2010 - 2011
Welcome to the 36th Season
13th October 2010 - Chaconne Brass
Chaconne Brass was formed in 1984 and has established a reputation as one of Britain's most versatile ensembles. Its repertoire spans from Praetorius to Steve Reich, from Gershwin to Miles Davis, from acoustic to electro-acoustic and from Brass to Beyond...
Chaconne Brass has an ever-growing list of over 50 works written for the group, a large part of which has been recorded. In addition to extensive touring with Chaconne Brass, members work as guest principals and soloists with some of the top orchestras and ensembles in Britain. Several members are also teachers as well as successful composers and arrangers with a large number of commissions, concerts and broadcasts in Britain and other countries.
A combination of entertainment, creativity and excellence has allowed Chaconne Brass to develop a totally unique style that appeals to audiences of all ages and backgrounds; whether it is a recital at London's South Bank, a radio or TV broadcast, a workshop for college students or a performance for very young school children, Chaconne Brass is always met with overwhelming enthusiasm.
1st December 2010 - Gould Piano Trio
From their early success at the Charles Hennen and the Inaugural Melbourne Competitions through being selected as British “Rising Stars” in 1998, the Gould Piano Trio has emerged as one of the finest chamber ensembles, boasting an impressive discography, with festival appearances at Edinburgh, Cheltenham, City of London, Bath, Aldeburgh, Spoleto and the BBC Proms.
In their regular and extensive tours to the U.S.A. they have covered the major venues in New York including the Lincoln Centre, Frick Collection and Weill Hall. In Europe, highlights have included the Queens Hall - Edinburgh, Concertgebouw – Amsterdam and the Palais des Beaux Arts - Brussels, as well as recitals in Paris, Cologne, Athens and Vienna.
But whether at home or in the Far East and New Zealand, the trio have constantly striven to engage new audiences through outreach programmes, often working with school children - as filmed by the BBC during the 2006 Leeds International Piano Competition. A recent tour of North America’s West Coast saw them giving a presentation of James MacMillan’s trio, Fourteen Little Pictures, to students in the University of Southern Oregon; a piece they have championed since performing it at the BBC Symphony’s MacMillan Festival at the Barbican.
Indeed, while playing most of the established master-works of the trio repertoire – their discography includes the complete trios of both Mendelssohn and Brahms – they have an artistic ambition to extend boundaries, challenging audiences (and themselves!) with contemporary works and commissioning such trios as Chapman’s Pool by Judith Bingham. The 2007-8 season saw a new commission to celebrate the tenth annual Corbridge Chamber Music Festival, which the trio established with clarinettist Robert Plane, in Northumberland; a Clarinet Quartet (Clarinet and Piano Trio) by Benjamin Wallfisch. The connection with Robert Plane has borne fruit in the trio’s Naxos project of recent years to record the late English Romantics, combining the Piano Trios of Stanford and Bax with their clarinet chamber music, short-listed for a Gramophone award. The idea will be furthered by the inclusion of the complete Piano Trios of John Ireland.
The Trio’s special affinity with the romantic composers is enhanced by the discovery of their lesser-known contemporaries such as Niels Gade (BBC Radio 3 from Glasgow) and Robert Fuchs (“Editor’s Choice” in Gramophone -Quartz label), viewing the more popular repertoire of composers such as Schumann and Dvorak in a new perspective.
The Gould’s residency at the RNCM in Manchester gives them the opportunity to build relationships with young ensembles, introducing them to a wider repertoire, probing deeper into the meaning of the scores and giving regular performances in the city’s busy concert schedule.
2008-9 saw two appearances at London’s Wigmore Hall celebrating the bi-centenary of Mendelssohn’s birth with his two trios and special concerts to mark the birth of Messiaen 100 years ago, performing his visionary Quatuor pour la Fin du Temps, their latest recording with Robert Plane on Chandos.
16th February 2011 - Rivoli String Quartet
The group was formed at the University of Manchester in 1999 where it was coached by the Lindsay Quartet. It takes its name from the building which (until The group was formed at the University of Manchester in 1999 where it was coached by the Lindsay Quartet. It takes its name from the building which (until autumn 2003) housed the music department - the converted "Rivoli" cinema. They went on to study at the Royal Northern College of Music where they were prize-winners in various competitions. They won the Prix-Ravel at the Académie Internationale Maurice Ravel 2006, and have previously reached the finals of the Royal Over-Seas League Competition. They were invited to participate in the masterclass series at the International Musicians Seminar at Prussia Cove 2006 and the 28th International ‘Masterclasses for String Quartets’ course at the Britten-Pears School.
The quartet performs throughout the UK for music clubs and societies, universities, and local and international festivals, including a recent recital at St Martin-in-the-Fields, London. They have given concerts in Australia and France including regular performances in a concert series in the Loire Valley, France. They have a broad mainstream repertoire from Haydn to Schnittke, and also enjoy collaborations with living composers from the UK and France, as well as with other instrumentalists, singers, dancers, and actors. Concerts last season included Shostakovich's Two Pieces for String Octet Op.11 with the Quator Danel as part of their Shostakovich Cycle at the University of Manchester, and the Dvorak 'American' String Quintet Op.97 with Predrag Katanic of the Stadler Quartett. They have recently completed, with distinction, an MA in String Quartet Performance with Peter Cropper at Sheffield University.
Emma Wragg - 1st violin
On entering the Royal Northern College of Music, Emma was presented with the Swanston Scholarship and joined the class of Yossi Zivoni. In 2004 she was a prizewinner in the RNCM's Salon Prize and was accepted on to the Professional Access Scheme with the BBC Philharmonic. Later that year Emma was awarded a Postgraduate Diploma in Performance with distinction. Aside from leading the Rivoli Quartet, Emma enjoys both teaching, and freelancing with some of the leading orchestras in London and the North-West including the London Philharmonia, Royal Philharmonic, BBC Philharmonic, Halle and Opera North orchestras. She also recently gave birth to her first child, Elena, and is a very happy mother.
Helen Tonge - 2nd violin
Having graduated with First Class Honours Degree and a 'Hargreaves' prize in 2002, Helen enrolled on the Postgraduate Diploma course at the RNCM where she was a member of Benedict Holland's violin class, graduating in 2004.
Apart from playing in the Rivoli String Quartet, Helen freelances withother groups, and with orchestras including Manchester Camerata and the National Symphony Orchestra. She enjoys coaching chamber music and has taught on amateur residential courses. She has also been involved in music education work in schools, as well as teaching the violin.
Amy Wein - viola
Amy has a keen interest in performing contemporary music; she was a founder member of Ensemble Isis, touring to Maine, USA in 2004 and she has since performed in the Park Lane Group Composer's Platform, the Canterbury New Sounds and Spitalfields Festivals, the York Late Music Festival and most recently in the newly formed London Contemporary Orchestra.
Amy currently enjoys combining freelance work with a variety or orchestras and opera companies with quartet commitments, and in addition teaches viola and violin privately and on the First String Experience scheme at the Junior department of the Royal Academy of Music.
Helen Downham - 'cello
Her experience in education work includes being a member of the teaching and pastoral staff for the Oxford Cello School and tutor for Special Virtuosi, an organisation providing musical and social interaction for children with special needs.
Helen is currently based in London and combines a quartet career with orchestral freelancing and teaching. Helen plays on a 'cello made in 2000 by the English maker Melvin Goldsmith, which is a copy of a 1694 Ruggieri.
13th April 2011 - William Stafford, clarinet & Hiroaki Takenouchi, Piano
William Stafford graduated from the University of Manchester in 2007 with a First-Class Honours degree in music and from the Royal Northern College of Music in 2008, receiving the much-coveted Gold Medal, the highest award that the College offers for performance. While studying at the RNCM, William was taught by Nicholas Cox (principal clarinet, RLPO) and John Bradbury (principal clarinet, BBC Philharmonic).
William embarked upon a postgraduate course of study at the Royal College of Music in September 2008. He has received funding for this from the RCM, the Countess of Munster Musical Trust, the Musicians Benevolent Fund and the Martin Musical Scholarship Fund. Other awards include the Granada Prize for chamber music (RNCM), the Procter-Gregg Prize for performance (University of Manchester), and the Trevor Wye Prize for wind chamber music (RNCM).
An experienced orchestral musician, William has worked with the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra, Hallé Orchestra, BBC Philharmonic Orchestra, City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra, Philharmonia Orchestra, and is currently on trial for the positions of principal clarinet with the London Symphony Orchestra and the Ulster Orchestra. He has appeared as concerto soloist with the Liverpool Mozart Orchestra and RNCM Concert Orchestra, and has given recitals at various music clubs across the UK as part of the Countess of Munster Recital Scheme. A committed chamber musician, William has performed with the London Winds, and appeared alongside the legendary oboist, Maurice Bourgue, at London’s King’s Place.
Hiroaki Takenouchi, is his regular pianist.
Hiroaki Takenouchi was born in Japan but is now based in London, where he came in 1997 to study piano with Yonty Solomon and Andrew Ball, composition with Edwin Roxburgh and fortepiano with David Ward at the Royal College of Music. On completion of his studies, he received the RCM's The Queen Elizabeth The Queen Mother Rosebowl presented by HRH The Prince of Wales.
With wide interests that embrace core repertoire and less well-known names like Medtner and Sterndale Bennett, he has developed a special relationship with contemporary music, collaborating with composers like James Dillon, Dai Fujikura, Keiko Harada, Helmut Lachenmann, Ichiro Nodaira, Jeremy Dale Roberts, Edwin Roxburgh and Sachiyo Tsurumi. In recent seasons he has appeared at festivals in Bath, Cheltenhem, Husum and Salzburg and has given recitals throughout the UK, Japan, Austria, Canada, Germany and Italy.
His CDs include the world première recordings of James Dillon’s Black/Nebulae for 2 pianos (with Noriko Kawai) on on a recent NMC release the soadie waste, Six Etudes by Edwin Roxburgh on Reflets dans la glace (NMC), Oggetti – Omaggio a Morandi on The Music of Jeremy Dale Roberts (LORELT), and most recently his first solo CD Cosmos Haptic: Contemporary Piano Music from Japan (LORELT).
Takenouchi has received guidance from and collaborated with many eminent artists such as Pierre-Laurent Aimard, Emanuel Ax, Imogen Cooper, Elisabeth Leonskaja, Robert Levin, Sir Roger Norrington, Howard Shelley and Raphael Wallfisch. Since 2007, he has been a Constant & Kit Lambert Junior Fellow (RCM) supported by the Worshipful Company of Musicians.
Concerts are all held at the
Millgate Arts Centre Delph
7.30pm
Saddleworth Chamber Concerts Society gratefully acknowledges support from
Saddleworth Parish Council
