CAVATINA Annual Newsletter · February 2015
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Transcript of CAVATINA Annual Newsletter · February 2015
1
Welcome
2014 was our busiest year to date, as you will read. We have supported
more concerts than ever before, in turn reaching the greatest number of
young people in a single year’s work.
We welcome a new group onto our roster this year, the Magnard Ensemble.
Currently both chamber music fellows of the Royal Academy of Music – where they
formed in 2012 – and joint fellows of the Royal Academy’s Open Academy and
Wigmore Hall, the Magnard Ensemble is quickly forming a reputation for its high-
quality concert performances and inspirational educational and outreach projects.
Its members regularly work with the country’s leading orchestras, both on the
concert platform and in educational settings. We hope you get to hear them in
concert soon.
The Magnard Ensemble · © Andrew Banks
2
All Change
2014 saw the sad departure of four of our trustees: Huw Davies, Marion Friend,
Richard Ireland, and Jenny White MBE. Before leaving, Marion was awarded an
MBE in the Queen’s Birthday Honours List for services to music, whilst Richard
was honoured with the Worshipful Company of Musicians’ 2014 Cobbett Medal for
services to chamber music. Previous recipients of this award have included Sir
Edward Elgar, Ralph Vaughan Williams, Dennis Brain, and Yehudi Menuhin. We
thank Huw, Marion, Richard, and Jenny for all they have done for CAVATINA
over the years and wish them well for the future.
We are delighted to welcome two new trustees to the board – Ioan Davies and John
Wright – both of whom bring a wealth of complementary experiences with them.
John Wright
John hails from Derbyshire but moved
south for sunshine, a higher education,
and the wonders of the metropolis. He
now lives in Kingston Vale on the edge of
Richmond Park.
Music has always featured significantly
in John’s life. He took up playing the
piano at the age of seven and progressed
as far as O-level and Grade VII, when A-
levels interrupted his study. He furthered
his love of music during his wider studies
and continues to enjoy it in many forms,
especially in opera. Opera had never
featured in John’s life until it was
brought to him; a seed was sown and thus believes strongly in CAVATINA’s aim of bringing
chamber music to young people, who, like his finding of opera in those early years, may never
otherwise discover the joys of all that it has to offer.
John completed his first degree at Reading University and gained his Masters from Hull, a
project he undertook whilst headmaster of the well-acclaimed St Peter’s Eaton Square Church
of England Primary School – a role he held for eighteen years. The school and the parish were
recognised for their high musical standards. He currently serves as a senior honorary steward
3
at Westminster Abbey with its own wide spectrum of high quality music and where he works,
part-time, as the Protocol Liaison Officer.
In joining CAVATINA as a trustee, John hopes to be able to bring a perspective as a former
school head with a great empathy for the young folk who are unknowingly awaiting its
outreach.
Ioan Davies
Ioan Davies was a founder member of the
Fitzwilliam String Quartet and for eighteen years
toured to great critical acclaim throughout Europe,
North America, the USSR, and Japan. He
participated in many world premières and worked in
close contact with Shostakovich in the last years of
the composer’s life. He took part in recordings on
the Decca label of chamber music works by
Beethoven, Brahms, Borodin, Delius, Franck,
Schubert, Shostakovich (the complete quartets), and
Sibelius. He appears on the last Shostakovich disc as
a soloist with Elisabeth Söderström and Vladimir
Ashkenazy.
Since 1986 he has enjoyed performing the piano trio
repertoire with the Debussy Piano Trio (Switzerland) and the Bohemia Piano Trio. He gives
solo recitals throughout the UK and Europe, and during the past twenty-five years has worked
extensively with the pianist Jana Frenklova.
Dr Davies’s contribution to the education of gifted, young string players in the UK has been far
-reaching. As a member of the Master Panel for the Cambridge Symposiums for Young String
Quartets he worked closely over a number of years with Yehudi Menuhin and Yfrah Neaman.
He was Head of Strings at Wells Cathedral School from 1994 to 2003 and, until August 2008,
Director of Music for Pro Corda, the National School for Young Chamber Music Players. His
close association with the Department for Culture Media and Sport’s Music and Dance
Scheme continues at the Yehudi Menuhin School where he coaches chamber music.
Throughout his career Dr Davies has enjoyed teaching positions at many universities,
including Oxford, Cambridge, and York. He currently teaches at Bristol University and in
2008 was appointed String Consultant at Marlborough College.
4
Family Concerts
Aside from the continuing series of Family
Concerts in Hampstead (Fitzjohn’s
Primary School) and Kensington (Institut
français), CAVATINA has supported an
additional programme of events in
conjunction with the non-profit
organisation, Haringey Families. Its
director, Matt Couch, reflects on the initial
twelve months:
Children and families in and around
Muswell Hill enjoyed a fantastic series of
CAVATINA concerts over the last twelve
months. The concerts were held at
Tetherdown Hall and organised with the
help of Haringey Families, a local group for
families.
In January we had a packed house for the
Galeazzi Ensemble (Lesley Holliday, flute;
Richard Wade, violin; Virginie Guiffray,
viola; Gareth Deats, cello). A very
enthusiastic demonstration of the different
instruments was interspersed with more
formal sections in which children and
adults listened carefully to complete pieces
played with great skill. We were introduced
to an unusual instrument called a pochette
– a sort of compact violin that could be
carried around easily by dance masters –
while two members of the group danced to
illustrate the character of the minuet.
Our concert in March featured the Thorne
Trio (Ilid Llwyd Jones, oboe; Esther
Sheridan, clarinet; Alexandra Callanan,
bassoon). Children were immediately
impressed by the loud and dramatic
sounds. Many will have been seeing these
Feedback from a pupil at St Mark’s CE Primary School following a CAVATINA School Concert
5
instruments for the first time, and so were
naturally interested in their interesting
construction – the reeds, pipes, levers, and
tubes – engagingly described by the
performers.
In May we were treated to the Antara Duo
(Thomas Hancox, flute; Rachel Wick,
harp). This riveting combination of
instruments sounded amazing within the
resonant hall. It was fantastic for children
to see the size, intricacy, and robustness of
the classical harp up close and to learn how
such a wide range of sounds and effects can
be obtained. The music was immediately
appealing and the performers were
particularly skilled at holding the attention
and interest of the children.
Our final concert in November was with
the Sacconi Quartet (Ben Hancox, violin;
Hannah Dawson, violin; Robin Ashwell,
viola; Cara Berridge, cello). A large and
cheerful audience enjoyed the mix of child-
friendly presentation and professional
playing. The introduction was very
dramatic and beautiful, a canon with the
performers emerging one-by-one, adding
their line to the growing sound. Games and
audience participation culminated with a
good old stomp to a Brahms Hungarian
Dance at the end!
Matt Couch · Haringey Families
Ticket Scheme
Since the last Newsletter (February 2014)
to the writing of this one (January 2015),
CAVATINA has supported 185 concerts at
venues across the country, including the
ever-popular Chamber Zone at Wigmore
Hall. This figure excludes approximately
fifty School Concerts and fifteen Family
Concerts.
A conservative estimate suggests that
CAVATINA made it possible for 1,700
young people to attend chamber music
concerts for free in 2014, thereby fulfilling
the second part of our mission statement
by bringing young people to chamber
music. Coupled with 5,000 children
reached through our School Concerts
(approximately), and another 750 children
through Family Concerts, CAVATINA has
shared the delights of chamber music with
almost 7,500 young people in 2014.
In numbers...
In 2014, CAVATINA brought chamber
music to approximately 5,750 young
people, and brought about 1,700 young
people to chamber music concerts
around the country.
We thank you for your continued support
in helping to realise our mission.
6
Ensembles
It is not just the school pupils who profit
from our School Concerts; our ensembles
are grateful for the experience, too. Jakub
Čepický – the new violist of the Wihan
Quartet and son of their first violin, Leoš –
wrote to us about his first experience of
giving a CAVATINA School Concert:
Education is everything! The Wihan Quartet
has played many concerts, with loads of
musicians in dozens of countries. It would
be a shame if they did not share their
experience with young musicians. I joined
the Wihan only recently, so when I was
asked to teach young musicians, I was a bit
worried. However, everything went well.
University College School is amazing: a
lovely area filled with smiling students
playing classical music. After a performance
of Mozart’s ‘Dissonance’ string quartet, the
quartet split up and went into music rooms.
Teaching is not difficult if you do it from the
heart. It was like breathing. I just told the
students how I feel about music and they
listened to me. It was fantastic and I hope
they enjoyed it as much as I did. I am very
happy to have had such an opportunity.
Thank you!
Jakub Čepický · Wihan Quartet
The Wihan Quartet in their new line-up with violist Jakub Čepický · © Marklik.cz
… it felt like each half was 10 mins long
@wigmore-hall tonight! Incredible
experience even in Row U. Thanks
@cavatinachamber
Oliver Till (@olllietill) · 7 October 2014
7
CAVATINA Intercollegiate
Chamber Music Competition
Royal Academy of Music, Marylebone Road, London, NW1 5HT
Wednesday 6 May 2015 · 2.00pm
Set Piece: Beethoven Piano Trio, Op. 1, No. 2
Adjudicator: Rob Cowan (broadcaster & musicologist)
The Manon Quartet—first-
prize winners in CAVATINA’s
Intercollegiate Chamber
Music Competition 2014, here
playing at Sage Gateshead
©A
lde
bu
rgh
Mu
sic
The Artesian Quartet
were elected as
CAVATINA’s Chamber
Music Fellows at the
Royal Academy of Music
for 2014-15
8
CAVATINA Matters
21 October 2014 saw the fifteenth anniversary of a significant fund-raising evening for CAVATINA, held
at the Lord Chancellor’s residence.
Sir John Tusa gave a concise and powerful address as to our raison d’être, which resonates as clearly today
as ever before. We reproduce it here and thank you all for your continued support as our friends:
CAVATINA matters because it celebrates and expands the audiences for one of the most rewarding
of musical forms: chamber music.
CAVATINA matters because it introduces young children to the joys of chamber music which they
might find difficult or bewildering if exposed to it without some introduction – or might never be
introduced to it at all.
CAVATINA matters because it believes that listening to music, and learning to listen to music, is at
least as important as learning to express yourself in music.
CAVATINA matters because it declines to accept the view that chamber music is the preserve of
the few and irrelevant to those who may not have specialised musical backgrounds.
CAVATINA matters because it is creating the audiences of the future.
CAVATINA matters because it believes in opening the riches of chamber music without shackling
its young listeners with preoccupations about its difficulty or its exclusiveness.
CAVATINA matters because it provides work for the growing number of fine chamber ensembles
in Britain, at a time when the opportunity for them to perform is getting more and more limited.
CAVATINA matters because it opens minds and hearts and believes in sharing what delights
others with as many people as possible.
CAVATINA matters because two people with a burning belief and a broad instinct of generosity
turned from dreaming about an idea and simply put it into practice.
CAVATINA matters because it is a warm idea; a generous idea; an enriching idea; a broadening
idea.
All those who take part in it are the better for it.
CAVATINA would like to thank the following for their generous and constant support:
Andor Charitable Trust, The Coln Trust, John Lewis Partnership, The Monument Trust,
The Paul Morgan Charitable Trust, The Laurie & Gillian Marsh Charitable Trust,
Peter Storrs Trust, The Harold Hyam Wingate Foundation, Anonymous Benefactors
CAVATINA Chamber Music Trust
52D Maresfield Gardens, London, NW3 5RX
[email protected] · www.cavatina.net
020 7435 8479
Newsletter Editor · Thomas Hancox
Patrons: Derek Aviss OBE, Sir Vernon Ellis, Edmond Fivet CBE, Prof. Jonathan Freeman-Attwood, John Gilhooly OBE,
Gavin Henderson CBE, Lady Alison Irvine, Steven Isserlis CBE, Seppo Kimanen, Lord Moser, Gábor Takács-Nagy,
Sir John Tusa, Dr Peter Woodford, Benjamin Zander
Trustees: Dr Ioan Davies, Pamela Majaro MBE, Simon Majaro MBE, Pauline McAlpine, John Wright
Registered Charity No. 1067716