE.

Having sung as in the choir of Salisbury Cathedral as a boy, Nicholas was put directly into the spotlight at the age of 18 when he won the BBC Young Musician of the Year competition. After a short period of study at London’s Royal Academy of Music, with Janet Craxton and Celia Nicklin and then privately with clarinettist Anthony Pay and with Hans Keller, he quickly established his career with early debuts at the BBC Proms and on disc.

He has been a concerto soloist with many of the world’s leading orchestras and conductors, performing a huge range of repertoire from Bach to Xenakis and beyond, premiering works written for him by composers including Harrison Birtwistle, Henri Dutilleux, James MacMillan, Thea
Musgrave, John Tavener and Michael Tippett, as well as encouraging many younger composers to write for the oboe. His recording of concertos by Vaughan Williams and MacMillan was awarded the BBC Music Magazine Premiere Award in 2016.

As chamber musician Nicholas is a founder member of the award-winning Britten Sinfonia, the Haffner Wind Ensemble and the Britten Oboe Quartet, whose debut disc was released to great acclaim on the Harmonia Mundi label in 2017. He also works regularly with the pianists Charles Owen and Julius Drake, and with many leading string quartets including the Carducci and Vogler. He is principal oboist of Camerata Pacifica, California’s leading chamber music ensemble, and is a popular guest at music festivals all over the world.

“…a shimmering string of musical jewels..” The Guardian

Birmingham Contemporary Music Group is one of the world’s foremost new music ensembles. Over three decades, BCMG has developed the music of today for the audiences of tomorrow. The ensemble has commissioned over 175 pieces of music from the world’s finest composers and emerging international talent. Many of the works have been commissioned through its innovative pioneering Sound Investment crowd-funding scheme to which over 500 donors have contributed more than £300,000; many of these works have subsequently found their way into worldwide repertoire.

BCMG was founded by Simon Clugston and Ulrich Heinen, musicians from the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra, in 1987, with Sir Simon Rattle as Founding Patron. Since then, BCMG has reached over 10 million people in concert and through broadcasts. The Group performs regularly at CBSO Centre, Symphony Hall and Town Hall Birmingham, Wigmore Hall in London and at the BBC Proms and Aldeburgh Festival. To this day, BCMG maintains a close link to the CBSO and regularly works with CBSO’s Music Director, Mirga Gražinytė-Tyla.

International tours have included visits to the USA (Library of Congress), Mexico, India and venues across France, Germany, the Netherlands and Austria. The Group is regularly heard in concert on BBC Radio 3, and has recorded extensively. Recordings include discs of works by Thomas Adès, Mark-Anthony Turnage and Benjamin Britten, and a Grammy Award-nominated recording of Gerald Barry’s opera, The Importance of Being Earnest, for NMC Recordings. Recent releases include Wilde Lieder Marx.Music on Coviello and Howard Skempton’s The Rime of the Ancient Mariner, a series of recordings devoted to British composers including BCMG’s late Artist-in-Association Oliver Knussen, Julian Anderson and Charlotte Bray (all on NMC) and a disc of the works of Elliott Carter on Ondine.

BCMG’s work both inside and outside the concert hall has earned it many awards and accolades. Over the last decade it has been shortlisted for: ITV’s South Bank Show’s Classical Music Award; the Royal Philharmonic Society’s Ensemble Award and BBC Music Magazine’s Chamber Award. Its long-established Learning and Participation programmes actively engage young people in composing and performing, and have earned BCMG nationwide recognition (in 2016, the Group was highly commended in the Family Arts Festival Awards).

In partnership with Royal Birmingham Conservatoire, BCMG has created the NEXT Music Study Programme in Contemporary Performance, an innovative programme of study which supports early career musicians who want to dedicate their professional career to contemporary music. It is the only programme in the UK providing intensive, year-long training in contemporary music performance practice, offering musicians an unprecedented opportunity to learn from some of the most exciting performers and composers working today.

“Technically and interpretatively the finest accompanist in Britain” The Independent on Sunday

Andrew West has developed partnerships with many of the country’s leading singers and instrumentalists.

His duo partners include Emma Bell, Emily Beynon, Florian Boesch, Alice Coote, James Gilchrist, Susan Gritton, Emma Johnson, Robert Murray, Christopher Purves, Hilary Summers, Marianne Thorsen and Roderick Williams, and they have performed at major festivals such as Aldeburgh, Bath, Cheltenham and Edinburgh. Andrew received the inaugural Gerald Moore Award for Accompanists, and for several years he acted as official accompanist to the Steans Institute for Singers at the Ravinia Festival in Chicago.

Jon Carnac regularly plays Guest Principal Clarinet with the country’s leading orchestras, including the London Symphony Orchestra, London Philharmonic Orchestra, Philharmonia, Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, BBC Symphony and City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra. As a chamber musician, he has performed at the Wigmore Hall, Purcell Room, Royal Festival Hall, Queen Elizabeth Hall and 10 Downing Street with ensembles including London Winds, Soloists Of The London Philharmonic Orchestra, The Philharmonia Orchestra and the Belcea Quartet. He frequently broadcasts as a chamber musician and soloist on BBC Radio 2 and 3.

Jon’s commercial experience includes film scores, jingles and recordings with John Williams, Howard Shore, Burt Bacharach, Michel Legrand, Howard Goodall, Howard Blake, Jerry Goldsmith, Barrington Pheloung, Karl Jenkins, Wynton Marsalis and The White Stripes.

Jon is a passionate Arsenal fan, and holds a Season ticket for the Emirates Stadium!

“One cannot ignore the immensely intelligent and impeccably placed keyboard continuo work of Steven Devine.” International Record Review

Steven Devine enjoys a busy career as a music director and keyboard player working with some of the finest musicians and was recently praised in The Gramophone for “fantastic touch and élan.”

He is the Co-Principal keyboard player with the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment and also the principal keyboard player for The Gonzaga Band, Apollo and Pan, The Classical Opera Company and performs regularly with many other groups around Europe. 

He has recorded over thirty discs with other artists and ensembles and made six solo recordings. His recording of Bach’s Goldberg Variations (Chandos Records) has been received critical acclaim – including Gramophone magazine describing it as “among the best”. The complete harpsichord works of Rameau (Resonus) has received five-star reviews from BBC Music Magazine and Steven’s latest recording of Bach’s Italian Concerto has been voted Classic FM’s Connoisseur’s choice. Future releases for Resonus include the Well-Tempered Clavier by Bach.

He made his London conducting debut in 2002 at the Royal Albert Hall and is now a regular performer there – including making his Proms directing debut in August 2007 with the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment. He has conducted the Mozart Festival Orchestra in every major concert hall in the UK and also across Switzerland. Steven is Music Director for New Chamber Opera in Oxford and with them has performed repertoire from Cavalli to Rossini. For the Dartington Festival Opera he has conducted Handel’s Orlando and Purcell’s Dido and Aeneas. He is currently conductor and Artistic Advisor for the English Haydn Festival in Bridgnorth.

Steven works regularly with the Norwegian Wind Ensemble, Trondheim Barokk, the Victoria Baroque Players (BC, Canada) and Arion Baroque Ensemble (Montreal).

He teaches harpsichord and fortepiano at Trinity Laban Conservatoire in London and is Early Keyboard Consultant to the Royal Birmingham Conservatoire and Royal Welsh Colleges.

www.stevendevine.com

James trained at the Royal College of Music, London. Since graduating with a first class degree, he has gone on to perform with many leading orchestras such as the Philharmonia, London Philharmonic, Royal Liverpool Philharmonic, Royal Philharmonic Concert and Bournemouth Symphony Orchestras.

James is heavily involved in the west end, performing in the musicals Made In Dagenham, Guys & Dolls, I Can’t Sing! – The X-Factor Musical, The Bodyguard, Priscilla – Queen Of The Desert, Imagine This, Spring Awakening, Menopause The Musical, Jerry Springer The Opera and High School Musical. He has deputised on Aladdin, Beautiful – The Carole King Musical, Miss Saigon, Shrek The Musical, Singin’ In The Rain, Dirty Dancing, La Cava, Closer To Heaven, Jesus Christ Superstar, Saturday Night Fever, Cabaret, Porgy & Bess, Ragtime and The Fantasticks.

He has also backed top artists such as Hayley Westenra, Dame Shirley Bassey, Kerry Ellis, Adam Guettel, Jason Donovan, Andrea Bocelli, Boy George, Curiosity Killed The Cat, Belinda Carlisle, Paul Young, Altered Images, Pepsi & Shirlie, Midge Ure, Brother Beyond, Kid Creole, The Real Thing, Marti Webb and Lee Mead.

www.jtpercstudio.com

“Expansive…” The Independent

Gabriella Swallow has emerged as one of the most versatile and exciting cellists of her generation. She studied at The Royal College of Music with Jerome Pernoo. She was awarded the coveted Tagore Gold Medal and performed the Hugh Wood Cello Concerto in her final year. As a soloist, Gabriella went on to make her South Bank debut with the London Sinfonietta in the world premiere of ‘About Water’ by Mark-Anthony Turnage. In the same year she performed Paul Max Edlin’s Cello Concerto with the South Bank Sinfonia, which firmly launched her place as a leading performer of contemporary music. This has led her to commission and work with many of the major living Composers of today.

In 2013 she made her Wigmore Hall debut with the soprano Ruby Hughes and in the same season performed at the La Jolla SummerFest in San Diego, the Aldeburgh Festival with the Birmingham Contemporary Music Group and the Cambridge Jazz Festival as a member of the Gwilym Simcock Quintet.

Gabriella is the string curator of Music Orbit’s string night ‘Strung Out’ and performs frequently at Ronnie Scott’s Jazz Club ‘Classical Kicks’ night curated by violinist Lizzie Ball and at Gabriel Prokofiev’s Nonclassical club nights. As a recording artist, she has recorded all the chamber music of Hugh Wood for Toccata Classics with the London Archduke Piano Trio, which was released to critical acclaim in 2009. 2012 saw the release of ‘Ivr d’amour’, a disc of Massenet Songs where she appeared with soprano Sally Silver and celebrated pianist Richard Bonynge for the Guild label and also soprano Lucy Shaufer’s debut disc ‘Carpentersville’ for ABC Classics where Gabriella features as a soloist. This CD was launched with a concert at The Aldeburgh Festival 2013.

In 2010, she co founded the duo ‘G Project’ with percussionist Genevieve Wilkins. They made their debut with a sellout concert at the Forge in Camden and continue to perform regularly in the UK and Europe. Alongside her classical career she regularly crosses over in the fields of jazz and pop and is a sought after session musician appearing on many movie and television scores. She has recorded with many of the leading Jazz musicians on the UK scene including Ian Shaw, Barb Jungr, Liane Carroll, Guy Barker, Laurence Cottle, Pedro Segundo, Graeme Flowers, Jannette Mason and Claire Martin OBE. She has performed and recorded with Skunk Anansie, Sade, Dionne Warwick, Charlotte Church and has been a member of Judith Owen’s band since 2007.

This year she continues her collaboration with Gwilym Simcock’s Quintet – whose members include the outstanding violinist Thomas Gould – on a UK tour beginning at King’s Place, London.

Gabriella is also a passionate broadcaster and arts commentator and has been a regular guest on BBC 4’s coverage of The Proms, Radio 3’s In Tune and Music Matter. She has been a guest speaker at the Bath Literary Festival and The Battle of Ideas.

Gabriella plays a cello by Charles Harris Senior built in 1820 and an electric cello by Starfish Designs.

www.gabriellaswallow.com

“He has all the virtuoso velocity and firepower, and then some.” BBC Music Magazine

Pianist Daniel Grimwood is a performer of international renown, combining an exceptional talent, rare versatility and refinement, with an inquisitive personality.

With a repertoire ranging from Elizabethan Virginal music to the works of living composers, he enjoys a solo and chamber career, which has taken him across the globe, performing on the most prestigious concert platforms, including the Wigmore Hall, Queen Elizabeth Hall and the Purcell Room in London, Saffron Hall, Bridgewater Hall in Manchester, Symphony Hall Birmingham, the Sage Gateshead, the Three Choirs Festival, the Rachmaninoff and Gnessin Halls in Moscow, the Carnegie Hall in New York, as well as venues in Germany, Austria, Italy, The Netherlands, Slovenia, Estonia, Taiwan, Azerbaijan, Egypt, Lebanon and Oman.

His musical interest started as a 3-year-old playing next door’s piano, and from the age of 7 he was performing in front of audiences. His training continued with Graham Fitch at the Purcell School, where he also studied violin, viola and composition, giving him a broad appreciation of classical music, and later with Vladimir Ovchinnikov and Peter Feuchtwanger.

Although primarily a pianist, he is frequently to be found performing on harpsichord, organ, viola or composing at his desk. Grimwood is a passionate exponent of the early piano, and has given a recital of Chopin’s Etudes on the composer’s own Pleyel piano.

As a solo recording artist his growing discography ranges from Scriabin on Somm Recordings to Algernon Ashton, a world premiere recording on Toccata Classics. His discs of Liszt and Chopin, performed on an 1851 Erard piano, received a unanimous chorus of praise from the press; the Liszt album was Daily Telegraph CD of the week and Editor’s Choice in Gramophone Magazine. He was the first artist to record on the Edition Peters Sounds label, the complete Fauré Nocturnes album was released to excellent reception in The Sunday Times, which was followed by a disc of solo piano works by Adolph von Henselt, described as “a blizzard of dazzling pianism” by the Observer.

Daniel Grimwood regularly performs on live broadcasts on BBC Radio 3, and has been featured in BBC Four’s TV documentary series “Revolution and Romance”. His media work continues with performances and video masterclasses in the “Piano Masterworks” collection on Tido Music, a new iPad app launched in 2016.

www.danielgrimwood.co.uk

“…[Electra Mourns] stole the show as a moving study of madness and remorse.” The Daily Telegraph

Bombay was Brian Elias’s first home; he lived there until he was sent to school in England at the age of thirteen. By then he had already composed a fair amount – or rather improvised, as it was not until the need arose to make parts for school performances that Elias began properly writing his ideas down. He still has fond memories of a youthful Flute Sonata and a music-theatre piece based on Mr. James’ ghost story Lost Hearts. In 1966 he entered the Royal College of Music, officially studying composition under Humphrey Searle and Bernard Stevens, though it was the experience of ‘moonlighting’ with the composer Elisabeth Lutyens he found most stimulating. Under Lutyens’s influence, Elias produced a Webern-like cantata La Chevelure, which made a promisingly positive impression at its first hearing in 1968. After leaving the RCM, Elias spent a few years in New York where he studied briefly at the Juilliard School, New York.

On his return to England he produced a modest number of small-scale works, culminating in the unaccompanied choral Proverbs of Hell, based on William Blake. This and a revival of La Chevelure gave Elias the confidence to tackle larger-scale structures. The first significant product was Somnia (‘Dreams’, 1979) for tenor and orchestra, based on words by the hedonistic Roman writer Petronius, followed in 1982 by the song cycle At the Edge of Time. Then in L’Eylah (1983), he at last felt free to write a large, abstract orchestral work. L’Eylah was greeted with enthusiasm by audience and critics at its BBC Proms premiere in 1984. By now the broad features of Elias’s mature style were fully in focus. A fastidious and imaginative craftsman, he was also beginning to show the impassioned urgency and capacity for sustained compelling invention that remain evident in his work to this day.

Geranos for chamber ensemble (1985) confirmed his growing confidence and mastery, as did Variations for solo piano of 1987 (composed in homage to Beethoven’s 32 Variations in C minor) and the vividly atmospheric Pythikos Nomos (‘The Law of the Python’, 1987-8) for alto saxophone and piano. But even these were surpassed by Elias’s next major work, an orchestral song cycle Five Songs to Poems by Irina Ratushinskaya (1989), commissioned by the BBC. The dark intensity and lyrical eloquence of Elias’s settings fully matched the power of the Soviet dissident Ratushinskaya’s poetry. It is an extraordinary demonstration of creative empathy from a composer brought up under very different political conditions, at the same time showing Elias’s exceptional skill in finding and responding to the musical qualities of the Russian language. Five Songs to Poems by Irina Ratushinskaya was such a success at its London premiere that it was toured by the BBC Symphony Orchestra and repeated at the 1991 BBC Proms. Then in 1992 came one of Elias’ greatest successes, The Judas Tree, a riveting forty-minute score written for the Royal Ballet and choreographed by Sir Kenneth MacMillan, with designs by Jock MacFadyen. The Judas Tree has remained securely in the Royal Ballet’s repertory, and it has been taken on tour to France, Germany, Russia and the USA. Although written to be danced, The Judas Tree is scarcely less impressive performed purely as an orchestral work. Not only is the material strong and vibrant, the score is proof of Elias’s capacity to sustain a gripping musical narrative over a long time scale.

For all his achievement as a composer of large-scale works, Elias has not forgotten his early liking for music of a more intimate scale and manner. Two of his most recent successes include Three Songs (2003) on poems by Christina Rossetti for alto voice and harp, and a piece for solo clarinet, Birds Practise Songs in Dreams (2004).

Elias has never been a prolific composer, and all his work – from ambitious orchestral scores to the tiniest instrumental pieces – is executed with meticulous care. Yet the result is music that never sounds merely ‘careful’. The House That Jack Built is bold, dazzlingly inventive and full of dancing energy. Elias’s basing of much of the material for The House That Jack Built (2001) on perhaps the simplest and most memorable of all playground chants also means that one doesn’t need a degree in musicology to follow its many ingenious developments – the process is clear for anyone who has ears to hear. In 2004 Elias was commissioned by the Cheltenham Festival to write A Talisman, which was performed by the National Youth Orchestra Sinfonietta and Paul Putnins, and scored for bass-baritone and small orchestra. It is based upon Hebrew text inscribed on a silver 19th century amulet which was given to Elias by his late mother.

Elias is the recipient of two British Composer Awards; the first in 2010 for the orchestral work Doubles, which was commissioned by the BBC Symphony Orchestra, and the second in 2013 for Electra Mourns. This piece, a setting of Sophocles in ancient Greek, was written for Susan Bickley (mezzo soprano) and Nicholas Daniel (cor anglais) and first performed with the Britten Sinfonia at the BBC Proms in 2012. Elias’ String Quartet, composed in 2012 for the Jerusalem String Quartet, was premiered at Wake Forest University in North Carolina in 2013. The piece was performed and broadcast by the EBU at the Zeist Festival in Holland in 2014 and received its London premiere at the Wigmore Hall in 2015.

In spring 2017 a recording of Geranos, Electra Mourns and Elias’ vocal music was released on the NMC label. The release coincided with the premiere of his Oboe Quintet by Nicholas Daniel and members of Britten Sinfonia. Leonard Elschenbroich and the BBC National Orchestra of Wales gave the premiere of his Cello Concerto at the 2017 BBC Proms. The following autumn The Royal Ballet staged a revival of The Judas Tree as part of its Kenneth MacMillan anniversary celebrations.

© Stephen Johnson – updated by Brian Elias

www.brianelias.co.uk

“…superbly conveyed by Thomas Kemp who conducts with unerring perfection.” Musicweb

Thomas Kemp is an acclaimed conductor renowned for his innovative programming and passionate advocacy in concerts, opera, ballet and recording. The Guardian recently commented: “…an extraordinary performance… with a fluency that came over brilliantly under the baton of Thomas Kemp.”

Thomas is the Music Director of Chamber Domaine, which is at the forefront of ensembles focusing on 20th and 21st century music. He regularly directs Chamber Domaine in festivals and concert series in the UK, Europe and North America including Edinburgh, Cheltenham, City of London, Huddersfield Contemporary, Wien Modern, The Proms, Aldeburgh, Vale of Glamorgan, Kuhmo and Brighton Festivals. The ensemble has made regular appearances at Wigmore Hall, South Bank Centre and have had residencies at Bargemusic, New York; The Schoenberg Centre, Vienna; The Victoria and Albert Museum and Gresham College, London. Thomas has a distinguished discography with the ensemble including world-premiere recordings of Benjamin Britten, Jean Sibelius, Frank Bridge, Arthur Bliss, Mark-Anthony Turnage, Arvo Pärt, Henrik Gorecki, Ned Rorem and Judith Bingham.

The Times recently praised the ensemble for its “superb artistry…with pungent playing from Chamber Domaine under the baton of Thomas Kemp.” A recent recording with the ensemble of the Mozart Flute Quartets was YLE Recording of the Year.

Thomas is regularly in demand as a guest conductor with orchestras and ensembles in the UK and Europe. Forthcoming engagements include guest conducting with The Ostrobothnian Chamber Orchestra, Swedish Chamber Orchestra, RTE National Symphony, BBC National Orchestra of Wales and a tour of an interactive production of Stravinsky – The Soldier’s Tale with Chamber Domaine.

An acclaimed exponent of late nineteenth and early 20th century repertoire, recent engagements include groundbreaking concerts in the UK, Europe and Asia with The Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment conducting the 1925 film version of Strauss – Der Rosenkavalier. Thomas was a featured artist at the Oxford Lieder Festival conducting Mahler and Strauss with the OAE and outstanding vocalists Toby Spence, Dietrich Henschel and Louise Alder. The Spectator commented “It’s supremely, exhaustingly virtuosic writing…the OAE conducted by Thomas Kemp gave their all…” Seen and Heard praised the performances for their “marvellous sweep.”

The critical edition of Der Rosenkavalier prepared for these performances will be published in 2021 by Schott. .

Thomas has worked with many of the world’s leading contemporary composers and has given numerous world and territorial premieres including Judith Weir, Thomas Ades, Judith Bingham, Charlotte Bray, Arvo Part, Ned Rorem, David Horne, Huw Watkins, Brian Ferneyhough, Alexander Goehr, Mark Simpson, Magnus Lindberg, Danny Elfman, Brian Elias and Mark- Anthony Turnage. Forthcoming projects include six commissions to run alongside performances of Bach – Brandenburg Concertos, a tour of an interactive production of The Soldier’s Tale and a Composer Focus Day at Wigmore Hall.

He made his operatic debut in a new production of Cosi fan tutte for Opera Holland Park with the City of London Sinfonia to widespread praise. “Cosi fan tutte was conducted with real shape and nuance by Thomas Kemp…Altogether this was the most original and idiomatic attempt on this ungraspable work London has seen in a long time” Opera Now.

Thomas is the Artistic Director of Music@Malling – an international festival that promotes the works of contemporary composers alongside classical, jazz, world, film and vocal music. Founded in 2011, the festival is held each September in historic venues in and around West Malling, Kent and has a year around outreach programme that engages hundreds of young people from across the county in creative activities. In 2019, the festival had 30 events and profiled the music of Alexander Goehr. Music@Malling was recently featured the annual international roundup of The Best Classical Concerts in The Artsdesk.

From 1989-92, Thomas read music at St.Catharine’s College, Cambridge and went on to study violin and chamber music at the Royal Northern College of Music, Manchester where from 2000-2014 he worked as a professor. He has given masterclasses, conducted and coached ensembles in conservatoires and universities worldwide.

From 2003-2007, he studied conducting at the Royal College of Music, Stockholm with Jorma Panula, Paul Magi and Alan Gilbert winning the prestigious conducting award from The Swedish Academy.

Thomas has enjoyed an international career as a soloist, concertmaster, and chamber musician with many renowned orchestras and ensembles and has led many recording sessions for TV and film in London.

The Strad recently commented: “He displays a remarkable variety of tone in playing that’s lyrical yet assertive, and there’s a real sense of sincerity to his glowing interpretations.”

www.thomaskemp.eu

“A virtuoso stunt of technique and imagination…exuberant commitment.” The Times

Under its artistic director, Thomas Kemp, Chamber Domaine has become internationally recognised for its virtuosity and its ambitious and distinctive approach to programming – illuminating the music of the 20th and 21st Centuries. A project based orchestra, its programmes feature outstanding musicians that bring passion and commitment to a diverse repertoire that makes the music of today come alive whilst placing it into its historical context. In a recent review The Times praised the ensemble for its “superb artistry.”

​Chamber Domaine has worked with many renowned contemporary composers and has given World and territorial premieres in numerous concerts and recordings that span nearly two decades including highly acclaimed recordings of Mark-Anthony Turnage, Ned Rorem, Judith Bingham, Arvo Part, Jean Sibelius, Benjamin Britten, Frank Bridge and Mozart. Forthcoming recordings include Stravinsky – The Soldier’s Tale and a recording of chamber music by Olivier Messiaen for Resonus. The ensemble regularly collaborates with leading figures from across the arts world to create unique and culturally significant events.

​A trailblazing ensemble, Chamber Domaine are in demand at leading festivals and concerts series in the United Kingdom, Europe and North America including Brighton, Aldeburgh, Cheltenham, City of London, Edinburgh, Brighton Festivals and have regularly appeared at The Wigmore Hall and Southbank Centre. The ensemble has developed groundbreaking residencies at The Victoria and Albert Museum, The Imperial War Museum, The Arnold Schoenberg Centre, Vienna, Gresham College, London and Bargemusic, New York.

​Since 2011, Chamber Domaine has been the resident ensemble for Music@Malling giving concerts and delivering a year-around outreach programme that has engaged thousands of young people from across Kent in creative activities – building audiences from scratch and introducing new music to new audiences.

​The ensemble has a distinguished and highly acclaimed discography, winning international plaudits and receiving many broadcasts Worldwide. Recent plaudits include Recording of the Year with a disc of Mozart Flute Quartets from YLE – The Finnish Broadcasting Company. Forthcoming recordings include releases of Stravinsky – The Soldier’s Tale and work by Judith Weir and Alexander Goehr.

​With its innovative programming, collaborations, outreach and recording, Chamber Domaine is in the vanguard of music-making today: a flexible and dynamic ensemble that brings music alive and creates new audiences.

www.chamberdomaine.com

“An articulate musician with zest, spontaneity, technical assurance and a lovely sense of line…a major talent.” BBC Music Magazine

Since his concerto debut at the age of ten, the award-winning English ‘cellist Richard Harwood has performed concerti and chamber music in major venues including London’s Royal Albert Hall, Southbank Centre, Wigmore Hall, Musikverein (Vienna), Concertgebouw (Amsterdam), Alte Oper (Frankfurt), Thomaskirche (Leipzig), Auditorium du Louvre (Paris) and Alice Tully Hall / Lincoln Center (New York).

As concerto soloist, Richard has worked with conductors such as Mark Wigglesworth, Case Scaglione, Stanislav Kochanovsky, Michele Mariotti, John Wilson, Okko Kamu, Marko Letonja, Douglas Bostock, En Shao, Shuntaro Sato and Yehudi Menuhin, and with numerous orchestras including The Philharmonia, Royal Philharmonic, Bournemouth Symphony, RTÉ National Symphony, RTÉ Concert, Auckland Philharmonia and the Ural Philharmonic.

As chamber musician, he has collaborated with the Jerusalem and Endellion Quartets, Gidon Kremer, Yuri Bashmet, Olivier Charlier, Guy Braunstein, Benjamin Schmid, Alena Baeva, Ilya Gringolts, Pekka Kuusisto, Vilde Frang, Chen Halevi, Julian Bliss, Martin Roscoe, Peter Donohoe, Gottlieb Wallisch and Julius Drake, among others. Richard was cellist of the Sitkovetsky Trio from 2014-2016.

He is regularly heard on BBC, having made his BBC Radio 3 debut at the age of thirteen with a live recording of the Elgar Concerto. He has also given live performances on other radio networks including Classic FM, Radio France, MDR, RTÉ and Radio New Zealand.

Richard’s discography includes a debut disc for EMI Classics; recorded with pianist Christoph Berner, Composing Without The Picture (Resonus); a solo album of concert works written by film composers, and Christopher Gunning’s Cello Concerto recorded with the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra. On screen, Richard can be seen and heard in Phil Grabsky’s 2009 documentary In Search of Beethoven and is regularly featured as a soloist on movie soundtracks, most recently in Patrick Doyle’s score to Kenneth Branagh’s Murder On The Orient Express.

Contemporary music is important to Richard and he’s premiered solo works written for him by Dominic Muldowney, Martin Butler, Christopher Gunning, Alex Heffes, Fernando Velázquez, Benjamin Wallfisch and given the European premiere of David Horne’s Zip with the composer at the piano. In recent years, he has developed a close association with Judith Weir and regularly performs her Unlocked for solo cello.

Richard was appointed principal cellist of the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra at the beginning of 2018. He has also been a principal of the John Wilson Orchestra, and guest principal at the London Symphony and RTÉ Concert orchestras.

Richard began his studies with Joan Dickson, before continuing with other eminent teachers such as Steven Doane, David Waterman, Heinrich Schiff (University of Music and Dramatic Art, Vienna) and Ralph Kirshbaum (Royal Northern College of Music, Manchester). He complemented his studies by taking master classes and lessons with Mstislav Rostropovich, Janos Starker, Steven Isserlis, Boris Pergamenschikow, Miklós Perényi, Bernard Greenhouse, Valentin Erben (Alban Berg Quartet), William Pleeth, Zara Nelsova and Ferenc Rados.

He has won many major awards ever since 1992 when he became the youngest ever winner of the Audi Junior Musician Award. Richard won the 2004 Pierre Fournier Award and, in that same year, also became the first British ‘cellist ever to be awarded the title “Bachpreisträger” at the International Johann Sebastian Bach Competition, Leipzig 2004. Among many other accolades, he received the special “mention” prize from the jury at the Rostropovich Competition, Paris in 2005.

Richard enjoys teaching and has given masterclasses at the Royal Northern College of Music, Royal Welsh College of Music and Drama, Birmingham Conservatoire, Royal Irish Academy of Music and the Bruckner University (Linz), in addition to other teaching and summer course coaching.

Richard plays a ‘cello by Francesco Rugeri, dated 1692.

www.richardharwood.com

“Bradbury is wholly alive to these touches of colour and character…nicely capturing the physical thrill of Piatti’s often spectacular fireworks as well as the wholly fitting bel canto warmth of Bradbury’s more lyrical playing.” The Gramophone

Adrian Bradbury was principal cello in the National Youth Orchestra of Great Britain before winning scholarships to Churchill College, Cambridge (where he read Veterinary Science and Music) and then to the Royal Academy of Music. After further study in Berlin he developed an international career in chamber music as the cellist in Composers Ensemble (winners of the Royal Philharmonic Society Chamber Award, 2002), Jane’s Minstrels, Trio Gemelli, Touchwood Piano Quartet and Chamber Domaine, giving world premieres of solos, duos, trios and quartets by Thomas Adès, Judith Bingham, Tansy Davies, Dai Fujikura, Hugh Wood and John Woolrich.

Adrian is a regular guest principal player with orchestras including London Sinfonietta, Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra, Ulster Orchestra, Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra, English National Opera and Welsh National Opera and is Cello Tutor for the National Youth Orchestra of GB.

His research into ensemble synchronisation, in collaboration with Professor Alan Wing, was published by the Royal Society and led to invitations to curate the ‘Music and Brain’ series at the 2010 Aldeburgh Festival and to appear as speaker on BBC Radio 4’s ‘PM’ and ‘Today’ programmes and as soloist on BBC Radio 3’s 2015 ‘Why Music?’ weekend.

Together with pianist Oliver Davies, Adrian has recently recorded the complete operatic fantasies of the 19th Century cello virtuoso Alfredo Piatti on the Meridian label which have received excellent reviews.

www.musicianscience.org

“a powerful, soul-inflected performer with an Ella Fitzgerald-like improvisatory athleticism and an emotional frankness on ballads” The Guardian

Liane Carroll was born in London and raised in Hastings UK, where she lives today with her husband, bassist Roger Carey.

Encouraged to play piano from a young age, Liane received lessons from concert pianist Phyllis Catling. She developed a deep passion for everything jazz, soul and beyond culiminating in the formation of The Liane Carroll Trio in 1990.

Her vocal talents were recognized in 2005 when she was awarded ‘Best Vocalist’ and ‘Best of Jazz’ at the BBC Jazz Awards for her album Billy No Mates on Splash Point Records. Liane recorded Standard Issue at the famous Abbey Road studios in London, an album which saw her named ‘Best Vocalist’ at the 2006 Marston Pedigree Jazz Awards.

Liane’s performance at the Brecon Jazz Festival was recorded by BBC TV as an hour long special ‘Liane Carroll Trio LIVE’, and released on DVD in 2008. Since 1993, Liane has headlined at the legendary Ronnie Scotts Jazz Club, London UK and in 2007 won ‘Best Female Jazz Vocalist’ at their first Awards. where she has also recorded two live CD’s for their Jazz House label.

In 2007 The Sunday Times selected Liane’s third album ‘Slow Down’ as one of their top five jazz albums of the year. It was also featured by MOJO Magazine in their Top 10 Playlist for 2007. The following year Liane won a British Parliamentary Jazz Award for ‘Musician Of The Year’.

2009 took Liane to New York where she performed to rapturous audiences at Dizzy’s Jazz Club in New York’s Lincoln Center, and the Rochester Jazz Festival.

Liane signed to Quiet Money Productions in 2010 and recorded ‘Up and Down’ featuring Kirk Whalum on sax and on flugelhorn Kenny Wheeler. The James McMillan produced album received glowing reviews from Jazzwise, MOJO to The Sunday Times. Up and Down was voted as ‘Best Jazz Album of the Year’ in the 2012 Parliamentary Jazz Award’s and Liane was awarded ‘Best British Vocalist’ in the 2013 British Jazz Awards and nominated as best UK Vocalist of 2012 at the first Jazz FM’s Awards.

Liane’s 2013 album Ballads has a different take from her previous recordings; the string arrangements were especially written for Liane by Los Angeles based, GRAMMY-winning orchestrator Chris Walden. The City of Prague Philharmonic, Gwilym Simcock, Kirk Whalum are featured on the track Here’s to Life.

Liane’s new recording is Seaside, which reunites Liane with multi-GRAMMY nominated producer and trumpeter James McMillan who worked on her previous two albums. Seaside is a mix of original songs and covers broadly following a seashore theme, with sterling accompaniment comprising piano trio, guitar and brass and was released on Linn in Autumn 2015.

Liane Carroll has worked with many artists ranging from Sir Paul McCartney and Gerry Rafferty to Ladysmith Black Mambazo.  She is a regular performer at Ronnie Scott’s and the 606 Club in London.

“… proved to be a brassily exuberant concert overture … Skilfully layered, neatly tailored, it did what it needed to do in five minutes, then stopped. If only all new music were so concise”. The Independent

Simon Speare was born and brought up in Cornwall. He studied composition with Simon Holt at City University, London. His music has been widely performed by professional and amateur performers in the UK and abroad and broadcast on national radio and television.

Head of Composition and Contemporary Music at the Royal College of Music Junior Department, he also teaches composition at The Purcell School. His students have won many national and international awards including this year’s BBC Proms Inspire competition and a number of his students have developed successful careers as composers.

He has lectured and examined at Universities and Conservatoires and is an experienced leader of workshops, devising and leading education projects in schools for leading orchestras and education authorities. He was a lead composer on the award winning SPNM Sound Inventors project and has recently helped to develop the Go Compose project for Sound and Music, both aimed at pre-university aged composers.

He was Composer in Association with London Concert Choir and Composer in Residence at the Centre for Young Musicians, London. He is currently collaborating with the author Tony Bradman on a music-theatre piece for children. He has devised and presented a contemporary music show on Resonance FM and been a judge for the British Composer Awards. Married with a son and daughter, he has often dabbled in rock and pop music and lives in East London.

www.simonspeare.co.uk

“This music will enhance anyone’s life: if you’ve ever wondered if good string quartets are still being written, here’s proof that they are.” The Artsdesk

With her 2015 Last Night of the Proms opener Arise Athena! Eleanor Alberga cemented a reputation as a composer of international stature. Performed by the BBC Symphony Orchestra, BBC Chorus and conducted by Marin Alsop, the work was heard and seen by millions.

Her music is not easy to pigeon-hole. The musical language of her opera Letters of a Love Betrayed (2009), premiered at the Royal Opera House’s Linbury stage, has drawn comparisons with Berg’s Wozzeck and Debussy’s Pelleas, while her lighter works draw more obviously on her Jamaican heritage and time as a singer with the Jamaican Folk Singers and as a member of an African Dance company. But the emotional range of her language, her structural clarity and a fabulously assured technique as an orchestrator have always drawn high praise.

Born in Kingston, Jamaica, Alberga decided at the age of five to be a concert pianist, though five years later she was already composing works for the piano.

In 1970, she won the biennial Royal Schools of Music Scholarship for the West Indies which she took up at the Royal Academy of Music in London, studying piano and singing. But a budding career as a solo pianist – she was among the 3 finalists in the International Piano Concerto Competition in Dudley, UK in 1974 – was augmented by composition with her arrival at The London Contemporary Dance Theatre in 1978. Under the inspirational leadership of its Artistic Director Robert Cohan, she became one of the very few pianists with the deepest understanding of modern dance and her company class improvisations became the stuff of legend. These in turn led to works commissioned and conceived for dance from the company, most notably the piano quintet Clouds (1984). Alberga later became the company’s Musical Director, conducting, composing and playing on all LCDT’s many tours.

The orchestral works, Sun Warrior (1990) written for the inaugural Women in Music Festival and her dramatic adaptation of Roald Dahl’s Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs (1994) for large symphony orchestra and narrators, premiered at the Royal Festival Hall in 1994 with Franz Welser Möst and the LPO, helped build her growing reputation. In 2001 she was awarded a NESTA Fellowship for composition.

2001 also saw the completion and premiere of a highly praised first Violin Concerto, written for Thomas Bowes and commissioned by The Scottish Chamber Orchestra under Joseph Swensen. A second violin concerto entitled Narcissus was premiered in 2020. Also written for Thomas Bowes, it was premiered with the NFM Leopoldinum Orchestra in Wroclaw, Poland and conducted by Joseph Swensen.

Chamber music, both in the more traditional form of three String Quartets and a Piano Quintet, and for more unusual line-ups, abounds. An unfolding series of Nocturnes – notably, Shinning Gate of Morpheus and Succubus Moon – featuring horn and oboe respectively with string quartet, is an expanding project. Works for voice have more recently come to the fore with a luminous setting of George Herbert’s The Glimpse and most recently the song cycle The Soul’s Expression to poetry by George Eliot, Emily Bronte and Elizabeth Barrett Browning; both premiered by the baritone Jeremy Huw Williams.

Other recent works include Awed Light its Chant Entrances for Chorus and piano. It was commissioned by and premiered at the 2019 Dartington Festival with Joanna MacGregor and the festival chorus to text by the poet Alice Oswald. 2019 also saw the completion and premiere of the first portion of a large tripartite piano sonata Seraph. Entitled Presence, it was performed by Alberga herself at the 2019 Arcadia Festival.

Alberga now lives in the Herefordshire countryside with her husband the violinist Thomas Bowes and together they have founded and nurtured an original festival – Arcadia. In 2019 a prestigious Paul Hamlyn Foundation Award was presented to Eleanor for composition. This year she is to receive the honour of ‘Fellow of the Royal Academy of Music’.

www.eleanoralberga.com

Immy Churchill is a jazz singer and singer songwriter studying at The Royal Academy of Music. As a member of The London Vocal Project, Immy has played with the likes of Norma Winstone and Dave Holland and has recently been involved in Jon Hendricks’ Miles Ahead. She has performed with a range of ensembles and as a soloist at venues such as ‘The Green Note’, ‘The Royal Festival Hall’, ‘Pizza Express Live’, ‘Ronnie Scott’s’ ‘The King’s Place’ and recently as part of ‘The Ryedale Festival’ with her trio. She looks to embrace not only the lyrical quality of being a singer but also the joys of singing wordlessly and improvising. Her influences range from Joni Mitchell and James Taylor to Ella Fitzgerald and Norma Winstone, providing her with a wide breadth of musical knowledge that sets her apart as a vocalist.

Toby is double bassist from Bristol, currently studying at the Royal Academy of Music. He has had the opportunity to perform with various high profile musicians through his education such as Chris Potter and Dave Holland. He is an adept sideman, and has been involved in numerous personal projects, recently recording on an album of original music by saxophonist Will Rees Jones. He has been developing his musicianship and technique over the last two years studying at the Academy and now is under the tuition of New York Bassist Orlando Le Flemming, studying traditional and more modern Jazz.

Scottie Thompson is a pianist and composer from Portsmouth. He has performed music in a wide range of styles at prestigious venues such as Ronnie Scott’s and Buckingham Palace, and last year played a set of original music with his trio as part of EFG London Jazz Festival. He has also won various composition awards, some of his arrangements having been played on BBC Radio 3 and Classic FM in recent years.

“There is no way to talk about the music of Mark-Anthony Turnage without straight away mentioning the powerful presence – unmistakable, unabashed – of jazz, with expressive effects simultaneously wild and needle-sharp, noir and blue. Less immediately obvious, perhaps, is how Turnage, in drawing his basic vocabulary from the other side of the fence (and there still is one), is able to create music in ways thoroughly in line with the classical tradition, even if resolutely and necessarily new. Jazz gives him an alternative handle on a venerable engine”. Paul Griffiths, The Gramophone

A composer of truly international stature, Mark-Anthony Turnage is among the most relevant communicators and creators of today. His orchestral and operatic music is often forthright and confrontational, unafraid to mirror the realities of modern life, yet its energy is exhilarating. With his flair for vivid titles, and his complete absorption of jazz elements into a contemporary classical style, Turnage produces work with a strong appeal to an enquiring, often young audience. At the same time his music is capable of expressing deep tenderness, especially emotions associated with loss.

Born in Britain in 1960, Turnage studied with Oliver Knussen and John Lambert, and later with Gunther Schuller. With the encouragement of Hans Werner Henze, he wrote his first opera for the Munich Biennale festival, Greek, which received a triumphant premiere in 1988. The many ensuing productions worldwide established Turnage’s international reputation. The important works that followed, Three Screaming Popes, Kai, Momentum and Drowned Out, stemmed from a four-year period as Composer in Association with the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra and Sir Simon Rattle, from 1989 to 1993.

Three years later Blood on the Floor was commissioned by Ensemble Modern. Written for John Scofield, Peter Erskine and Martin Robertson, it demonstrates Turnage’s ability to draw inspiration from the unique sounds of particular performers, often working in close collaboration. Turnage’s major work in the late Nineties was his second full-length opera, The Silver Tassie, premiered in February 2000 to exceptional acclaim at English National Opera, where he was Composer in Association. It won both the South Bank Show and Olivier Awards for Opera in 2001. The new century also brought Turnage’s appointment in 2000 as the BBC Symphony Orchestra’s first Associate Composer culminating in a major Turnage weekend at the Barbican in January 2003.

In the autumn of 2002, Sir Simon Rattle conducted Blood on the Floor at one of his first concerts as Chief Conductor of the Berlin Philharmonic, attracting a largely new, younger audience to the Berlin Philharmonie and generating the Berlin Philharmonic’s first major education project. Rattle and the BPO commissioned Ceres, an ‘orchestral asteroid’ to accompany Holst’s suite The Planets, which received its premiere performance in 2006. Other significant works following the turn of the new century included Bass Inventions, premiered by the bass player Dave Holland in Amsterdam in 2001, and Scorched, co-written with John Scofield for jazz trio and orchestra, premiered in 2002 with the Frankfurt Radio Symphony Orchestra and Big Band, conducted by Hugh Wolff.

The trumpet concerto From the Wreckage was written for soloist Håkan Hardenberger, who brought it to the 2005 BBC Proms after its Helsinki premiere. Of the London performance, The Times’s critic wrote: ‘this was outstanding: a kind of rebirth piece in which the music begins hellishly but gradually picks up a bluesy swing as the soloist rhapsodically spirals higher and higher. I was mesmerised.’ Hardenberger has since performed the concerto over 20 times in 10 countries.

Working with the London Philharmonic Orchestra during the 2004/05 season led to Mark-Anthony Turnage’s appointment as its Composer in Residence between 2005 and 2010. The residency was celebrated with Turnage’s first violin concerto, Mambo, Blues and Tarantella, written for Christian Tetzlaff and the LPO with Vladimir Jurowski and premiered at the Southbank Centre in 2008, with subsequent performances in Stockholm and Toronto from the co-commissioning partners. A final new work to celebrate the residency, Texan Tenebrae, was premiered in London in 2010 and three Turnage discs were released on the LPO’s own label.

Turnage was also appointed Mead Composer in Residence with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra from 2006 until 2010 for whom he wrote two new works, From All Sides and Chicago Remains, conducted by Esa-Pekka Salonen and Bernard Haitink respectively. Turnage has previously written for other major American orchestras: Scherzoid was a New York Philharmonic/London Philharmonic commission, while his viola concerto On Opened Ground was commissioned by the Cleveland Orchestra for Yuri Bashmet.

2009 brought the premieres of A Constant Obsession commissioned by the Wigmore Hall for the Nash Ensemble and Mark Padmore and Five Views of a Mouth for the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra and flautist Dietmar Wiesner, while Hammered Out at the 2010 BBC Proms and Twisted Blues with Twisted Ballad written for the Belcea Quartet were works completed before Turnage took time out to write a third opera. Anna Nicole, with text by Richard Thomas, was premiered at The Royal Opera in London in Spring 2011 in a production by Richard Jones attracting a sold-out run. Further stagings have followed in Dortmund, Nuremburg and at the BAM Next Wave festival in New York and the opera has been released on DVD by Opus Arte.

Turnage wrote two ballet scores in 2011/12: UNDANCE for Sadler’s Wells, a collaboration with Wayne McGregor and Mark Wallinger, and Trespass for the Royal Ballet Covent Garden as part of its Metamorphosis: Titian 2012 project, choreographed by Alastair Marriott and Christopher Wheeldon. Recent concertos include works for cellist Paul Watkins, pianist Marc-André Hamelin and jazz drummer Peter Erskine while in Spring 2013 Turnage was featured composer with the London Symphony Orchestra, culminating in the premiere and recording of a new work Speranza, also performed under the baton of Daniel Harding in Boston and Stockholm.

The orchestral work Frieze was premiered under the baton of Vasily Petrenko at the BBC Proms and Passchendaele was composed to commemorate the centenary of the outbreak of the First World War. Strapless was premiered at the Royal Ballet Covent Garden in 2016 with choreography by Christopher Wheeldon, while his opera for family audiences Coraline, based on the dark fantasy novel by Neil Gaiman, was staged by The Royal Opera at the Barbican Theatre in 2018, travelling on to Freiburg, Lille, Stockholm and Melbourne. Recent Turnage scores have included the orchestral work Remembering, conducted by Simon Rattle in 2017 with the London Symphony Orchestra and Berlin Philharmonic, and the double violin concerto Shadow Walker for soloists Vadim Repin and Daniel Hope with the Borusan Istanbul Philharmonic Orchestra, toured to four European countries in October 2017. His setting of Ukrainian texts for soprano and orchestra, Testament, received first performances in 2018 conducted by Kirill Karabits in Bournemouth and Weimar and his song cycle Refugee, written for tenor Allan Clayton and Britten Sinfonia, was premiered in 2019. His 60th birthday was celebrated in 2020.

Much of Turnage’s music is recorded on Decca, Warner Classics, Chandos and the LPO and LSO labels, while Scorched, on Deutsche Grammophon, was nominated for a Grammy. Turnage is Research Fellow in Composition at the Royal College of Music, and is published by Boosey & Hawkes. Works written before 2003 are published by Schott. He was awarded a CBE in the 2015 Queen’s Birthday honours.

Matt Skelton is a drummer equally at home in modern and vintage Jazz styles enjoying a diverse musical career that has already spanned three decades.

He has accompanied many leading Jazz luminaries such as Harry ”Sweets” Edison, Conte Candoli, Bucky Pizzarelli, John Pizzarelli, Warren Vache, Scott Hamilton, John Hendricks, Kurt Elling, Curtis Stigers, Gregory Porter, and most recently Georgie Fame.

He has recorded and appeared with singers such as Marion Montgomery, Dame Cleo Laine, Claire Martin and Dame Jessye Norman.

In 2015 he toured in the USA and recorded with Seth Macfarlane.

He was Sir Richard Rodney Bennett’s drummer of choice and for eight years toured and recorded as a member of Stacey Kent’s group, including her sGrammy-nominated 2007 release ‘Breakfast On The Morning Tram’ on BlueNote.

Matt Skelton is a founder member of the Grammy nominated John Wilson Orchestra. He regularly appears with the BBC Big Band and often with the BBC Concert, BBC Philharmonic and BBC Symphony orchestras including the Last Night of the Proms 2017. Traveling as John Wilson’s drummer he has most recently performed with the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra, Stockholm Philharmonic, Gothenburg Symphony Orchestra and the Hong Kong Philharmonic Orchestra.

In 2018 Matt toured internationally with Sir Simon Rattle with the London Symphony Orchestra for various Leonard Bernstein centenary concerts including performances of Bernstein’s 2nd Symphony, ‘The Age Of Anxiety’ and a concert version of ‘Wonderful Town’.

2019 highlights included appearing at the Edinburgh Festival with the Scottish Chamber Orchestra in a concert version of ‘West Side Story’ for Sir John Eliot Gardiner OBE; recording for Alan Barnes’s 60th birthday project +11 and subsequent album launch concerts including many UK Jazz festivals; many appearances at Ronnie Scott’s including James Pearson’s Portrait of Bill Evans and Joe Stilgoe’s 80’s big band project.

West End musical theatre credits include the 2015 Savoy revival of ‘Gypsy’ and ‘the Broadway transfer of ‘An American In Paris’ at the Dominion theatre 2017. Recent film soundtrack includes ‘Motherless Brooklyn’, ‘Catch 22’, ‘Four Kids And It’ and ‘Blythe Spirit’.

Matt is the drummer for Callum Au’s recently released and critically acclaimed orchestral album, ‘Songs and Stories’ featuring Claire Martin.

This year Matt was looking forward playing for the Adelphi revival of ‘Hello Dolly’ staring Imelda Staunton. This production now been postponed until 2022.

“Pearson is in shattering form on these sessions” Sunday Times

James Pearson is one of the country’s most respected musicians. His work covers all genres of music, especially contemporary music, jazz and classical. He graduated from the Guildhall School, having completed his degree and the Advanced Solo Studies Course. Whilst at college he studied with Robert Saxton, Francis Shaw, Peter Bithell and James Gibb.

James has broadcast on all the major radio and television networks. Classic FM broadcast his concert of Rachmaninoff’s 2nd piano concerto, and BBC Radio 2 broadcast his performance of the Gershwin Piano Concerto and Rhapsody in Blue. He was the pianist in the Steve Martland Band. His work as a Jazz musician has taken him all over the world. Earlier this year, the James Pearson Trio was invited to play a four night run at New York’s Birland Jazz Club. His fine piano playing and arrangements can be heard on over 50 albums.

Amongst the many artists James has worked with are Dame Cleo Laine, Maria Ewing, Marian Montgomery, Petula Clark, Kevin Spacey, John Wilson, Elvin Jones, Wynton Marsalis, Joss Stone, Dave Stewart, Buddy Greco, Johnny Griffin, Joseph Horowitz, Richard Rodney Bennett, Ray Davies, Jeff Beck and Paul McCartney.

He is the Artistic Director of Ronnie Scott’s, London.

www.jamespearsonmusic.com

“…fiercely talented…”The Independent

Adam is the Principal Bassoonist of Opera North, a position he has held since December 2017.

After leaving the Guildhall School of Music and Drama in 2004, Adam has studied in Milan (Accademia del Teatro alla Scala) with Valentino Zucchiatti and with Dag Jensen in Hanover before settling down to a 12-year freelance career.

In that time, whilst living in London, Adam worked with most UK orchestras and chamber orchestras but, remarkably, had very little to do with opera. He is making up for this oversight now.

Adam has been an active chamber musician. As a member of the New London Chamber Ensemble he played at the Wigmore Hall with pianist Angela Hewitt, performed Berio’s Opus Zoo choreographed and from memory, and recorded works by Lenox Berkeley (Naxos). As a member of Chamber Domaine, Adam has performed Rossini’s Giovanna d’Arco for an installation by Anish Kapoor, recorded Britten’s Sinfonietta and Bridge’s There is a Willow Aslant a Brook (Resonus)and given performances of Stravinsky’s The Soldier’s Tale to hundreds of children. Adam has also played Faustian Cabaret Piece from memory whilst acting in a fully staged production at the Old Vic Theatre, London.

Adam is passionate about contemporary music and has a particular interest in the use of improvisation in composition. Adam was part of the team who created a modern perspective on Purcell’s King Arthur with Peter Weigold and Club Inegales in London’s Wilton’s Music Hall and in 2014 went on tour to India with the Britten Sinfonia and world leading sarod player Amjad Ali Khan.

Adam’s interest in the freedom improvisation brings has led him to take a serious involvement in music education. As Director of Education for English Sinfonia and Brandenburg Sinfonia Adam has devised and delivered composition projects up and down the country with seasoned professionals and non-musicians alike, narrated Peter and the Wolf many times with groups such as London Mozart Players and Sinfonia ViVA (of which he was a member for some years) and brought together over 800 children for a massed concert in Fairfield Hall. He currently teaches at Chetham’s School of Music and the Royal Northern College of Music.

Adam lives outside Leeds with his headteacher wife and two children. He likes running, hiking and avoiding Lego left on the floor.

With her distinctive and intensely striking sonic language, Berlin-based British composer Rebecca Saunders (b.1967) is a leading international representative of her generation. Born in London, she studied composition with Nigel Osborne in Edinburgh and Wolfgang Rihm in Karlsruhe.

Saunders pursues an intense interest in the sculptural and spatial properties of organised sound. chroma I – XX (2003-2017), Stasis and Stasis Kollektiv (2011/16) are expanding spatial collages of up to twenty-five chamber groups and sound sources set in radically different architectural spaces. insideout, a 90-minute collage for a choreographed installation, created in collaboration with Sasha Waltz, was her first work for the stage and received over 100 international performances. Most recently in 2017, Yes, an expansive 80-minute spatial installation composition, was written for Musikfabrik, Donatienne Michel-Dansac and Enno Poppe for the extraordinary architectural spaces of the Berlin Philharmonie and the St. Eustache Cathedral in Paris.

Since 2013, Saunders has written a series of solos and duos for performers with whom she has collaborated closely over many years, including Bite (2016) for bass flute, Aether (2016) for bass clarinet duo, dust (2017/18) for percussion, O (2017) for soprano, hauch (2018) for violin, and Flesh (2017/18) for accordion. She has simultaneously pursued her keen interest in works in the concertante form, writing a double percussion concerto Void (2014), a trumpet concerto Alba (2015), and both Skin (2016) and Yes (2017) for soprano and large ensemble. Alba and Void marked the close of a triptych of works which also includes the violin concerto Still (2011). In 2016, her extended violin concerto Still (2011/16) was performed in collaboration with the choreographer Antonio Rúz, the dancers of Sasha Waltz & Guests, Carolin Widmann, the Junge Deutsche Philharmonie and Sylvain Cambreling. In 2018 her double bass concerto Fury II was choreographed by Emanuel Gat in collaboration with Ensemble Modern as part of the Story Water project.

Saunders’ music has been performed and premiered by many prestigious ensembles, soloists and orchestras including Ensemble Musikfabrik, Klangforum Wien, Ensemble Modern, Quatuor Diotima, Ensemble Dal Niente, Asko|Schönberg, the Arditti Quartet, Ensemble Resonanz, Ensemble Recherche, ICE, the Neue Vocalsolisten, Ensemble Remix, SWRSO, WDRSO and the BBCSO, amongst many others.

Her compositions have been recognised with numerous international prestigious awards, including the 2019 Ernst von Siemens Music Prize (following one of the Young Composers’ Prizes of the Ernst von Siemens Music Foundation in 1996), the ARD und BMW musicaviva Prize, the Paul Hindemith Prize, four Royal Philharmonic Society Awards (for Stirrings Still in 2008, Fletch in 2013, Skin in 2017, and Yes in 2019), four BASCA British Composer Awards (for Solitude in 2013, Alba in 2016, Skin in 2017 and Unbreathed in 2018), and the GEMA Music Prize for Instrumental Music. In 2015, Saunders received the Hans und Gertrud Zender Foundation Prize and the prestigious Mauricio Kagel Music Preis. Accordionist Teo Anzellotti’s CD, …of waters making moan, which included Saunders’ eponymous work, won the German Record Critics’ Award of the Year for 2016.

Saunders is in great demand as a composition tutor and teaches regularly at, amongst others, the Darmstadt Summer Courses and at the Impuls Academy in Graz. She was professor of composition at the Hannover University of Music, Theatre and Media. She lives in Berlin and is a member of the Berlin Academy of Arts and the Sachsen Academy of Arts in Dresden.

Saunders’ music has been published by Edition Peters since 1997.

James regularly performs with the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra and Concert Orchestra, the Syd Lawrence Orchestra and Pete Long’s ‘Jazz at the Philharmonic’ band.  He is a member of the Misha Mullov-Abbado Group, the Tom Green Septet and the Sam Watts Band, as well as running his own dixieland jazz band – The Dixie Strollers.

Born in the south west of Ireland and then growing up mostly in Surrey, Conor Chaplin studied at Trinity College of Music, in Greenwich under the tutelage of Simon Purcell, Steve Watts, and others. Also formative in his education were the late great composer and educator Martin Read at Alton College in Hampshire, and his time as part of Surrey County Youth Jazz Orchestra, based in Woking, and the National Youth Jazz Orchestra under Bill Ashton and Mark Armstrong. 

He is best known currently as part of Mercy Prize nominated group Dinosaur, led by trumpeter-composer Laura Jurd, as well as other contemporary original jazz projects including Flying Machines and formerly WorldService Project.

Between these regular projects and other one-off occasions he has had the pleasure of touring extensively throughout the UK, North America, Europe and Asia and has been fortunate to perform with diverse artists including Kit Downes, Ben Van Gelder, Reinier Baas, Marius Neset, Thomas Strønen, Bobo Stenson, Harold Mabern, George Garzone, Billy Cobham, Jacob Collier, Jesse Van Ruller, Iain Ballamy, Julian Siegel, Natalie Williams, Ivo Neame, Tony Tixier, Keyon Harrold, Stan Sulzmann, Bobby Wellins and others.