PRESS RELEASE: Laura van der Heijden announced as LMP’s first Young Artist in Residence
We are pleased to announce that cellist Laura van der Heijden has been appointed ‘Young Artist in Residence’ with the London Mozart Players. Laura is the 2012 BBC Young Musician and first collaborated with the orchestra in 2013. The new partnership will commence officially in June 2015 with the opening concert of the Portsmouth Festivities on 19 June 2015. Further concerts take place in September and January of next season.
Laura van der Heijden comments: ‘I am thrilled that the London Mozart Players have chosen me to be their first Young Artist in Residence. Playing with them feels like chamber music, the way they play is very inspiring, the atmosphere is so supportive and working with them is always lots of fun.’
The Directors remark on the appointment of the LMP’s first ever Young Artist in Residence: ‘We are delighted to have a close association with such a vibrant and enterprising young cellist who clearly has an exciting career ahead of her’. We are actively looking for opportunities for further concerts together.
© James Laws
New LMP Recording at Number 1 in Classical Album Chart
Back in July 2014 we were at Henry Wood Hall with Naxos, recording with Hilary Davan Wetton, Roderick Williams and the City of London Choir. The subsequent recording described as ‘an anthology of twentieth century British music on the themes of war and lost youth, set against a background of the English countryside and a centuries-old pattern of rural life,’ includes the premiere recording of Finzi’s Requiem da Camera in its new completion by Christian Alexander. It also features Oscar-winning actor Jeremy Irons, who provides the narration for Vaughan Williams’ haunting Oxford Elegy.
Released in early November, the recording entered the Classical Album Charts at No.2 and then climbed to Number 1.
To buy from Amazon, click here.
Christmas Concert Dec 14th, 7.30pm at St John’s Smith Square
We are delighted to be collaborating on this exciting event with Suzi Digby OBE and to be celebrating Christmas at St John’s Smith Square. Programme to include Britten’s St Nicolas cantata, Vaughan Williams Fantasia on Christmas Carols, and Frank Bridge’s Sir Roger de Coverley (A Christmas Dance). There’ll be carols to sing and Thomas Hardy readings; a very English Christmas. Sunday 14th December, 7.30pm
Two concerts for the price of one!
LMP Principal Double Bass player and conductor Stacey Watton will be presenting a Concert by Candlelight with the LMP on 30th November, 7.30pm at St Mary’s Church, Rotherhithe, SE16 4JE, with programme to feature Beethoven’s Symphony No.2, Barber’s Adagio for Strings and Brahms Violin Concerto.
But that’s not all ladies and gents… If you purchase a ticket for the 30th November (£20), you will gain FREE entry to Stacey’s ‘New Talent Conducting Showcase Concert’ on 29th November, 2.30pm at St Mary’s Church with the LMP. Programme will include excerpts of Mozart’s Sinfonia Concertante, Violin Concertos 3 & 5, and Tchaikovsky Serenade for Strings.
Reserve your tickets by calling 07811373415 or email [email protected]
Hidden Croydon Exhibition
I happened upon some WW1 postcards when I was researching my family heritage. Building your family tree is extremely addictive I warn you, but it also gave a certain amount of inspiration to the ‘Hidden Croydon’ project. ‘History is made by individuals’ is an opinion thrown around often by historians, and I think on the whole they mean ‘great’ individuals; Kings and Queens, political leaders and human rights activists. This is great for school curriculum and for the study of the objective, but I don’t think we consider the subjective nature of history enough. The personal implications of world events. The effect of ‘great’ individual decisions on the ‘small’ individuals. It is focused on greatly in today’s news reports, but slowly through the ages we may lose perception of the human emotions felt at the time, whether they be anger or joy, confusion or certainty, fear or hope. 
However, I do not think that this is the case for the First World War. The events that led up to and followed the 4th August 1914 have been well documented not only by historians, but also depicted by many war poets and writers, classical composers and artists. A very human reaction; honest, brutal and unforgiving. But behind these writings, music and images, which are often at the risk of being glamorised, was a very real experience and can be expressed most effectively by the ‘small’ individual.
This is where ‘Hidden Croydon’ came in. When I found my Great Grandfather’s postcards, it was like holding a piece of history in my hands, and he and other ‘small’ individuals had been given a voice. Unfortunately the embroidered ones appear to have been stuck into a scrap book, so the writing on the back is illegible, apart from a long line of kisses on the bottom of one. However, on the one that reads ‘Till we meet again’, we can read written in pen by my Great Grandmother, Elizabeth Davies;
“I think of you today dear though we are far apart,
I send my loving wishes, to greet my true sweetheart.
From Lizzie.”
And then a reply in pencil from David Davies:
“From a hungry husband sending this out of the trenches to you. From Dai to Lizzie”
All my Great Grandfathers fought in the trenches and all of them returned home, a fact for which I’m extremely grateful for, as my grandparents were born post-1918. But I’m also grateful to my grandmother for recognising the significance of this world event in the context of the Davies family, preserving these postcards for future generations to truly appreciate the personal cost of the war.
I don’t think there are many who escaped school without at least touching upon the catastrophic loss of the First World War. I also don’t think there are many people alive today whose family weren’t affected in some way. Whether their ancestors worked on the land, in munitions factories, down the mines, volunteered as medics or played any part in the war effort, this all goes to paint a raw picture of that moment in time, made up of personal voices and faces of the significant unknown and ‘small’ individuals of that generation. This is what the ‘Hidden Croydon’ project is all about.
Jenny Brady
Hidden Croydon Exhibition open from 12 pm on 14th November at Fairfield Halls Croydon. ALL WELCOME.
Connecting Generations: WW1 Songs Remembered and Shared
As part of a wide-reaching WW1 commemoration project, the London Mozart Players, Croydon’s resident orchestra, have been facilitating the visits of newly established primary school choirs to Croydon senior’s homes
.
As well as preparing Jonathan Dove’s new commission For an Unknown Soldier, the children of Atwood Primary Academy, Croydon Parish Church Juniors, Ecclesbourne Primary Academy and Monks Orchard Primary, have also been learning old wartime songs, and creating their own variations of them to sing to residents of local care homes. Repertoire includes Wish Me Luck, It’s a long way to Tipperary and other familiar tunes.
The choir of Monks Orchard Primary School performed at Elizabeth Court on Wednesday 1st October, which also happened to be International Older People’s Day.
The ‘Coffee Concerts’ which have come to be known as WW1 Songs Remembered and Shared, are an important part of the project for several reasons. They are providing an important performance opportunity for the schools in the lead up to the main concert on the 14th November, and they are also encouraging the children to engage creatively with a bygone era.
PRESS RELEASE: World Premieres of ‘For an Unknown Soldier’
The London Mozart Players and The Portsmouth Grammar School collaborate to commission major new cantata from Jonathan Dove to commemorate WWI
• World Première performances in Portsmouth and Croydon in November 2014
• Over 300 children from Portsmouth Grammar School and Croydon primary schools involved in the first performances
• Featuring renowned choral conductor Nicholas Cleobury and outstanding young tenor Nicholas Sharratt.
The London Mozart Players and The Portsmouth Grammar School will present the World Première performances of a major new co-commission from Jonathan Dove on 9 November 2014 in Portsmouth Cathedral and 14 November in Fairfield Halls Croydon. For an Unknown Soldier is a setting for tenor solo, children’s choir, adult chorus and chamber orchestra of nine poems about the First World War. Opening with a setting of Wilfred Owen’s portentous ‘1914’, the work offers a moving meditation on the tragedy of war with poems by Mary Gabrielle Collins, Helen Dircks and Ivor Gurney among others.
The LMP is delighted to continue what has become an annual collaboration with Portsmouth Grammar School, which has in recent years seen the commissioning of important new work from composers such as Roxanna Panufnik and Sir Peter Maxwell Davies.
James Priory, Headmaster of Portsmouth Grammar School comments:
“We are thrilled to be giving young musicians from Portsmouth and Croydon the opportunity to work with a living composer and to be involved in creating a major new musical work inspired by Remembrance. I cannot think of a better way for young people to engage creatively in the centenary of the Great War.”
Viv Davies, Managing Director of the London Mozart Players comments:
“We are really excited to be collaborating with the Portsmouth Grammar School and Jonathan Dove on such a significant and important project. The preparation for the events in November has brought together diverse individuals and groups in a unified and common purpose. We have no doubt that the première performances of the cantata will be profound and moving occasions that will express, in a wonderfully creative way, the essence, spirit and deep significance of remembrance. We are looking forward to it immensely.”
Simon Blendis – Leader
Simon Blendis joined the LMP as Leader in 2014. As well as leading for a wide variety of concerts, Simon has particularly enjoyed developing his relationship with the orchestra through an increasing amount of directing. He has also created the innovative leadership development event Podium, which has become an important strand of the LMP’s work and is gaining a strong reputation in the business world.
Away from the LMP Simon enjoys a varied career as a chamber musician, soloist and orchestra leader. He has been a member of the Schubert Ensemble for twenty-three years, with whom he has performed in over thirty different countries, made frequent broadcasts for BBC Radio 3 and appeared regularly at Europe’s major venues. After 35 years at the forefront of British chamber music the Ensemble will retire in 2018, leaving behind a legacy of over 80 commissions, 25 CD recordings and a large library of live performances on YouTube.
Simon is also in demand as a guest-leader and guest-director and has appeared in this role with most of the UK’s major orchestras. Since 1999 he has been one of the leaders of Orchestra Ensemble Kanazawa in Japan, with whom he has recorded Vivaldi’s Four Seasons for the Warner label. As a soloist he has made recent appearances with the Philharmonia Orchestra, the Academy of St. Martin-in-the-Fields, the RPO and the CBSO.
Simon is a keen exponent of new music. He has given over 50 first performances and has had new works written for him by, amongst others, John Woolrich, Tansy Davies and jazz legend Dave Brubeck, as well as violin concertos by David Knotts and Jeff Moore.
London Premiere – November 14
This event is expected to sell out. Tickets from £12.
Box office 020 8688 9291
Click here to purchase tickets
The London Mozart Players are proud to announce their special concert at Fairfield Halls to mark the centenary of WW1 on Friday 14th November at 7.30pm.
This concert is the culmination of a far-reaching community project funded jointly by the Arts Council of Great Britain, Croydon Council and Portsmouth Grammar School.
The project has touched the community of Croydon on many levels with the formation of four junior school choirs performing alongside Whitgift School, Croydon Minster and Portsmouth Grammar School choirs in the London premiere of For an Unknown Solider written by the renowned composer Jonathan Dove.
Riddlesdown Collegiate will curate a WW1 commemoration exhibition to be displayed in the foyer on 14th November created from their trip to the First World War, Stories of Croydon exhibition at the Museum of Croydon, memorabilia collected from the residents of Croydon and their written responses to these artefacts.
All schools in Croydon have been invited to produce artwork to mark WW1 that will be displayed that evening in the Fairfield Halls.
We will be joined in the concert by young instrumentalists from Croydon Music and Arts who will play side by side with the LMP. Flautist Emma Halnan, the Croydon Festival winner 2013, will also perform a concerto with us.
We invite you all to join us with the community of Croydon to mark the WW1 Centenary.
Friday November 14th 2014, Fairfield Halls, Croydon at 7.30pm
David Angel
20th July 1954 – 10th April 2017
David Angel studied at the Yehudi Menuhin School with Frederick Grinke and Jaqueline Salomons, and had many masterclasses with Lord Menuhin.
In 1971 he won an Associated Board Scholarship to study at the Royal Academy of Music with Frederick Grinke. He had regular chamber music coaching with Sidney Griller and won prizes for both solo and chamber music.
He has played quartets professionally since 1976; for eleven years with the Bochmann Quartet and since 1988, with the Maggini Quartet, which he co founded in that year. With the Quartet he has performed and broadcast widely as well as recording some thirty discs and working with composers such as James McMillan, Eleanor Alberga, Roxanna Panufnik, and extensively with Sir Peter Maxwell Davies.
With pianist David Elwin he has enjoyed a long standing duo: in September 2007 they made their maiden tour of Japan.
When his quartet schedule allows, he co-leads the 2nd violins of the London Mozart Players, a job he has held since 1995.
Much in demand as a teacher and quartet coach, he has been professor of quartet playing at the Birmingham Conservatoire since 1993. In addition to teaching privately, he has taught violin at Southampton University, the Birmingham Conservatoire, and as a guest at the Menuhin and Purcell schools.
Judith Busbridge
Judith graduated in Music from Birmingham University and completed her viola studies with Thomas Riebl in Salzburg, where she was solo violist in the Camerata Academica under the directorship of Sándor Végh, a post she held for 5 years.
Outside her schedule with London Mozart Players she was, until 2011, a founder member of the multi-award-winning Dante String Quartet, with whom she performed at major concert halls and festivals throughout the UK and Europe, winning the prestigious Royal Philharmonic Society Award for Chamber Music in 2007.
From 2010-13 she was violist with Ensemble 360, a versatile group of eleven musicians of international standing who enjoy a residency in Sheffield with Music in the Round, and with whom she again won the RPS Award for chamber music in 2013.
Judith’s varied freelance career also includes playing guest principal viola with the English Chamber Orchestra, the Philharmonia Orchestra, Royal Opera House, City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra and The Academy of St Martin in the Fields. She is also solo viola in John Eliot Gardiner’s Orchestre Révolutionnaire et Romantique, which performs repertoire of nineteenth and early twentieth centuries on period instruments.
Since September 2013 she is also one of the principal violas with the Orchestra of the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden.
Sarah Burnett
When did you join the LMP?
2010
Where else do you work?
I’m a member of Britten Sinfonia, The Haffner Wind Ensemble and teach at the Royal College of Music. I am also Bassoon Consultant at the Royal Birmingham Conservatoire.. Any free time after that takes me up and down the country, working for other orchestras as guest principal, as well as giving masterclasses and doing the odd bit of session work.
When did you start playing the bassoon?
Aged 11
What is your first musical memory?
Playing for the first time ever in an orchestra. It was Shostakovich’s 5th Symphony with the National Youth Orchestra. I was only 12 and was totally overwhelmed by the sheer raw power of the music.
What is special about your instument?
It’s an old 1927 Heckel with a huge history, and it happens to have been made the same year as my house was built. It has a warm singing voice with many individual quirks, which always makes it interesting to play. Shostakovich said the bassoon was the instrument closest to the human voice; I don’t think you can get a better compliment than that.
What do you do in your spare time?
I love being outdoors, whether it’s just pottering in the garden, going for walks and cycles or having a barbeque. Friends and family are extremely important to me; there’s nothing better than sharing food and wine with those you love.
Michael Posner
Michael studied with Nobuko Imai, Mischa Geller and Simon Rowland-Jones at the Royal Northern College of Music, where he achieved a Gmus RNCM and PP RNCM, and was the winner of the Dearden Academic Award.
Upon leaving the RNCM, he joined the Peterborough String Orchestra where he became principal viola, playing regularly in the Chamber Ensemble and as soloist with the orchestra. Michael then moved to London, where he became a member of the London Mozart Players and a regular in all of London’s leading chamber orchestras including the Academy of St Martins, English Chamber Orchestra, City of London Sinfonia and Britten Sinfonia. He has toured and recorded extensively with these orchestras.
Over the last 20 years Michael has developed a passion for teaching, alongside his playing. He held a post at Trinity College of Music, Junior Department for 14 years, and has recently taken up a post at Bromley Youth Music Trust teaching violin and viola, coaching chamber music and conducting orchestras. With his wife Julia Desbruslais, he runs the highly successful Summer Strings music courses, and coaches regularly on the Arpeggione course.
Michael is a keen supporter of Arsenal football club.
Julia Desbruslais
At sixteen Julia Desbruslais won an open scholarship to study the cello with Florence Hooton at the Royal Academy of Music. During this time she won many awards including the Suggia Award and the Leverhulme Chamber Music Scholarship. Under the direction of Sydney Griller she was a founder member of the all-female Fairfield String Quartet. They enjoyed ten years touring Britain and Europe, winning major competitions, giving many live broadcasts for the BBC, and recording for Hyperion.
On leaving the Quartet, she became Co-Principal Cello with the London Mozart Players, where she regularly performs with the Chamber Ensemble and has appeared as a concerto soloist. She is also Principal Cello with the London Jupiter Orchestra, with whom she has performed John Taverner’s Eternal Memory at St John’s, Smith Square. She regularly plays as guest principal with many London orchestras, including the New London Orchestra and City of London Sinfonia.
She has a great passion for inspiring young children and is one of the leading lights in the vast education programme of the LMP. Her work has included performing to all ages from work with young children to the elderly in numerous and varied venues. Her work with young children led to the production of television workshops and compositional projects and she was responsible for the setting up of cello master classes and massed cello ensembles with young children. Julia holds posts as a cello teacher at Whitgift School and Eltham College, and a large private class. With her husband Michael Posner, they run the highly successful Summer Strings residential music courses for children of all ages.
She is a member of the cello quartet formed from the four cellists of the LMP, presenting concerts drawing on the works of the great cellist composers. Their first CD Petits Fours was received with great acclaim. Recent recordings include ‘Lullaby for a Lost Soul’ by Ronald Corp.
Sarah Butcher – Cello
Sarah studied cello with Stefan Popov at the Guildhall School of Music and chamber music with Hans Keller and the Chilingirian String Quartet. She also took part in masterclasses with William Pleeth at the Aldeburgh Summer School. She has played in many orchestras and ensembles in the UK including the BBC Symphony orchestra, The Guildhall String Ensemble, the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment, Peter Gabriel’s New Blood Orchestra, English Touring Opera, Garsington Opera and Glyndebourne Touring Opera Orchestra for whom she has played principal cello.
She has made recordings for the Cello Classics label, Music for Two Cellos and ‘Petits Fours’, music for four cellos with the London Mozart Players cello section. Also on the Cello Classics label she has performed in a CD of music by the great pedagogue Julius Klengel. As a baroque cellist and founder of Bach Camerata she has also recorded St John Passion (in English) with The Crouch End Festival Chorus and David Temple.
Sarah is a keen chamber musician and has played with the Mistry String Quartet and was a member of the Mainardi Trio. For 10 years she was Artistic Director of The Chamber Players who play regularly at Festivals and venues throughout the UK, including Holywell Music Rooms, Imperial College and Buxton and Chichester Festivals with artists such as Ashley Wass, Gaby Lester, Tim Horton and Benjamin Nabarro.
Sarah is a keen participant in education and community projects and plays principal cello in the Chipping Campden Festival Academy Orchestra, sitting side-by-side with music college students for a series of concerts in the Chipping Campden Festival. Other recent projects include devising a piece for the Croydonites Festival with SLiDE in South Norwood and workshops and concerts for Everyone Matters in Bromley and Kingston.
Sarah also edits audiobooks for the Naxos AudioBooks label and has been involved in many exciting projects including The History of Classical Music and Famous Composers in collaboration with ClassicFM. She has performed on several of these discs including The Cellist of Sarajevo and Macbeth with music by oscar-winning composer Stephen Warbeck.
She has been a member of the London Mozart Players since 1998.
Louise Honeyman R.I.P.
Louise Honeyman died on March 19th 2014. Louise was the Managing Director of the LMP during the 80’s and 90’s. She was the first Woman MD of a British Orchestra. Jane Glover was appointed, by Louise, as Artistic Director. In March 1989 she approached Croydon Council and they agreed to make the LMP their resident orchestra. Louise was also responsible for bringing in HRH Prince Edward as the Patron.
Louise was a much loved character and the LMP was her passion right through her retirement. She suffered a severe Stroke on March 15th 2014. Her partner was David Wilson who has been the General Manager of the orchestra since the 80’s. David bravely attended our concert on March 20th accompanied by Louise’s family.
We will all miss Louise tremendously. The concert on March 20th was dedicated to her memory. Our thoughts are with David and Louise’s family.