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 Denise Leigh |
 Stefan Andrusyschyn |
When Denise Leigh was a teenager, she auditioned for her local amateur dramatics group. They turned her down. "They said that their insurance wouldn't cover a blind person on stage", she says, "but I think they just didn't like the idea of it." In 2003, she appeared with the English National Opera singing the principal soprano role in a special performance of Verdi's Opera Rigoletto at the Coliseum, London's largest theatre. Am Dram may have refused her, but the ENO welcomed her with open arms. If you're going to have the last laugh, you don't laugh much louder than that!
Denise Marie Leigh was born with a condition resulting in blindness and grew up in the small Staffordshire village of Audley. Her mother, Maureen, was also blind and her father Dave, a fitter and welder by trade, suffered from arthritis of the spine and was eventually unable to work. Money was scarce, but Denise's parents were determined that she would receive a good education and that they would try to provide for every opportunity available to her, particularly where her first love music was concerned.
From her earliest childhood, Denise has loved music and began to learn the trombone when she was nine ("I've never been a particularly girlie girl"). However, as she wasn't physically big enough for the trombone she began to learn to play the trumpet then switched to the cornet as "the trumpet is an orchestral instrument and I was very laddish and really wanted to join a brass band".
Her ongoing collaboration with some of Britain's top brass bands and male voice choirs is a progression of her earliest musical roots, but her career as a soprano didn't begin until the age of sixteen, when she appeared as the narrator in a school production of Joseph and the Technicolour Dreamcoat. It was there that she was talent spotted, awarded a three year sponsorship for musical tuition from Lord Sainsbury's Gatsby Trust and her amazing journey really began.
Denise's dreams finally came true when she was awarded a place at the Royal Northern College of Music to study for a degree in Opera, but just as she was due to start the course she realised that she was pregnant with her first child Becky.
In typical fashion, Denise was determined that being a mother would not stop her from developing as a singer, and so, after a short break while Becky was a baby she returned to her studying with support from the Rotary Club. "Those years were a juggling act" she said, "but I just enjoyed my singing without the drinking and the late nights that the other students were enjoying". In 1993, Denise finally became an Associate of the Royal College of Music. She went on to have two more children while earning a living through vocal coaching and teaching music theory.
In 2001, a friend suggested that she apply for the English National Opera / Channel 4 reality TV programme Operatunity, which was searching to find for a new young opera star. "I didn't want to enter the competition", I thought it would be very elitist, I thought I was too old and that I had the wrong background, but he nagged and nagged at me - and thank goodness he did."
Winning Operatunity (along with fellow soprano Jane Gilchrist) has made Denise a household name and brought many exciting opportunities with it. Ever since then she has enjoyed a diary packed with concerts, recordings and other professional engagements. She has performed at venues such as the Royal Albert Hall, Kensington Palace (for members of the royal family, including the Queen) and with orchestras such as the Royal Philharmonic, The BBC Concert Orchestra, the London Handel Players, and the RLPO, to mention a few. She has taken part in events as diverse as BBC Proms In The Park, Songs of Praise, Friday Night Is Music Night and in 2004, she reunited with the English National Opera in a special oratorio For The Public Good, in a role written specifically for her.
Her passion for oratorio and early music has also been flourishing, with performances of Handel's Messiah at The St Georges Church in Hanover Square (Handel's own favourite concert venue), The Mozart Requiem with Harrow Choral Society, Samson in Cambridge with the Brook Ensemble and Choir 2000, Mendelssohn's Elijah, Brahm's German Requiem and Poulenc's Gloria.
Exciting and rewarding experiences have also come from her varied and fascinating charity work. She is a former patron of the local Douglas Macmillan charity and Uniaid, which supports students from low-income backgrounds through university. She is also an honorary ambassador for the RNIB and a cultural ambassador for the 2012 UK Olympic Bid.
To date, Denise has released two albums. The first, Operatunity: The Winners, was a best seller in Britain and Northern Europe, remaining at the number one position in the Core Classical chart for five months. It was nominated for a BRIT award in 2004.
Her second album, Pie Jesu, is her debut solo venture. It was released by EMI Classics in September 2004 and features numbers as diverse as Gershwin's Summertime and Rutter's Pie Jesu.
In 2004 Denise completed a massive thirty three date UK tour, A Night At The Opera, along with Jane Gilchrist and special guests - tenor Alan Oke, baritone Wyn Pen Carreg and the Schomberg String Quartet. She repeated a UK tour at the beginning of 2007, when she took a concert called Mainly Mozart, (just Denise, a baritone, and a piano) out onto the road.
Her continuing radio appearances are many and varied:
Denise is the current Celebrity Counterpoint champion;
She was the subject of a programme in the series No Triumph No Tragedy, presented on BBC Radio 4 by Peter White;
She still regularly contributes to Radio 4's In Touch, and is in demand as a studio guest throughout the UK, speaking on many aspects of being a musician, being disabled, or just talking for the love of it sometimes.
She was honoured recently to be invited to Channel 4's 25 years celebrations at the Barbican, where she sang alongside finalists from Operatunity's sister programme, Musicality, accompanied by Gareth Valentine; and along with judges from both programmes, fielded questions from the audience.
Denise has recently started working regularly with the Galway Choral Society, and early in 2007, visited Poland with them, singing in Mozart's Requiem and Vivaldi's Gloria. A Christmas album recorded with the Society is due for release at the end of November 2007.
Denise's diary continues to be busy, with a trip to Dubai in December 2007, performances in Southern Ireland, and she will, yet again, be appearing in the Battle Proms - in some of the UK's best loved stately homes including Blenheim Palace and Hatfield House.
Denise started a musical collaboration in January 2006 with the UK national champion accordionist, Stefan Andrusyschyn, and the pair plan a recording for 2008, of undisclosed repertoire.
For further information, visit www.deniseleigh.com
Stefan Andrusyschyn's interest in music started as a very young child. There was always a piano in the family house and he tinkered with the instrument from a very early age. He also became heavily involved in the Ukrainian community in Manchester where he was born, leading to him playing the accordion in folk dancing groups.
The accordion held a special interest for Stefan and he decided to take the instrument up formally, studying with a local accordion teacher. Up to the age of 10, Stefan had been self taught and had relied on tips from fellow players.
From this point, Stefan began competing in small, local festivals… and it was at one of these that he met Professor Murray Granger, accordion teacher at Cheethoms School of Music, who suggested that he audition. In early 1997, Stefan was offered a place at the school, to start in September 1997. Unfortunately, due to a family move to London, Stefan was unable to take up this place but did change his accordion teacher and began studying classical free-bass piano accordion.
Between April 1998 and September 1999, Stefan became one of the youngest joint holders of the performers' and teachers' diplomas from the British College of Accordionists. It was at this time that Stefan also began competing at National Classical Level, sometimes against accordionists many years older than himself and with far more experience.
In 1999, Stefan was the first candidate to take both junior recital and 15-and-under solo classes at the UK Accordion Championships. In the same year, he came 3rd at the Baltika Harmonika Accordion Competition [junior class] in St. Petersburg, Russia. It is here that he met Professor Oleg Sharov, with whom he had numerous master-classes over the next few years.
As well as studying with Professor Sharov, Stefan travelled widely across Europe at this time and received tuition from Professors Sklyarov and Lips from Russia, Professor Balik from Ukraine, Mondrushin from Croatia, Peter Soave from the USA and Professor Owen Murrey from the Royal Academy of Music in London.
In September 2000, Stefan competed and won the under-18 category at The Accordion International Competition for soloists in Reinach, Switzerland, competing against candidates from Poland, Bulgaria, France, Germany, Lithuania, Ukraine and China.
In 2001, Stefan won the national 17-and-under championship, having only 6 months previously switched onto the chromatic bayan accordion which involved familiarisation with a whole new right-hand keyboard which was unlike anything he'd ever come across. In the same year, Stefan was lucky to return to the Summer-school in Pula, Croatia, where he had further tuition from Professors Sklyarov and Shishkin from Russia and Frederique Deschamps from France. All three are eminent teachers and performers on the chromatic classical bayan.
In September 2002, Stefan began studying for a music degree at the University of Surrey in Guildford, where he remained for 3 years. While at university, in 2003 Stefan won the Senior Recital Prize at the National Accordion Championships and in 2005, achieved 3rd place in the Crosa Hughes Chamber Music Competition directing Bach's 4th Brandenburg Concerto from the Harpsichord (early music had become a passion for Stefan while at university).
Stefan now works as a freelance musician, both as a performer and teacher on the accordion. He also enjoys working as a piano accompanist and harpsichordist.
The programme will include operatic arias and songs by such composers as Handel, Mozart, Verdi and Dvorak.
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Jean Kelly hails from an Irish family of several generations of professional musicians and in 1996 won a scholarship to the Royal College of Music. She regularly tours with the Locrian Ensemble performing harp concertos and her own arrangements of Irish music. Three CD’s with the group include Handel’s Harp Concerto, Mozart’s Flute and Harp Concerto, and Chamber Music by Richard Arnell. Jean played at Buckingham Palace for HRH Prince Charles’ 50th birthday and has since performed on several occasions at Highgrove and St. James’ Palace. Playing Irish Harp, Jean has featured in several film scores including ‘The Lord of the Rings’ and a recent soundtrack with The Chieftains, and has recorded for BBC Radio and Television. She appeared on RTE Television playing duets with Sir James Galway for the closing ceremony of Cork City of Culture 2005 and in the same year performed alongside Nobel Prize winner Seamus Heaney at the Opening Night of the World Harp Congress in Dublin. She accompanied President Mary McAleese on an Irish State Visit to Austria.
Rachel Smith
Jean Kelly
Hilser Flute & Harp Duo
Rachel Smith studied at Royal Holloway, University of London and the Royal Northern College of Music. Concerto and recital performances have taken her across the UK from The Fairfield Halls and St John’s Smith Square, to Europe, Japan, Zimbabwe and the USA. She appears regularly in the Brighton Festival, Edinburgh, City of London Festival and Canterbury Festivals, and freelances with symphony, chamber and opera orchestras, the West End Theatre and contemporary music ensembles. Her playing has inspired new works from several British composers, some of which are included on her CD Summer was in August, which has featured on Classic FM. She has made numerous recordings and broadcasts for BBC Radio, TV and film, including BBC Radio 3’s Hear and Now and Radio 4’s Classic Serial. Recent engagements include Mozart’s Flute and Harp Concerto with the Marcel Sinfonia and recitals at St John’s Smith Square. Recitals in 2009 included the Hawth Theatre Crawley, The Guards Chapel Recital Series London, and the Brighton Festival.
For further information, visit www.rachelsmithflute.co.uk
The Hilser Flute & Harp Duo have given numerous critically acclaimed concert performances across the UK. Their concert repertoire spans the Baroque, Classical and Romantic eras up to present day.
The programme will include:
Ibert
Fauré
Mozart
Saint-Saens
Naderman/Tulou
Sarasate
GaubertEntracte
Pavane
Concerto for Flute and Harp
Fantasy
Nocturne
Carmen Fantasy
Divertissement Grec
Pavlos Carvalho started learning the cello with his father Santiago. At the the age of sixteen he began studying with Stefan Popov with whom he stayed with for six years before going to the Royal College of Music to study with Steven Doane.and later Jerome Pernoo. There supported by a Scholarship from the RCM and the Countess of Munster Trust he graduated with distinction in both PG advanced solo diploma and PG chamber music diploma. He then continued at the Royal College as a Junior Fellow and is currently there as assistant teacher of cello to Jerome Pernoo.
Pavlos appears regularly as soloist and chamber musican in England and abroad. He performs as a member of the Trio Belle Epoque with whom he has won numerous prizes including the Koblenz Chamber Music competition in Germany, Taneev competition in Russia and the Tunnell Trust in Scotland. He also performs regularly with the London Philharmonic Orchestra Chamber ensemble, most recently in the Mendelssohn Octet. For this concert, he will be performing as part of the Manus Ensemble, with Clara Biss (violin), Kate Lindon (violin/viola) and Jakob Fichert (piano).
Pavlos has also taken part in many master classes incuding a televised class for the BBC given by Lynn Harrell, the Manchester cello festival with Janos Starker and Prussia Cove with Steven Doane.
A large part of Pavlos' musical life is dedicated to outreach work and he has been a member of the Live Music Now scheme for the last four years.
Clara Biss enjoys a busy and varied career, playing both the violin and viola, and performing as a soloist, chamber and orchestral musician and teacher. She spent four years as a member of The Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, performing all over the world, under the baton of, amongst others, Charles Dutoit, Danielli Gatti and Pinchas Zukerman. She left the RPO in 2010 to pursue her freelance career, working with groups such as The Britten Sinfonia, Academy of St Martin in the Fields, Halle and Ballet Rambert.
As a chamber musician, Clara plays regularly with Endymion and has been a guest of The Dante Quartet, Primrose Piano Quartet and Touchwood Ensemble. Clara has played Open Chamber Music at IMS Prussia Cove, as well as at festivals such as Cheltenham, Kings Lynn, Alfriston Summer Music. As a member of The Tavec Quartet, which won the Rio Tinto Chamber Music Prize in the Royal Overseas League competition, Clara played in the Wigmore Hall, Queen Elizabeth Hall and on the Countess of Munster Recital Scheme. She enjoys exploring new music, having played with Contemporary Consort, The Birmingham Contemporary Music Group and The Warehouse Ensemble.
Aside from playing, Clara enjoys teaching violin and viola to the Choristers of Westminster Abbey, and has been involved in many education and community projects. She has also been a tutor on music courses such as 'Cadenza' and 'The Vacation Chamber Orchestra'. Clara studied at the Guildhall School of Music with Krysia Osostowicz, and at the Royal College of Music with Itzhak Rashkovsky and Ivo Van Der Werff.
For further information, visit www.maslink.co.uk/cvs/violins/biss(clara).htm
Kate Lindon (Bmus(hons)RNCM, PGdipRNCM) was awarded a scholarship to study at the Purcell School with Felicity Lipman during which time she was also a member of the National Youth Orchestra of Great Britain. In 2000 she was given an entrance award to study as an undergraduate with Yossi Zivoni at the RNCM and continued with him as a postgraduate with the help of the Laurin and Arthur Glaze Trust Scholarship. She is currently studying with Jan Repko on the Mmus course at the RNCM for which she was awarded a large bursary. During her studies she was also awarded The Goldberg Fellowship in both 2002 and 2003 to go to the International Musical Arts Institute, Maine, USA, an intensive chamber music festival run by Eric Rosenblith, NEC. She has had masterclasses with Kazuki Sawa, Anthony Marwood, Stephanie Gonley and Peter Thomas.
Jakob Fichert is a very sought after performer playing solo and chamber music recitals in the UK, Germany, Italy, Hungary, Lithuania and other European countries. Jakob has performed in venues such as the Queen Elizabeth Hall, the Purcell Room, the Wigmore Hall, the Cadogan Hall and the Chamber Music Hall of the Concertgebouw in Amsterdam. Some of his concerts have been live broadcast by various radio stations. He has recorded for Toccata Classics in 2007 and for Naxos in 2008.
He studied at the Musikhochschule Karlsruhe with Wolfgang Manz, graduating with distinction before undertaking a postgraduate course at the Royal College of Music (RCM), studying with Yonty Solomon. He obtained a Masters Degree in Chamber Music and stayed on as a Junior Fellow at the RCM until 2003.
Jakob has been involved in various projects. Most recently he has given lecture recitals on the subject of piano and chamber works by Max Reger in Germany and the UK. Other projects include contemporary music programmes, combining established 20th century composers with newly commissioned works for solo piano and chamber ensembles. Jakob has also done a lot of educational work such as musical workshops for GCSE and A-Level students.
Jakob has won numerous prizes at international competitions both as a soloist and chamber musician. These include the Valentino Bucchi International Piano Competition for 20th century music in Rome, the Liza Fuchsowa Memorial Prize at the Royal-Overseas-League – best chamber music pianist, and the International Taneev Chamber Music Competition in Kaluga and Moscow.
Chamber Music has always played a central role in Jakob’s performing career. He has gained plenty of experience throughout the years playing with very distinguished chamber music partners. Ensembles include piano trios with strings, wind and piano groups, combinations such as the clarinet trio with cello and numerous duo partnerships.
For further information, visit www.jakobfichert.com
The programme will include works by Schumann, Brahms and Copland.
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Janet Canetty-Clarke, B.Mus(London), ARAM, GRSM, LRAM, ARCMJanet trained at the Royal Academy of Music, and was soon involved in the musical life of South- East England. She recently completed thirty-seven years as Conductor and Musical Director of the Ditchling Choral Society (later re-named Sussex Chorus) having performed most of the major choral works with them, together with prestigious orchestras and soloists including The Philharmonia Orchestra, Josephine Barstow and Anthony Rolfe-Johnson in a performance of Benjamin Britten's War Requiem. Janet has been made Conductor Emeritus of the Choral Society.
She lectures throughout the year for the Continuing Education Department of Sussex University, for the Workers' Educational Association, for the University of the Third Age and presents lectures for Cambridge University at Madingley Hall and for London University through Birkbeck College. In 1984 she was appointed lecturer for the National Association of Decorative and Fine Arts Societies, visiting organisations in the UK and across Europe, touring Australia in 1994 and 2001, and South Africa in 1997.
In 1984 Janet was appointed Guest Conductor of The First All Women Chamber Orchestra of Austria, giving concerts in Vienna. She continues links with the orchestra today, especially through her role as Deputy Secretary General of "Femmes Maestros", an organisation to promote women conductors based in Brussels. In 2009 Janet completed a second series of lectures entitled "Invitation to the Opera" organised by Birkbeck College, London University, and plans are being considered for another series this autumn. In June 2010 she gave two pre-performance talks before Mozart’s “Marriage of Figaro” at the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden.
Her lecture recital is titled "From Romanticism into Impressionism in Music and Painting":
The seven colours of the optical spectrum were equated to the seven notes of the musical scale by Sir Isaac Newton in his book Opticks of 1704, and since then theories about the relationship and interaction between music and the fine arts have been propagated. The very habit of referring to the terms 'colour tones' in painting and 'tone colours' in music suggests that such a correlation exists, and this lecture will trace it through from Beethoven and David, Chopin and Delacroix to Debussy and Monet, using the piano and audio-visual illustrations.
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This is an opportunity to listen to some of the best young musical talent in the district. The Young Musicians' Showcase was established in 1941 to give musicians under the age of 18 the opportunity of a public platform for their performances. Several of the young people featured in previous years have gone on to make a name for themselves in the professional world: examples include Alexis White, Pavlos Carvalho, Russell Hepplewhite and Caroline Tyler. (And one of the players in the original concert is now on the Music Society committee!)
The concert is supported by the Countess of Munster Musical Trust’s Recital Scheme, and will include Mozart's Fantasy and Sonata in C minor, and Schumann's Kreisleriana.
 Concert Royal
Rachel Gray (cello), John Treherne (harpsichord), Margarette Ashton (soprano), Peter Harrison (director/flute) |
Concert Royal recreates the elegant sound worlds of the baroque and classical eras through historically informed performance. For over thirty years the ensemble has delighted audiences with enthusiastic and informative presentations. All four musicians hold masters degrees in music performance and John Treherne was awarded the MBE for services to music education.
The group has toured in Europe, the USA and for the British Council in South America and has given concerts in every corner of the UK, performing for festivals, music and arts societies, theatres, churches, schools, arts centres and in country houses.
Their 2008-9 schedule included concerts for the Hinckley, Sheffield, Derby, Curry Rivel, Lampeter, Carmarthen and Ruthin music societies and festival appearances in Church Stretton and Milton Abbey. The ensemble performed for the National Trust in the splendid settings of Ormesby Hall and Wordsworth House.
Concert Royal is actively involved in education initiatives, visiting more than 50 schools in 2008. Young people participate in informative and entertaining workshops, learning about their musical heritage through singing, playing, composing and dancing.
The concert is entitled "Jane Austen’s Musical England", and is based on the large collection of music owned by Jane Austen, who was a keen amateur musician. The programme includes songs and instrumental music drawn from Jane's collection and from contemporary sources. Brief extracts from letters and novels provide a fascinating glimpse into Jane Austen's musical world.
"The audience was transported into the elegance of the 18th century and the England of Jane Austen's time" - Horsham Music Circle
"a most satisfying and highly civilised evening" - Canterbury Music Club
