Janacek
Sinfonietta
Beethoven
Symphony No 9
Evans Theatre
Wilmslow
Leisure Centre
Tickets
0161 485 6887
| Simon Turner | Philippa Hyde |
| Penelope Chalmers | Raphael Wallfisch |
| Lucy Nattrass | Christopher Ellis |
| Jayne Carpenter | Adrienne Murray |
| Jennifer Pike | Lyn Fletcher |
| David Schofield | Kay Jordan |
Simon Turner
Simon Turner has been based in Manchester since the age of sixteen, studying first at Chetham's School of Music, then at the RNCM and then becoming a member of the BBC Philharmonic. While spending three months as Artist in Residence at the Banff Centre for the Arts, Canada, he formed Trio Phoenix, a flute/cello/piano trio who championed 20th and 21st century composers in concert for twelve years. Regular visits with Trio Phoenix to Canada eventually led him to leave his job in the BBC and enrol at McGill University, Montreal.
After gaining his Master of Music degree, he returned to England, where he has worked as guest principal with many orchestras, including Opera North, BBC Scottish and the Northern Sinfonia, and has continued to give chamber and solo recitals of both new and more traditional music. Since 2003 he has been second cello of the Hallé, with duties that range, via Beethoven and Strauss, from playing viola da gamba to the Hallé Tango Band.
Simon lives in Stockport, where his latest culinary challenge has been to convert one of Hallé leader Lyn Fletcher's Berkshire pigs into sausages, salami, chorizo, ham and bacon. So far, it all tastes good, which is very satisfying! To counteract all this eating, Simon runs a few less half-marathons than he should, and likes getting away from the city, sometimes just to the Peak District and sometimes a little further afield.
Simon was the cello soloist for our February 2008 concert.
Philippa Hyde commenced her singing studies with Ann Lampard and continued under the tuition of David Johnston and Yvonne Minton CBE at the Royal Academy of Music. She graduated with the coveted Dip.Ram in 1993. In 2001 she was awarded the ARAM, an honour granted to past students of the Academy who have achieved distinction in their profession.
Philippa is an experienced recording artist. In 1995 she became a regular soloist for Hyperion, for whom she created the role of Semira in the first performance for nearly two hundred years of Arnes Artaxerxes, which was also broadcast live on BBC Radio 3.
Her busy and varied concert, operatic and oratorio career has taken her all over Europe and to many of its major concert venues and festivals. She has performed with many of the leading Early Music orchestras and ensembles and regularly appears at the South Bank and Wigmore Hall in London, as well as in Cathedrals throughout the United Kingdom.
Recent engagements have included a tour of Europe (including broadcasts on foreign radio networks as well as on BBC Radio 3 from the Royal Festival Hall) singing solos in J.S. Bachs St Matthew Passion, conducted by Sir Roger Norrington; Concerts with the CBSO under the batons of James Macmillan and Nicholas McGegan in Birminghams Symphony Hall and a performance of Haydns Harmoniemesse in Liverpools Philharmonic Hall with Sir Simon Rattle.
Since 1991 she has been a member of the chamber group, The Musicke Companye. Philippa also teaches at the Royal Northern College of Music.
Philippa was the soprano soloist for our November 2007 concert.
Penelope Chalmers comes from Inverness and read German at Bristol University.
After working as a social worker she embarked on a career as a singer. She made her professional debut as a
soloist at Covent Garden in the role of Helmwige in Wagner's Ring Cycle.
Also with the Royal Opera House Penelope has performed principal roles in Die Frau Ohne Schatten and
Die Aegyptische Helena. She took over the role of Brunnhilde with no notice in a live performance broadcast by
Radio 3.
She has also appeared as Judith in Bluebeard's Castle for English National Opera and in the title role of Salome
for Scottish Opera.
Penelope speaks fluent German and made her debut in Germany for Hagen Opera. She has also performed Lady Macbeth
in Koblenz and Great Florentino in Berlin.She has appeared as Hecuba and Helmwige in Italy.
In Australia she sang the roles of Gerhilde and Brunnhilde, and performed in Barcelona and at the
Aix-en-Provence festival with Simon Rattle.
She has also performed Isolde in Tristan and Isolde for the Covent Garden Festival and Marianne in Rosenkavalier
for San Fransisco Opera.
In addition to her operatic career, Penelope appears regularly on the concert platform. Her repertoire includes
Richard Strauss' Four Last songs, Shostakovitch Symphony 13, the Verdi Requiem, Brahms' Ein Deutsches Requiem,
Tippet's Child of our Time and the Beethoven Missa Solemnis.
She has performed in many gala concerts with programmes ranging from Puccini to Gershwin.
Penelope was the soprano soloist for our June 2007 concert.
Raphael Wallfisch was born into a family of distinguished musicians, his mother the cellist Anita Lasker-Wallfisch and his father the pianist Peter Wallfisch.
Inspired to play the cello at an early age, he studied with a succession of fine teachers and while studying with Russian cellist Gregor Piatigorsky in California he was chosen to perform chamber music with Jascha Heifetz in informal recitals.
At the age of 24 he won the Gaspar Cassado International Cello Competition in Florence. Since then he has enjoyed a world-wide career playing with such orchestras as the London Symphony, London Philharmonic, BBC Symphony, English
Chamber Orchestra, Halle, City Of Birmingham Symphony, Berlin Symphony, Leipzig Gewandhaus and many others.
He is regularly invited to play at major festivals such as the BBC Proms, Edinburgh, Aldeburgh, Oslo and Schleswig Holstein. He has an extensive discography of recordings. Britain's major composers, including Sir Peter Maxwell Davies, Kenneth Leighton, James McMillan, John Metcalf and many others have worked closely with him, often writing works for him to perform.
Raphael Wallfisch is in great demand as a teacher all over the world, and holds professorships in Switzerland and in Germany.
He plays on an instrument made by Adolphe Gand in Paris in 1849 for Auguste Tolbecque, dedicatee of Saint-Saens' first Cello Concerto.
He lives in London with his wife, violinist Elizabeth, and their three children.
Raphael was the cello soloist for our April 2007 concert.
Lucy was born and raised in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Her grandparents, parents and three sisters all played instruments and she played in the Youth Orchestra of Greater Philadelphia whilst at school. She majored in modern European history at Smith College in Northampton, Massachusetts, in her third year studying in Hamburg and playing viola in the Hamburg University orchestra. There she met her husband John who plays bass clarinet in the orchestra.
Having first come to England in 1972 to study for her PGCE she has since taught secondary school, primary school, individual instrumental lessons and first aid and is currently teaching English as a Foreign Language to women from the Yemeni community in Eccles. She has been a cub scout leader since 1995 at 4th Hale (St. Peter's) Scout Group, and was appointed District Commissioner of the Altrincham and District Scout Council in April, 2003.
Lucy first came to play with the WSO shortly after arriving in England and within a few years became secretary. She has also sung in local choirs and appeared in musicals, pantomimes and gang shows.
She and John have three children who all play musical instruments.
Lucy was the narrator in Prokofiev's Peter and the Wolf for our December 2006 concert.
Christopher Ellis
Christopher Ellis was born in Biddulph, Staffordshire in 1982. He began playing
the piano when he was 8 years old and decided to pursue a career in music
when he entered Chetham's School of Music in 1995, where he studied with Simon Bottomley.
While at Chetham's he performed Rachmaninov's fourth piano concerto with the
Chetham's Symphony Orchestra and Vassily Sinaisky.
During this period he achieved
considerable success in various competitions around the UK; in 1998 he was runner up in
the Christopher Duke Memorial Competition and in the same year was awarded a diploma
for his performance of Prokofiev at the International London Piano Competition.
In 1999 he was a finalist in the Royal Overseas League Competition and subsequently
made his Royal Festival Hall debut playing Rhapsody in Blue with the
Ernest Reid Symphony Orchestra.
Since leaving Chetham's in 2000 with the keyboard prize Christopher accepted
a major scholarship to the Royal Academy of Music in London where he studied with
Christopher Elton. During this time Christopher gave a performance of Prokofiev's
fifth piano concerto, which was praised by Vladimir Ashkenazy.
Since graduating with honours in 2004 Christopher recommenced his studies with
Simon Bottomley and has given many successful recitals throughout the UK.
He was a finalist in the 2006 Rencontres Internationales des Jeunes Pianistes and the 2007 Musica Aeterna Piano Competitions in Belgium.
Christopher was the piano soloist in Tchaikovsky's Concerto No 1 for our April 2008 concert.
Jayne Carpenter
Jayne Carpenter trained at the Royal Northern College of Music, studying with John Cameron. She won numerous awards including the W Holmes Lieder Prize and scholarships from the RNCM, the Countess of Munster Musical Trust and the Ian Fleming Musical Trust. A finalist in the Kathleen Ferrier Memorial Scholarship Competition and the Royal Overseas League Competition, she went on to win the Great Grimsby International Competition for Singers and represented England in the Cardiff Singer of the World Competition for the BBC.
Jayne now performs all over Great Britain: with Sir David Willcocks at the Royal Albert Hall, at the Chichester Festival, at Manchester's Bridgewater Hall in works including Mahler's Symphony No. 8 and Verdi's Requiem, and at The Lowry in a performance of Mozart's Requiem with the BBC Philharmonic conducted by Yan Pascal Tortelier. She also took the leading role at The Bridgewater Hall in a concert version of Puccini's Turandot, for which she received considerable critical acclaim.
Jayne has toured all over the country with the Performing Arts Symphony Orchestra and has also recorded with this orchestra. She has sung with English National Opera and has a large operatic repertoire including the roles of Electra in Idomeneo (Mozart), Fiordiligi in Cosi Fan Tutte (Mozart), Leonore in Il Trovatore (Verdi), Abigaille in Nabucco (Verdi) and the title role in Verdi's Aida.
Jayne combines a busy teaching practice with her singing career. At present she has a full programme of oratorio and opera gala concerts and she is also promoting her duet recital work with Adrienne Murray and accompanist Robin Humphreys. Jayne regularly gives vocal workshops and masterclasses around the North of England. Following her recent very successful operatic performances, it has been suggested that Jayne should concentrate on developing her staged operatic career over the next year or so.
Jayne was the soprano soloist in Mahler's Symphony No 2 for our April 2005 concert.
Adrienne Murray
Born in the Isle of Man, Adrienne Murray is a graduate of Huddersfield Polytechnic and The Royal Northern College of Music. She has an impressive list of operatic roles to her name, having sung with Monte Carlo Opera, at Covent Garden and with the English Bach Festival. She has toured to Athens, Siena, Seville, Madrid, Vichy, Valencia and Poland.
Some solo operatic highlights include the major role of Arcane in Handel's Teseo in the first production this century, Dido in Purcell's Dido and Aeneas, Ariane in Bluebeard by Dukas, Filipievna in Eugene Onegin and the Governess in the Queen of Spades by Tchaikovsky. Open-air performances at Civit Hills include Marcellina in Mozart's Marriage of Figaro and Emelia in Verdi's Otello.
Adrienne has made numerous festival appearances which include Aldeburgh, Cambridge, Chester, Harrogate, Huddersfield, Loughborough, Ludlow and Tewkesbury. She has worked with many prestigious conductors including the late Sir George Solti, Sir Charles Groves, Richard Hickox, Jane Glover, Stephen Cleobury, Nicholas Cleobury, Marc Minkowski, Charles Farmcombe, Jean-Claude Malgoire, Simon Wright and Stephen Wilkinson.
Adrienne has broadcast and recorded for radio and television and is particularly at home on the concert platform. Her wide experience has led her to perform in places such as The Bridgewater Hall Manchester, Sheffield City Hall, Leeds Town Hall, The Holywell Rooms and Sheldonian Theatre in Oxford, The Purcell Rooms, Banqueting House, and the CBSO. She has a great love of oratorio and is particularly at home in all traditional oratorio roles, having had the pleasure of performing in major cathedrals at home and abroad.
Two commercial recordings available on CD are the new edition of Sir Arthur Sullivan's The Light of the World and Beethoven's Ninth Symphony. Adrienne also has a successful teaching practice.
Adrienne was the mezzo soprano soloist in Mahler's Symphony No 2 for our April 2005 concert.
Jennifer PikeIn 2002, at the age of twelve, Jennifer Pike became the youngest ever winner of the BBC Young Musician of the Year competition, following her acclaimed performance of the Mendelssohn Violin Concerto with the BBC Symphony Orchestra conducted by Sir Andrew Davis. Earlier the same year she became the youngest major prizewinner in the Yehudi Menuhin International Violin Competition held in France and won the Emanuel Hurwitz Prize for UK violinists.
Jennifer was born in Cheshire and started playing the violin shortly before her fifth birthday. She has performed in major venues and arts festivals around the country, including the international Genius of the Violin Festival in London and recent performances in the Royal Festival and Royal Albert Halls. She has played in the USA, Rome, Paris, Poland and the Gulf and broadcast on radio and television. She made her Proms début in 2002 with the BBC Philharmonic for the CBBC Proms in the Park in London, and she also played in the 2004 Last Night of the Proms in Manchester with the Hallé.
Since the age of eleven she has appeared as soloist with many other major orchestras, including the Bournemouth Symphony and London Symphony Orchestras, BBC Concert Orchestra, London Festival Orchestra, Royal Philharmonic Concert Orchestra, Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra, Manchester Camerata, Northern Chamber Orchestra and World Youth Orchestra, performing concertos by Mozart, Prokofiev, Mendelssohn and Bruch. Last year she recorded Mozart's Violin Concerto no.4 with the BBC National Orchestra of Wales for broadcast on Radio 3. This year she is touring with the City of London Sinfonia, and future plans include a concert tour of Spain, a Wigmore Hall début and concertos with the European Union Chamber Orchestra and London Mozart Players.
She has taken part in masterclasses with eminent violinists including Maxim Vengerov and Ivry Gitlis. Having become a pupil at Chetham's School of Music in 1998 she now studies with David Takeno. Jennifer is playing on a Venetian violin made by Matteo Goffriller in 1708, which has been generously loaned to her by the Saba Young Musicians Trust with the cooperation and assistance of J & A Beare & Co. She also gratefully acknowledges the support of the Martin Musical Scholarship Fund, Celia and Conrad Blakey, the Musicians' Benevolent Fund, the Geoffrey Shaw Scholarship, the Hattori Foundation and Graucob Awards.
Jennifer was the soloist in Beethoven's Violin Concerto for our February 2005 concert.
Lyn Fletcher joined the Hallé Orchestra as Leader in January 1997. She was Co-leader of the Philharmonia between 1986 and 1989,and Co-leader of the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra from 1990 - 1996. She has also been a guest Leader of many other orchestras.
Lyn began playing the violin when she was three years old, having pestered her parents for private lessons. In her teens she studied with Eta Cohen and became a member of the National Youth Orchestra of Great Britain. Her experience in The National Youth Orchestra was very influential in her developing passion for orchestral playing. She went on to win a scholarship to study with Manoug Parikian at the Royal Academy of Music. Whilst there, she continued to win many prizes and scholarships.
Her first professional engagements were with the Academy of St Martin-in-the-Fields, with whom she played regularly as a soloist. She has also appeared as soloist with the Philharmonia, the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra, London Musici, the Hallé Orchestra and the Birmingham Contemporary Music Group. In 1966 Lyn gave the first performance of the violin concerto by Sally Beamish "A Book of Seasons" with BCMG. In 2000 she gave the premiere of Edward Gregson's violin concerto with the Hallé Orchestra at the Bridgewater Hall.
Lyn was soloist in Barber's Violin Concerto for our December 2001 concert.
David SchofieldDavid lives in Heald Green. Showing an interest in music at an early age, he belonged to a pre-school music group in Wilmslow from the age of two, and began the piano at the age of five with Judith Waddington. He is now in his 7th year at Chetham's School of Music, where he studies piano with Simon Bottomley.
David has had many successes as a pianist. He was awarded a special 'Hope' prize as the student with outstanding promise in the 4th International Piano Competition in Kiev. He has also won prizes at music festivals in Oxford, Hazel Grove, Alderley Edge, Southport, Chester and recently in Huddersfield, where he was runner-up in the solo instrumentalist challenge cup in February this year.
His first concerto experience was in July 2001 at the RNCM where he played Haydn Concerto in D Major with Chetham's orchestra. He played the Shostakovich 2nd Piano Concerto with the WSO in October 2002 and in March 2003 showed his versatility in 'Sparky's Magic Piano' at the Bridgewater Hall, which he repeated at Lancaster University early this year.
David has been involved in raising money for various charities and for an RNCM bursary. He also plays regularly at Styal Methodist Church. Now in the lower sixth at Chetham's, he is studying physics, music and music technology. He has received many awards and grants for travel and is currently preparing for a competition abroad in 2005.
Click here for David's website
David was the soloist in Grieg's Piano Concerto for our October 2004 concert.
Kay Jordan
Kay is well known in the north for concert, oratorio and recital appearances, for her many operatic roles, and for performances for the BBC.
Originally from Rochdale, she attended the RNCM where she won the Dorothy Lily Pope Scholarship and took part in a public masterclass with Sherrill Milnes.
Following this she joined Glyndebourne Festival Chorus and undertook a year's study at the prestigious National Opera Studio, benefitting from further scholarships awarded by the Peter Stuyvesant Foundation, the Peter Moores Foundation and the Friends of Covent Garden.
Since then Kay has given recitals at the Covent Garden Opera House, St Martin-in-the Fields, UMIST and Cambridge University. She has worked with Scottish Opera, Opera North and Cambridge Handel Opera Group, and has sung with the Royal Choral Society and East London Choral Society and many national opera groups and choral societies as well as smaller societies throughout the country.
She has sung with the Halle Orchestra, the Welsh National Opera Orchestra and the Bournemouth Sinfonietta, and has appearanced on BBC radio and TV. She has appeared in the 'Good Old Days' at the Leeds City Varieties on two occasions. Her lively personality and stunning vocal technique are gaining her a glowing reputation at sell-out 'Last Bight of the Proms' concerts.
She originally studied for and obtained a degree in Chemistry, then took her PGCE, and has taught singing in schools for several years.
Kay was the soprano soloist in our June 2004 concert
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