Matthew Souter
Matthew Souter, viola, is a member of the Alberni Quartet. He is an international soloist who has broadcast for the BBC, Deutsche Rundfunk, Netherlands Radio and NHK(Japan) and has given concerto performances with City of London Sinfonia and St. Petersburg Camerata in Japan. He is a regular performer at Davos International Chamber Music Festival (Switzerland) and Saga International Chamber Music Festival (Japan.) He taught for many years at Wells Cathedral School and is currently a Professor at the Royal Academy.
Melanie Ragge
Melanie Ragge, Oboe, was an instrumental and academic exhibitioner at King’s College Cambridge, where she initially read Medicine. She graduated with an MPhil in Musicology and was awarded a Leverhulme Fellowship at the Royal College of Music where she studied piano and oboe. Her duo with pianist Ann Martin Davis specialized in commissioning new works; they were resident artists at the Banff Centre, and recorded Lutoslawski’s Epitaph ASV as a part of Ann’s CD of his piano and chamber music – “…everything was exquisitely and cleanly played” Sunday Times. Melanie has performed internationally as a soloist and chamber musician, in venues as far flung as the Pacific Rim, Malta, Sweden as well as more conventional venues such as St John’s and the Wigmore Hall.
She is a founder member of the New London Chamber Ensemble whose performances commonly include staged and theatrical elements. They are currently releasing a CD of John Woolrich’s Wind and Piano chamber music with Meridian and are in the process of recording a CD of Nielsen’s piano and wind chamber music with Sanctuary Classics. Melanie is a passionate and committed teacher, working at the Purcell School and Royal Academy. She is also a tutor and Associate Director of the National Youth Chamber Orchestra. Her scientific interest continues in the form of research into the use of Electromyography in the prevention of strain injuries.
Stephen Stirling
Stephen Stirling, horn, is a renowned soloist. Since studying at the Royal Northern College of Music with Ifor James and later with Julian Baker, he has worked mostly in the rather rarefied world of chamber music. He enjoys an enormously varied career travelling all over the world, particularly relishing playing in unusual and far flung places.
He has broadcast concertos on BBCTV and Radio 3, and appeared with orchestras such as the Academy of St Martin in the Fields, Orchestra of St Johns, the Chamber Orchestra of Europe, and the BBC National Orchestra of Wales with Richard Hickox, Sir Neville Marriner, Heinz Holliger, Ivan Fischer and Douglas Boyd. His recordings of the complete Mozart Horn Concertos with the City of London Sinfonia are constantly broadcast on Classic FM. He has also recorded the virtuosic Double Horn Concertos by Vivaldi. Gary Carpenter’s marvellous new Horn Concerto was written for him and the BBC Philharmonic Orchestra and given its world and broadcast premiere in April 2005. Other recent first performances have included solo works by Martin Butler and Stephen Dodgson.
Stephen has a world-wide reputation as a chamber musician being in constant demand at festivals in the UK and abroad. He is a member of Endymion Ensemble, The Fibonacci Sequence, Capricorn, Arpege and the New London Chamber Ensemble. His many critically acclaimed CDs include the first recordings with Endymion, of York Bowen’s horn sonata and his beautiful Quintet for Horn and Strings, and Mozart's entire output for wind ensemble with the Chamber Orchestra of Europe. CDs of horn quintets by Stanford and Dunhill have just been released. His second recording of the Brahms Horn Trio, with the Florestan Trio, was nominated for a 'Gramophone' award and in the USA, 'Fanfare' described it as the equal of any recording whether modern or 'Golden Age'.
He is a professor at Trinity College of Music, London, on the
faculty of the Yellowbarn Summer School in Vermont and a seasoned
participant at the Dartington International Summer School.
www.stephenstirling.com
Charlotte Tomlinson: Artistic Director
Charlotte Tomlinson, piano, studied at the University of York and was awarded a scholarship to study at the Guildhall School of Music and Banff Centre of Fine Arts, Canada. She has given many recitals with singers and instrumentalists throughout the UK and abroad. Charlotte lived in Hong Kong for five years where she was a vocal coach and official accompanist at the Academy for Performing Arts. She lectured in Performance and taught piano at the University of Hong Kong, and formed the Hong Kong Piano Trio. She gave regular broadcasts for RTHK (Hong Kong) and recitals throughout the South East Asian region. In 1999 she toured Hong Kong and Australia giving a series of recitals, lectures and masterclasses and was subsequently invited to be artist-in-residence at Wollongong University. She is returning to Hong Kong to give a series of recitals and masterclasses in October 2007.
Charlotte has worked as a vocal coach at the Guildhall School of Music
and Drama, has been an official accompanist for the BBC Young Musician
Competition, Trinity College, Royal College of Music, Royal Academy of
Music and has broadcast for BBC Radio 3 and Dutch National Radio. She
set up Keyboard Connection, a diary service for pianists along with the
already established Musicians Answering Service. Charlotte teaches
piano at the Purcell School and to music undergraduates at Oxford
University. She is the Artistic Director and founder of Chamber Music
International.
Frøydis Ree Wekre: Guest Coach
Frøydis Ree Wekre was born in Oslo, Norway. Her mother was a pianist and her father an amateur violin player. She started very early to learn piano and violin, and then turned to horn at the age of 17. Outside of Oslo, her studies have taken place in Sweden, Russia and USA.
Currently, Ms. Wekre is appointed Professor of Horn and Chamber Music at the Norwegian Academy of Music. In addition, she is active worldwide as a soloist and chamber musician, as well as being sought for to give master classes and to be a member of international juries.
Her book, “Thoughts on Playing the Horn well” has been translated into several languages. Numerous composers have written works for her, some of which have been recorded on the labels of SIMAX, CRYSTAL and 2L.
Frøydis Ree Wekre is an Honorary Member of the International Horn Society since 1994, and she is associated with the Sarasota Music Festival, USA, and Banff Festival of the Arts, Canada.