Ian Brown
Piano - Ian Brown is a musician of great versatility, whose career embraces solo playing, chamber music, and conducting. As a concerto soloist he has played with many of Britain’s leading orchestras, and in Messiaen’s Oiseaux Exotiques at the BBC Proms. Performances have taken him to Europe, Scandinavia, the Middle East, North and South America, Singapore, Hong Kong, Japan, Australia and New Zealand. He is pianist of the Nash Ensemble and also teaches chamber music at Cambridge University and the Royal Northern College. He is in demand as a duo player, working with distinguished musicians including James Galway, Steven Isserlis, Ralph Kirshbaum, György Pauk, and Dame Felicity Lott, and most recently has toured in Russia with Maxim Vengerov. In recent years he has worked as a conductor with the Philharmonia, Northern Sinfonia, English Chamber Orchestra, Scottish Chamber Orchestra, and Bournemouth Symphony, and he regularly directs concertos from the keyboard. Next season he will work with the Russian Philharmonic Orchestra and Stuttgart Chamber Orchestra.
Malin Broman
Violin - Malin Broman studied at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama with David Takeno. She has performed with major orchestras including the Gothenburg Symphony, Copenhagen Philharmonic, BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra, Academy of St Martin-in-the-Fields and the Swedish Radio Orchestra, working with such conductors as Heinrich Schiff, Paul Daniels, Joseph Swenson and Neeme Järvi. Malin is a founder member of the Kungsbacka Piano Trio, which plays in international venues including the Carnegie Hall, Concertgebouw, Vienna Konzerthaus and Philharmonie Berlin, and has recorded for the NAXOS and BIS labels. This year the Trio will tour in Australia and New Zealand. As a chamber musician, Malin has given recitals in Washington DC, Ostrava, and Copenhagen, performed at the Edinburgh Festival with the Leopold String Trio and in the Queen Elizabeth Hall with the Belcea Quartet. She also plays as a violist, performing on BBC Radio 3 and at the Cheltenham Festival. Malin joined the Nash Ensemble in 2004, the year she made her Proms debut. Malin is a member of the teaching staff at Gothenburg Conservatory of Music, where she places particular emphasis on the ergonomics of string playing. She is also a Professor of Strings at London's Guildhall School of Music & Drama. Malin plays a 1748 G. Gagliano violin, generously loaned by the Järnåker Foundation.
Philippa Davies
Flute - Philippa Davies has established an international reputation as one of the finest flautists currently performing. A ‘first-rate virtuoso,’ with ‘exceptional eloquence’ she has been noted for an ‘almost electrical response to technique’. As a recitalist, she plays and broadcasts throughout the world at international festivals, whilst performing concertos and giving master classes from China to the USA. She has performed concertos with the New Stockholm Chamber Orchestra, the BBC Symphony, the BBC Philharmonic and the BBC National Orchestra of Wales, the English Chamber Orchestra, City of London Sinfonia and the London Mozart Players.
Philippa’s current schedule includes many performances with the Nash Ensemble and London Winds, Davies Cole Duo (with Maggie Cole) and her quartet Arpège.Earlier in her career she was the flute player with Sir Peter Maxwell Davies’s ensemble Fires of London (1977 -85) and also Capricorn and the Albion Ensemble. Originally Principal Flute of the National Youth Orchestra, Philippa went on to train at the Royal College of Music with Douglas Whittaker where she won many awards including theTagore Gold Medal Prize, Eve Kitsch flute prize and the Worshipful Company of Musicians Award, She then studied with William Bennett and won the National Federation of Music Societies award, the Mozart Memorial Prize and was a Park Lane Group Young Artist.
Since her much-admired performance of Mozart’s D major concerto with the BBC Symphony Orchestra at the BBC Proms in 1988 she has become a popular BBC Proms artist. As the solo flute in Havoc by Giles Swayne, she gave a thrilling performance at the World premiere (BBC Proms 2000). Since then she has appeared at the BBC Proms with the Nash Ensemble and London Winds.
Mozart, Bach and Vivaldi feature prominently in her repertoire; memorable live performances and recordings include those of Mozart’s D major, G major and Flute & Harp concertos, Bach B minor suite, and Vivaldi concertos. Philippa is as well known for her interpretations of contemporary pieces as the classics. with composers including Peter Maxwell-Davies, Johnathan Hervey, Giles Swayne and Robert Saxton having wtitten for her.
The Davies Cole Duo (with Maggie Cole harpsichord) have recently recorded a CD of Bach Flute Sonatas, having given a highly successful Wigmore Hall Coffee Concert summer 2005.This Autumn she has been touring these in America.
She has recorded Mozart’s entire original concertos and quartets for Regis, ASV and Virgin, and her Romance of the Flute and Harp with Thelma Owen (Pickwick) is especially popular. For EMI Classics she has just recorded Giles Swayne’s Winter Solstice Carol for the King’s College Choir and solo flute. She has recorded all Peter Maxwell Davies’s solo flute works for the internet as part of Max Opus. Her recording of all William Alwyn’s flute music has just been released (Dutton )with the Nash ensemble and during the next season she plans to record Paul Reade’s Flute Concerto.
Future performances include concertos, recitals and masterclasses in the USA, Cuba, Brazil and Ecuador. Philippa is a Professor at the Guildhall School of Music and runs her own highly regarded Flute Course at Benslow each summer.
Richard Hosford
Clarinet - Richard Hosford has a busy career both as a soloist and chamber musician, as well as being Principal Clarinet with the Chamber Orchestra of Europe and the BBC Symphony Orchestra. As a founder member of the Chamber Orchestra of Europe, he has toured the world, performing as a soloist with them under many eminent conductors. In 1999 he gave the first broadcast of Robin Holloway’s Clarinet Concerto with the BBC Symphony Orchestra, and recently performed Sir Harrison Birtwistle’s Melancholia as soloist in their Barbican series. He is a committed chamber musician and has recorded extensively with the Wind Soloists of the Chamber Orchestra of Europe, touring with them throughout the world. He has recorded with the Nash Ensemble, Domus and the Florestan Piano Trio and is a leading member of the Gaudier Ensemble. Richard has been a member of the Nash Ensemble since 1998.
Gareth Hulse
Oboe - Gareth Hulse continued his oboe studies with Janet Craxton and Heinz Holliger after membership of the National Youth Orchestra and a music degree at Cambridge,. He was appointed Principal Oboe with Northern Sinfonia, a position he has since held with the English National Opera and the London Philharmonic. He now pursues his interest in contemporary music as a member of the London Sinfonietta and in chamber music both as oboist of the Nash Ensemble and with London Winds. He has performed concertos from Bach to Lutoslawski, under the direction of the composer, including the London premiere of Elliot Carter’s Oboe Concerto. In the field of chamber music he has played with such musicians as George Malcolm, Christoph Eschenbach, James Galway and Mikhail Pletnev, Gareth teaches at the Royal College of Music.
Ursula Leveaux
Bassoon - Ursula Leveaux studied in London, Amsterdam and The Hague. As a student she was a member of the European Community Youth Orchestra and was the Gold medal winner of the Shell London Symphony Orchestra Scholarship. As well as being the bassoonist of the Nash Ensemble, Ursula is Principal Bassoon of the Scottish Chamber Orchestra. She is frequently invited to play as Guest Principal with orchestras and ensembles throughout the UK and Europe and is also much in demand as a performer of baroque and classical bassoon. She appears regularly as concerto soloist and her recordings include the bassoon concerto, Strathclyde Concerto No 8, by Sir Peter Maxwell Davies, which was written especially for her. In 2003 she was invited to participate in the prestigious Marlboro Music Festival in the USA, and will return there this year.
Duncan McTier
Double bass - Duncan McTier has established a reputation as one of the world’s foremost double bass players and teachers. After seven years as Principal Double Bass with the Netherlands Chamber Orchestra, he returned to England to concentrate on his career as a soloist, chamber musician and pedagogue. He has appeared as soloist in more than twenty countries with leading international orchestras, and made over fifty solo recordings for radio, TV and recording companies. Sir Peter Maxwell Davies, Robin Holloway, John Casken, John Hawkins and Gavin Bryars have written works for him. In addition to being a member of the Nash Ensemble and Fibonacci Sequence, he performs regularly with many of the world’s most distinguished string quartets, and artists such as Joshua Bell, Steven Isserlis, Nobuko Imai, Imogen Cooper and Artur Pizarro. Duncan McTier is Professor of Double Bass at the Royal Academy of Music in London, the Zürcher Hochschule der Künste in Winterthur and Escuela Reina Sofia in Madrid.
Lawrence Power
Viola -
Lawrence Power is one of today’s foremost violists. Since making his debut with the Philharmonia, he has appeared as soloist with orchestras such as the London Symphony Orchestra, BBC Symphony Orchestra, Norwegian Radio Orchestra, UBS Verbier Orchestra and The English Chamber Orchestra. He made his BBC Proms debut in 2003. In this year’s Proms, he will play the Walton Viola Concerto with the BBC National Orchestra of Wales. In addition to being violist in the Nash Ensemble and the Leopold String Trio, he is a frequent guest at international music festivals including Verbier, Vancouver, Oslo, Edinburgh, Aldeburgh and Cheltenham. In early 2007 Hyperion released a Brahms CD featuring both viola sonatas as well as a coupling of the Walton and Rubbra viola concerti, and EMI released Lawrence’s recording of Mozart’s Sinfonia Concertante with Maxim Vengerov, all to tremendous critical acclaim. Future engagements include concerts with the Royal Stockholm Philharmonic and the Symphonieorchester des Bayerischen Rundfunks. Lawrence Power plays a rare viola by the Bolognese maker Antonio Brensi from c.1610 and is fortunate to have had the support of the Nigel Brown instrument scheme in order to secure its purchase.
Marianne Thorsen
Volin - Marianne Thorsen was born in Trondheim, Norway. First prize winner at the 2003 Sion International Violin Competition in Switzerland, she studied with György Pauk at the Purcell School and the Royal Academy of Music, where she was awarded the Roth prize and the DipRAM, the Academy’s highest award for performance. She is a founder member of the Leopold String Trio, which recently recorded string trios by Dohnányi, Martinu and Schönberg. Other recordings have included the Schubert ‘Trout’ Quintet with Paul Lewis and the complete Brahms Piano Quartets with Marc-André Hamelin (Hyperion). Marianne has been a member of the Nash Ensemble since 2000. Future solo engagements include return visits to the Philharmonia, Oslo Philharmonic and the Bergen Philharmonic. As soloist and director she is touring the complete Mozart violin concertos with the Trondheim Soloists in Norway this season. She teaches at the Royal Academy of Music and is a Professor at the Trondheim Conservatoire of Music.
Lucy Wakeford
Harp - Lucy Wakeford appointed Principal of the Philharmonia Orchestra in 2002, is one of the most outstanding harpists of her generation. Much in demand as a soloist, recitalist and ensemble player, she has performed at major venues and festivals throughout Europe, often appearing as guest artist with eminent musicians and ensembles. She regularly gives concerts with the Erard Trio, Haffner Wind and Zenith ensembles, and is also Principal Harp of the Britten Sinfonia. During the 06/07 season she made return visits to the Queen Elizabeth Hall, the Purcell Room and the Wigmore Hall as soloist, and undertook an Arts Council tour with the Wakeford Ensemble. As a concerto soloist Lucy has appeared with many major UK orchestras and has recorded the Mozart Flute and Harp Concerto with the Britten Sinfonia and Dohnányi’s Concertino with the English Sinfonia on the BMG and ASV labels respectively. Lucy became the Nash Ensemble harpist in 2004.
Paul Watkins
Cello - Paul Watkins is one if Britain’s most highly regarded cellists. He first came to public attention after winning the string section of the 1998 Young Musician of the Year, and more recently has been developing his career as a conductor. He has been appointed associate conductor of the English Chamber Orchestra from the 07/08 season. As a cellist Paul performs regularly with the major orchestras in the UK – he has made six solo appearances at the BBC Proms and played the Elgar Cello Concerto on the first night of the Proms with the BBC Symphony Orchestra this year. As well as being the Nash cellist, this season sees performances with the London Philharmonic Orchestra, and the BBC National Orchestra of Wales. He has given solo and duo recitals at the Wigmore Hall, City of London Festival, South Bank Centre, Bridgewater Hall, Manchester and Queens Hall, Edinburgh. Paul has recorded for Nimbus and Chandos, and his first CD for Warner Classics was short listed for a Grammy last year.
Richard Watkins
Horn - Richard Watkins has rapidly become one of the most sought after horn players of his generation and is well known both as a concerto soloist and a chamber music player. He was Principal Horn of the Philharmonia for twelve years and, as well as being a member of the Nash Ensemble is a founder member of London Winds. He has performed extensively in this country and abroad, has appeared as soloist with many eminent conductors, and is in great demand as a chamber musician and recitalist. His discography includes concertos by Mozart, Sir Malcolm Arnold, Dame Ethel Smyth and Poulenc’s chamber music for horn. He actively promotes contemporary music for the horn and has given the premieres of works by Sir Peter Maxwell Davies, Colin and David Matthews, Magnus Lindberg, Dominic Muldowny, Nicola Lefanu. and, most recently, James MacMillan’s Horn Quintet, commissioned by the Nash and premiered at the Cheltenham Festival in July this year. Richard is Professor of Horn, and Fellow, of the Royal Academy of Music.
