Karen Jones – Flute
Karen Jones – Flute
Karen is equally well known as concerto soloist, chamber musician, recording artist and orchestral player. She is constantly in demand by composers and conductors alike with solo engagements including the Royal Wedding, a world première by Sir Harrison Birtwistle, several blockbuster movies and the London Sinfonietta’s 50th anniversary concert at the Royal Festival Hall. A member of the European Youth Orchestra at fifteen, subsequent student successes include Finalist in BBC TV’s Young Musician of the Year, a Fulbright Scholarship, Harkness Fellowship to study in New York and the Gold Medal in the Shell/ London Symphony Orchestra Prize. She was appointed principal flute of the Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra at 25, a post she held for 5 years before returning to London to pursue her diverse career.
Karen has been a professor at the Royal Academy of Music, London, for the last ten years and is frequently invited to give masterclasses as far afield as South America and Asia. She was elected FRAM in 2021.
John Woolrich – composer
John Woolrich – composer
John Woolrich has founded a group (the Composers Ensemble), a festival (Hoxton New Music Days), and has been composer in association with the Orchestra of St John’s and the Britten Sinfonia. His collaborations with Birmingham Contemporary Music Group led to his appointment in 2002 as Artist-in-Association. He was guest Artistic Director of the Aldeburgh Festival in 2004 and Associate Artistic Director of the festival from 2005 to 2010. From 2010 to 2013 Woolrich was both Artistic Director of Dartington International Summer School and Professor of Music at Brunel University. From 2013 to 2016 he was Artistic Director of Mirepoix Musique in France. He is currently an Associate Artist of the Gulbenkian Arts Centre, Kent University.
A number of preoccupations thread through his music: the art of creative transcription – Ulysses Awakes, for instance, is a re-composition of a Monteverdi aria, and The Theatre Represents a Garden: Night is based on fragments of Mozart – and a fascination with machinery and mechanical processes, heard in many pieces including The Ghost in the Machine and The Barber’s Timepiece.
Throughout the 1990s, Woolrich had a string of orchestral commissions, which resulted in some of his most significant works: his concertos for viola, oboe, and cello. A CD of the viola and oboe concertos on the NMC label attracted particular attention and was ‘Record of the Week’ on BBC Radio 3. Other orchestral pieces written during this period include The Ghost in the Machine, premiered in Japan by Andrew Davis and the BBC Symphony Orchestra, and Si Va Facendo Notte which the Barbican Centre commissioned to celebrate the Mozart European Journey Project.
Recent pieces include Between the Hammer and the Anvil, for the London Sinfonietta, a violin concerto for Carolin Widmann and the Northern Sinfonia, Falling Down, a contrabassoon concerto for Margaret Cookhorn and the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra and To the Silver Bow for Leon Bosch and the Academy of St Martin in the Fields. Most recently John Woolrich has composed A Book of Inventions, a large scale set of string quartets.
Giles Whitehead – Resident Artist
Giles Whitehead – Resident Artist
I was born into a musical household; everyone played something. My dad, who was a farmer, had studied at the Guildhall School of Music – not sure how good they are at teaching farming, but he turned out quite well at playing cello. He had an antique cello that had notably fallen off a stagecoach at some point in its life and my dad would occasionally have to glue it back together. He practised in the cowshed, because of the good acoustics and beneficial effects on the wellbeing of the cows.
As a child, string quartets in the farmhouse were common and attending orchestral concerts was a fairly regular event. These concerts were often held in churches, and so Music@Malling feels familiar and provides that warm feeling of going home to memories of childhood.
Despite all those art college lessons of life drawing and trying to get forms and proportions right, I’ve since learned to worry less about such things. When drawing at Music@Malling, I find I often achieve the best results when I let go and allow my fingers to be swept along by the moods and rhythms of the music.
In this, my third year at Music@Malling, I feel honoured to been given the title of ‘artist in residence’ to this incredible event. Every time I step into a concert, I am astounded by the skill of the musicians, the wonderful music and the beautiful surroundings. Thank you to Tom Kemp for providing this honour and for his dedication to making this great experience an annual event.
Judith Weir CBE
Judith Weir CBE
During this time she began to write a series of operas (including King Harald’s Saga, The Black Spider, A Night at the Chinese Opera, The Vanishing Bridegroom and Blond Eckbert) which have subsequently received many performances in the UK, Germany, Austria, the Netherlands, Belgium and the USA. The most recent opera is Miss Fortune, premiered at Bregenz in 2011, and then staged at the Royal Opera House Covent Garden in 2012.
As resident composer with the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra in the 1990s, she wrote several works for orchestra and chorus (including Forest, Storm and We are Shadows) which were premiered by the orchestra’s then Music Director, Simon Rattle. She has been commissioned by the Boston Symphony Orchestra (Music Untangled and Natural History) the Minnesota Orchestra (The Welcome Arrival of Rain) and the London Sinfonietta (Tiger under the Table); and has written concert works for some notable singers, including Jane Manning, Dawn Upshaw, Jessye Norman and Alice Coote. Her latest vocal work is Good Morning, Midnight, premiered by Sarah Connolly and the Aurora Orchestra in May 2015.
She now lives in London, where she has had a long association with Spitalfields Music Festival; and in recent years has taught as a visiting professor at Princeton, Harvard and Cardiff universities. Honours for her work include the Critics’ Circle, South Bank Show, Elise L Stoeger and Ivor Novello awards, a CBE (1995) and the Queen’s Medal for Music (2007). In 2014 she was appointed Master of The Queen’s Music in succession to Sir Peter Maxwell Davies. In January 2015 she became Associate Composer to the BBC Singers.
Much of her music has been recorded, and is available on the NMC, Delphian and Signum labels. In 2014-15 there were releases of The Vanishing Bridegroom (NMC) and Storm (BBC Singers/Signum)
Steven Devine – Harpsichord
Steven Devine – Harpsichord
“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.
Stevie Wishart
Composer
Stevie Wishart
Composer
“Stevie Wishart’s Eurostar: A journey in sound between cities (2016), the evening’s most experimental work, explored improvisation using vocalise, with whooshes, whines and a whole variety of modern loco impressions: motion in poetry.” The Guardian
Stevie Wishart is a composer, performer and improviser. She explores medieval and contemporary extremes, using voices, ancient technologies such as the hurdy gurdy, and electronic music technologies of our own time.
Stevie’s music explores medieval and contemporary extremes, using voices, ancient technologies such as the hurdy-gurdy, and emerging technologies of today. She studied composition at York University with Trevor Wishart, improvised and aleatoric music with John Cage in Edinburgh, postgraduate studies in early music (violin and voice) at the Guildhall, London and with a Vicente Cañada Blanch JRF at New College, University of Oxford, and through many collaboration.
She has composed for modern orchestras and vocal groups and for her own group, Sinfonye. As a composer she works acoustically with music notation, sometimes combined with improvisation, sometimes using computer music systems, and sometimes using all these elements.
The challenge of creating music for a wide range of contexts is important, such as composing for productions by Michèle Noiret (Théâtre National de Bruxelles) and Wayne McGregor, a large-scale choral work for a Proms commission with the BBC Singers & Sinfonye, and for the designer Philippe Starck. With the support of a Visiting Music Fellowship at the University of Cambridge she is currently composing a Double-Bass Concerto for the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment, London.
Exploring music’s unique ability to express new ideas on a level which transcends other routes of communication motivates her work as a composer (and improviser).
Stevie Wishart studied composition and electronic music at the University of York with Trevor Wishart and Richard Orton, as well as improvised and aleatoric music with John Cage and David Tudor in Edinburgh. She continued postgraduate performance studies in early music (baroque violin and voice) at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama (Diploma in Advanced Performance) and with a Nuffield Foundation award and a Vicente Cañada Blanch Junior Research Fellowship at the University of Oxford (Degree of MLitt) for research into medieval musical iconography.
Invited for a number of composer residences and fellowships, she has presented her work at IRCAM in Paris; the Institute for Music and Acoustics in the ZKM (Zentrum für Kunst und Medientechnologie) in Karlsruhe, Germany; the ADK, Akademie der Künste, in Berlin, and Mills College in California. She received a Wellcome Trust award to develop her compositions using musical gestures and sound-to-control computers, and to work at the University of Cambridge with the neuroscientist Ian Winter on audio processes based on the physiology of the ear.
She is currently a Visiting Music Fellow at the University of Cambridge with the AHRC Research Centre for Musical Performance as Creative Practice (CMPCP).
Stevie Wishart’s Cantata for the Seasons was given its world premiere at Snape Maltings in April 2014. Other major projects include a Concerto Grosso, a double bass concerto, commissioned for the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment, which premiered at London’s Southbank Centre, a solo piece for piano for Joanna MacGregor, a choral piece for Ex Cathedra, and a new piece for the Dunedin Consort for the 2019 BBC Proms.
Thomas Kemp
Artistic Director
Thomas Kemp
Artistic Director
“…superbly conveyed by Thomas Kemp who conducts with unerring perfection.” Musicweb
Thomas Kemp is an acclaimed conductor and artistic director renowned for his passionate advocacy and ground breaking programming that places contemporary music into its historical context. The Guardian recently commented “…an extraordinary performance… with a fluency that came over brilliantly under the baton of Thomas Kemp.”
Thomas is regularly in demand as a guest conductor in the UK and Europe. Recent and forthcoming engagements include concerts with BBC Symphony Orchestra, BBC National Orchestra of Wales, RTE National Symphony Orchestra, Ostrobothnian Chamber Orchestra, Swedish Chamber Orchestra, Birmingham Contemporary Music Group and Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment.
Thomas is the Music Director of Chamber Domaine, which is at the forefront of ensembles focusing on 20th and 21st century music. He regularly conducts Chamber Domaine in festivals and concert series in the UK, Europe and North America. In 2022, the ensemble received five star reviews in the national press for Six Brandenburgs: Six Commissions – giving world premieres of new works by Brian Elias, Michael Price, Deborah Pritchard, Daniel Kidane, Joseph Phibbs and Stevie Wishart alongside the Brandenburg Concertos.
The Artsdesk described the concerts as “metaphysical brilliance…a colossal achievement made up of seemingly effortless and joyous playing meeting with an equally joyous audience response.” The Observer described the performances as “superbly performed.” Musical Opinion praised the concerts as “a true continuation of the energising, restorative effect of Bach’s music, crisply and spontaneously rendered by members of Chamber Domaine under Thomas Kemp’s alert direction.”
Six Brandenburgs: Six Commissions will be toured to festivals and concert series in the UK and Europe including Wigmore Hall in June 2025.
In June 2023, Chamber Domaine will be premiering new works by composer Deborah Pritchard in a series of immersive concerts featuring art by Maggi Hambling CBE and Marc Chagall.
Thomas is the Artistic Director and Founder of Music@Malling which brings world-class music to people’s doorsteps through concerts and outreach. Music@Malling has an annual festival held each September and a summer series held in historic venues in and around West Malling, Kent. Music@Malling has year around outreach which engages hundreds of people in creative activities and reaches many people who would not otherwise engage with the arts. Acclaimed for its innovative programming, Music@Malling promotes contemporary music alongside classical and jazz. Featured composers in 2023 include Brian Elias, Gavin Bryars, Deborah Pritchard and Eleanor Alberga. Music@Malling was featured in The Guardian – 10 Best Concerts and Operas of 2022.
Thomas has an award winning discography with Resonus and Signum Records. Forthcoming recordings include world-premiere recordings of music by Brian Elias, Eleanor Alberga, Deborah Pritchard and Richard Strauss.
An acclaimed exponent of late nineteenth and early 20th century repertoire, recent engagements include groundbreaking concerts in the UK and Asia with The Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment conducting the 1925 film version of Strauss – Der Rosenkavalier. The critical edition he prepared for these performances is published by Schott and will be recorded by Chamber Domaine on period instruments in November 2023 for Resonus.
Thomas was a featured artist at the Oxford Lieder Festival conducting Mahler and Strauss with 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.”
Other recent highlights include a tour of Ireland with the Fidelio Trio and the RTE National Symphony Orchestra and conducting world premieres of Mark-Anthony Turnage – Concertino and Howard Skempton – Hinterland with The Birmingham Contemporary Music Group.
Thomas 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.
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 Mägi and Alan Gilbert sponsored by 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.”
Chamber Domaine
Chamber Domaine
“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 releases include recordings of Brian Elias for Signum and Richard Strauss 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.
In April 2022, Chamber Domaine performed Six Brandenburgs: Six Commissions with new works by Brian Elias, Deborah Pritchard, Stevie Wishart, Joseph Phibbs, Michael Price and Daniel Kidane. The performances received 5 star reviews in the national press and were described as “metaphysical brilliance'” by The Artsdesk.
In 2023, Chamber Domaine will be collaborating with Deborah Pritchard and Maggi Hambling.
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.
Richard Harwood
Cello
Richard Harwood
Cello
“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, Academy of St.Martin-in-the-Fields, BBC Symphony Orchestra 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.
Deborah Pritchard
Composer
Deborah Pritchard
Composer
“A work that takes one’s breath away.” The Gramophone
Deborah Pritchard won a British Composer Award for her solo violin piece ‘Inside Colour’ in 2017. She has been broadcast by BBC Radio 3, BBC Radio 4, released commercially by NMC, Signum and Nimbus and performed by the London Symphony Orchestra, BBC National Orchestra of Wales, London Sinfonietta, Royal Northern Sinfonia, Philharmonia Orchestra, BBC Singers, Manchester Camerata and the English String Orchestra.
As a synaesthetic composer she has worked with numerous visual artists including Maggi Hambling, Hughie O’Donoghue and Icelandic sculptor Steinunn Thorarinsdottir. Her violin concerto ‘Wall of Water’ after the paintings by Maggi Hambling was performed at the National Gallery, Sainsbury Wing Theatre and held to critical acclaim by Gramophone as a ‘work that will take ones breath away’. She also paints music and has been commissioned a series of ‘music maps’ for the London Sinfonietta, described in The Times as ‘beautifully illustrated…paying visual homage to those wonderful medieval maps of the world.’
She studied composition with Simon Bainbridge for her MMus Degree in Composition at the Royal Academy of Music and was awarded her DPhil from Worcester College, Oxford where she studied with Robert Saxton. She currently teaches composition tutorials at the University of Oxford. She was composer in residence at the Lichfield Festival, 2016 through the Sound and Music Embedded scheme and her work features in the ‘Hitting the right note: Amazing Women of the Royal Academy of Music’ exhibition on display at the Royal Academy of Music.
Nick Barr
Viola
Nick Barr
Viola
“…gloriously forthright and vivid.” Musicweb
Prior to entering the Royal College of Music in 1984, Nick Barr played with the European Community Youth Orchestra and, whilst still studying, with the Academy of St Martin in the Fields and the London Symphony Orchestra. His professors at the RCM were Frederick Riddle and Roger Best.
In 1988, he won scholarships from the Countess of Munster Trust and the Royal Society of Arts to study in Salzburg with Thomas Riebl.
As a busy freelance session player, Nick has recorded over 300 soundtracks for films, including Gladiator, Lord of the Rings and Harry Potter.
He was a founder member of the Lyric Quartet making frequent radio and television appearances and many recordings, including the complete quartets of Dohnányi, Ginastera, Michael Nyman and Gavin Bryars.
He has appeared as Guest Principal with the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, Academy of St Martin in the Fields and English National Opera and works and records regularly with Chamber Domaine.
Nick is a passionate philatelist and enjoys Japanese tea rituals, yoga and the theatre in his spare time.
He plays a Charles Boullangier dated 1878.