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Programme

 

Over the past year violinist Fenella Humphreys has given concerto and recital performances at the South Bank Centre, St. John's Smith Square, St. Andrew’s Hall, Norwich, the Salisbury International Festival, and La Mortella in Ischia. She was awarded Making Music's 2005 Philip and Dorothy Green Award for Young Concert Artists, and chosen to be a 2006 Park Lane Group Young Artist.

Fenella received early tuition from Sidney Griller CBE and Itzhak Rashkovsky whilst a scholar (Performing Rights Society, Hope Hambourg Trust, London Borough of Ealing) at the Purcell School. In her final years at the school she was presented with the prestigious Gertrude Hopkins Prize and Guivier Award for an outstanding contribution to the string department. Subsequently she took up an entrance scholarship working with David Takeno at Guildhall School of Music and Drama. Fenella completed her post-graduate studies at the Robert Schumann Hochschule, Düsseldorf in Ida Bieler’s class, supported by a scholarship from the German energy company, E.On, concurrently studying chamber music with Andreas Reiner’s at the Folkwang-Hochschule, Essen. In the spring of 2003 she was awarded the highest possible mark for the ’Diplom’ exam, and in May 2004 the ‘Konzertexamen’ soloists’ diploma.

Masterclasses have taken Fenella as far afield as Keshet Eilon, Israel, the Schleswig Holstein Festival and the Rheinischen Streicherakademie in Germany, and IMS Prussia Cove, in Cornwall, studying among others with Lorand Fenyves, Thomas Brandis, Thomas Riebl, Steven Doane, Johannes Goritzki, and Krzysztof Penderecki.

A busy chamber musician both in Britain and Germany, Fenella has performed with such artists as Alexander Baillie, Hariolf Schlichtig. Pekka Kuusisto, Martin Lovett and David Waterman, and is regularly invited to take part in the prestigious Open Chamber Music at IMS Prussia Cove. She has participated in chamber music masterclasses with Claus-Christian Schuster, Peter Frankl, Gordon Back, the Florestan Trio, the Melos Quartet, members of Takács Quartet and Vellinger Quartet and the New Zealand String Quartet.

In the summer of 2006 Fenella took over as violinist with the Lawson Trio. They have recently taken part in masterclasses with the Florestan Trio, both in London and as Britten-Pears Young Artists in Aldeburgh. Alongside concerts for music clubs around the country, the trio has been working alongside the Schubert ensemble promoting their Chamber Music 2000 project. Recent workshops in London schools culminated in a performance at the Purcell Room in London’s South Bank Centre.

Solo performances have included broadcasts for BBC Radio 3, Classic FM, DeutschlandRadio Berlin and West-Deutsche-Rundfunk as well as various other concerto and recital appearances in Europe, America and Israel. With pianist Helen Reid, Fenella performs regularly around the UK. Alongside the standard repertoire they enjoy bringing lesser known 20th and 21st century works as well as seldom performed British music to the public. Fenella and Helen performed a number of works by living British composers in January for the Park Lane Group’s 2006 New Year Series at the Purcell Room, broadcast by BBC Radio 3. In September 2006, Fenella performed the Walton Concerto at Walton’s home of La Mortella at the invitation of the Walton Trust, to celebrate the 80th birthday of Lady Walton, and open the newly built Greek Theatre. Highlights for 2006/7 include performances with the Deutsche Kammerakademie, Cheltenham Symphony Orchestra, West London Sinfonia and Aylesbury Symphony Orchestra, and a recording of Elis Pehkonen’s new violin sonata.

Fenella is fortunate to play a 1749 Julius Cesare Gigli violin on loan from Colin G. Nicholls, and a Tubbs bow belonging to Alan Mann.

 

Scottish pianist Alasdair Beatson began piano with Claire Gallagher. He continued his studies with John Blakely, initially at the North East of Scotland Music School, and latterly as a Foundation Scholar at the Royal College of Music, London, graduating in 2002 with 1st Class Honours. He subsequently completed a Performer Diploma at Indiana University, USA, studying with the great octogenarian Menahem Pressler, supported by the Robertson Trust and a Sir James Caird Travelling Scholarship. Based once again in London, Alasdair is in much demand as a recitalist, orchestral soloist and chamber musician. Past performances throughout Europe, Asia and North America have included appearances at Ravinia, Paxos, Bath and Dartington music festivals, piano trio tours in South Korea, and concerts in such venues as the Kennedy Center (Washington D.C.), Martinu Hall (Prague), Shanghai's Grand Theatre and the Wigmore Hall, in addition to frequent reappearances back home in Scotland. Alasdair has collaborated with violinist Miriam Fried, actress Prunella Scales (for a performance of Poulenc's 'Babar the Elephant' at Covent Garden), cellist Lowri Blake and the Edinburgh String Quartet. He has played in masterclass to Dmitri Bashkirov, James Conlon, Marc Durand, Leon Fleisher, Alicia de Larrocha, John Lill and Murray Perahia, and has made several live broadcasts for BBC Radio. In 2003, Alasdair won the Second Prize in the China Shanghai International Piano Competition, after his performance in the final round of Bartok's 2nd Piano Concerto with the Poitou-Charentes Orchestra, conducted by Yang Yang. He was finalist in the 2004 YCAT auditions, winner of the 2005 Philip and Dorothy Green (Making Music) Award for Young Concert Artist, and two times participant in the prestigious Steans Institute for Young Artists at Ravina Festival in 2004 and 2005. This January Alasdair is to perform a recital of 20th and 21st Century piano works in the Purcell Room, South Bank Centre, as part of the Park Lane Group's 50th Anniversary New Year Series.