CHESHIRE VIRTUOSI
Cheshire Virtuosi can be a chamber ensemble of any number of musicians led by Bassoonist Andrew Bassey, alongside fellow Alumni and Professors from the Royal Northern College of Music.
Please pre-book your tickets as this helps with planning seating and the printing of programmes.
Please note that all Sunday concerts start at 4pm and Saturday at 7.30pm.
Doors open 30 minutes before performance time.
Please get your tickets for the last concert of 2023 series and hear the great masterpiece, Schubert's wonderful Octet
Nantwich Civic Hall 01270 619224
CONCERT 1 LOVE NOT WAR
7.30pm Saturday 22nd April 2023
Beautiful Programme
First half
Chopin's Introduction and Polonaise Brillante Op. 3
Mozart Duo for Bassoon and Cello. (no repeats).
Kosenko Etude no 8 op 8
Introduction and video Ukraine Crisis Appeal British Red Cross
Lysenko Elegy cello and piano.
Bridge Sonata for Cello and piano
Interval
2nd half
Rachmaninov Do Not Sing, My Beauty to Me. Lyrics Pushkin
Rachmaninov's Cello and Piano Sonata.
Sveta & Slava
Please still give to the appeal here
Artist Display: Lorna Martin
CONCERT 2 SPRING WIND SERENADES
4pm Sunday14th May 2023
Compere/presenter for Sunday14th May concert is Rev Geoff Eze from BBC Radio Stoke
Prokofiev Romeo and Juliet
Blake Serenade
Beethoven Octet in Eb
Mozart Serenade in c minor
Players
Oboes: Hugh McKenna & Debbie Fuller
Clarinets: Linda Merrick & Paul Vowles
Bassoons: Andrew Bassey & William Hartley
Horns: Lindsey Stoker & Peter Richards
Sons Daniel and Timothy Bassey will join Andrew, father
for some Anton Reicha Trios
Fundraising for British Red Cross
Turkey/Syrian Earthquake Appeal
Artist display: Dee Rollinson
CONCERT 3 VIRTUOSIC BAROQUE
7.30pm Saturday 24th June 2023
Virtuosic Baroque Programme
Zelenka Trio Sonata No. 3 in Bb
Introduction to the work of Nantwich RDA
Telemann Sonata for Solo Violin TWV 40:14
Handel The Harmonious Blacksmith Theme and Variations for Oboe, Bassoon and Harpsichord
Interval
William de Fesh Sonata op 6 no. 10
for bassoon and bass (originally for 2 cellos)
Marcello Oboe concerto
arr, by JS Bach for Solo Harpsichord
Zelenka Trio Sonato No, 5 in F
A huge Thank You to
Alex Temple for allowing us to use one of his Flemish single manual harpsichords for this Baroque concert on
24th June.
Yes Wendy Nugent (ABRSM examiner) will be playing a real harpsichord.
Now isn't that cool!!!
CONCERT 4 It is with great sadness that we have had to cancel this concert.
CONCERT 4 ROMANTIC WINDS
4pm Sunday16th July 2023
CONCERT 5 Schubert Octet in F Major D. 803
4pm Sunday 8th October 2023
Please purchase tickets now.
It is great pleasure to work in collaboration with the Treske Quartet on this project
Violin 1 Oliver Bailey
Violin 2 Mollie Wrafter
Viola Abigail Hammett
Cello Robert Wheatley
Bass Leon Bosch
Clarinet Linda Merrick
Bassoon Andrew Bassey
Horn Lindsey Stoker
Meet some of the players
Leon Bosch conducts chamber and symphonic ensembles around the world and is one of the few double bass players to direct concertos from the instrument.
Having worked with the finest conductors for 30 years as a member of groups such as the Academy of St Martin in the Fields, Philharmonia and Hallé, he learnt the repertoire and conductor’s craft from inside the orchestra, and finally made the transition to the podium in 2015, when he left Academy of St Martin in the Fields and went to study in St Petersburg with Alexander Polishchuk. Since then he has conducted orchestras across the UK, Europe, India, South Africa and Mozambique.
During his playing career, he performed concertos around the world and served as a guest with ensembles such as the Lindsays, Brodsky Quartet and Zukerman Chamber Players.
Leon is committed to rediscovering neglected music, as well as expanding and diversifying the double bass repertoire, and has recorded 16 CDs of wide-ranging programmes, with more in planning.
Professor Linda Merrick is Principal of the Royal Northern College of Music and an internationally-renowned clarinet soloist, recording artist and pedagogue.
Her catalogue of over 30 solo recordings features new concertos she has commissioned by Gary Carpenter, Nigel Clarke, Martin Ellerby, John McLeod, Stephen McNeff, Edwin Roxburgh, Philip Sparke, Philip Spratley, Kit Turnbull and Guy Woolfenden for labels such as Naxos, Chandos, NMC, Guild and Metier. She has also released première recordings of clarinet quintets with the Navarra and Kreutzer Quartets by composers including Nigel Clarke, Robert Crawford, Wilfred Josephs, John McCabe and Edwin Roxburgh, with recordings of works by Gary Carpenter, Michael Finnissy, David Horne, Paul Patterson and Paul Pellay due to be released in 2018. In addition, Linda has commissioned and recorded over 20 works for clarinet and electronics, and released two CDs featuring works with clarinet and harpsicord by Robert Keeley.
Linda has performed as a concerto soloist across America, Asia, Australia, Europe, South America, the UAE and the UK, and broadcast for BBC Radio 3, Radio France, DRS1 Switzerland, CKWR Canada and Arte TV South Korea. A founder member of the contemporary ensemble ‘Sounds Positive’, she has premiered over 80 chamber works for winds and piano by British composers, and released a further three CDs.
Sveta and Slava Duo (Russia and Ukraine)
Russian Cellist Svetlana Mochalova and Ukrainian pianist Slava Sidorenko first met at the Royal Northern College of Music. A musical relationship blossomed into a personal relationship and the couple are now married. Between them, they’ve won multiple awards and performed at venues including the Purcell Room, the Barbican, Wigmore Hall and Glastonbury.
As part of their mission to engage with audiences in a more imaginative way, they’ve developed their own Sveta & Slava app. This allows concert goers to see their Music a la Carte menu and vote for the pieces the duo will perform. Their debut CD, ‘Rachmaninoff’, was released in January 2018.
Concert on 22nd April at 7.30pm. Programme to include, Chopin's Introduction and Polonaise Brillante Op. 3, Rachmaninov's Cello and Piano Sonata, and Mozart's Sonata K292 for Bassoon and Cello (Bassoonist Andrew Bassey)
Please get your tickets now...
Benedict Holland studied at the Royal Academy of Music with Manoug Parikian and was subsequently a prize winner at the Royal Northern College of Music, where he studied with Yossi Zivoni.
As a chamber musician, he was a founder member of the Matisse Piano Quartet and the Music Group of Manchester, broadcasting regularly for the BBC, recording, and undertaking British Council tours. He is also a member of the Victoria String Quartet whose acclaimed début concert took place in 2017. As an experienced orchestral leader, he has guest-led many of the UK’s major orchestras, including the Hallé, Royal Liverpool Philharmonic, Northern Sinfonia, Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra, City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra, Scottish Ensemble, Orchestra of Opera North and BBC Philharmonic and was also leader and Artistic Advisor of chamber orchestra, Sinfonia Viva from 2001-2019.
Ben has always been a champion of contemporary music and of working with living composers (eg Harrison Birtwistle, Brett Dean, Steven Mackey, Anna Meredith, Duncan Ward) and became Psappha’s violinist in 2010. Personal highlights with Psappha include collaborations with John Casken and Peter Maxwell Davies, taking Klas Torstensson’s Violin Concerto to a two-week residency at Hong Kong Academy for Performing Arts, premiering Mark Simpson’s chamber opera Pleasure, and a tour to Israel of Maxwell Davies’ Eight Songs for a Mad King.
Ben teaches at the RNCM, where he was awarded a professorship in 2016, Junior RNCM, and Chetham’s School of Music. He gives consultative classes in orchestral and contemporary techniques at Birmingham and Trinity Laban Conservatoires and professional development classes for string teachers throughout the UK.
Ben plays on a rare violin by Rogeri, c. 1710.
Wissam Boustany’s passionate musicality has helped him forge a unique reputation as an international flute soloist. His charismatic stage presence brings tremendous power and subtlety to a wide range of musical genres ranging from baroque, classical, romantic, contemporary and jazz settings. Imaginative programming often mixes the innovative with the traditional, captivating audiences with an engaging style that combines an improvisatory flair with a wide emotional and expressive range, and an acute sense of tone colour and nuance.
Wissam has developed a unique duo partnership with pianist Aleksander Szram. In 2015, they toured in Australia, Canada, USA, Holland, and Norway, leaving audiences consistently overwhelmed by the way they both perform from memory, bringing a completely heightened experience and intensity into their adventurous music-making.
Wissam regularly performs and teaches in a variety of contexts, facilitating the growth of young talent. He has created his own teaching method titled “A Method Called Love”, which has spread internationally, focusing on improvisation, memory, self-reliance and the development of the concept of Love as a powerful motivator, facilitator and teacher. He has been a long-standing flute professor at Trinity Laban, London, and the Royal Northern College of Music, Manchester.
Hugh McKenna began his musical life playing the cornet in a local brass band, and eventually joined the army at the age of 15 to continue his playing in the band of the Royal Fusiliers. He went to the Royal Military School of Musicfor a year before being posted to Gibraltar and Sharjah. When a vacancy for an oboist occurred Hugh, who was ready for a new challenge, volunteered to take up the instrument. After making rapid progress on the oboe, he decided to leave the Army, and was accepted as a student at the Royal Academy of Music, where he studied with Neil Black and Janet Craxton.
He went on to join the Ulster Orchestra, the BBC Welsh Symphony Orchestra, and then the Hallé Orchestra, where he has been for over twenty years. Hugh teaches the oboe at the RNCM and many of his pupils have now followed him in to the musical profession. In his spare time he enjoys the sport of triathlon (he completed an Ironman triathlon in 2005) and ballroom dancing.
Lindsey Stoke is Senior Horn Tutor and Co-ordinator for Young Horns at the RNCM.
An RNCM graduate herself, where she studied with Mike Purton and Derek Taylor, Lindsey has been teaching at the College since 1990. Between 1990 and 2000 she was Assistant Principal Horn with the Hallé Orchestra and continues to enjoy a freelance performing career alongside her RNCM teaching. She has played Principal Horn with BBC Philharmonic, RLPO, BBC Concert Orchestra, Manchester Camerata, Northern Chamber Orchestra, RTE and Birmingham Royal Ballet, and has worked with Opera North, CBSO, BBC NOW, and Scottish Opera.
Lindsey has regularly played chamber music concerts throughout the UK as a member of Zephyr and Free Trade Wiinds and has been a guest with Ensemble 360 and Haffner quintet.
Lindsey has become well regarded Internationally as a horn teacher and performer, giving masterclasses in Moscow, St Petersburg,Prague,Oslo,Hong Kong, Porto and in the UK. She is one of the horn tutors for EUYO,most recently coaching in Italy 2021 and for NYO and NYO inspire. She was a guest Tutor at the Prague Hornclass in 2011, alongside Radek Baborak and Thomas Hauschild and in 2015.
Lindsey is passionate about promoting the horn and leads schools workshops and the RNCM Young Horns, which encourages local young players. She is currently the chair of the British Horn Society.