Visiting Musicians
James Bowman - Countertenor
Ronald Brautigam - Fortepiano
Catherine Bott - Soprano
Mhairi Lawson - Soprano
Lisa Wilson - Soprano
Tom Dunn - Viola
Venera Bojkova - Piano
Mark J Chambers - Counter Tenor
Sarah-Jane Davies - Soprano
Andrew Gant - Harpsichord
Anner Bylsma - Cello
Mark Kroll - Harpsichord
Robert Levin - Piano
Pieter Wispelwey - Cello
Deborah Thorne - Cello
James Bowman - Countertenor
 James Bowman has been one of the world’s leading Counter tenors for nearly thirty years; his career spans Opera, Oratorio, Contemporary music and solo recitals. He began singing as a Chorister at Ely Cathedral and later entered New College, Oxford with a Choral scholarship. After leaving Oxford, he joined the choir of Westminster Abbey. As the result of an audition, he was invited by Benjamin Britten to sing at the opening concert of the new Queen Elizabeth Hall in London in March 1967, and this marked his London debut.
He was soon in demand on both the Opera stage and the concert platform, appearing at the Aldeburgh Festival and Sadlers Wells in 1967 (‘A Midsummer Night’s Dream’), at Glyndebourne in 1970 (‘La Calisto’), the English National Opera in 1971 (‘Semele’) and the Royal Opera in 1977 (‘Taverner’).
Among his numerous opera engagements abroad, mention should be made of Paris (L’Opera, L’Opera Comique, Le Theatre du Chatelet, Le Theatre des Champs Elysees), La Scala, Milan, La Fenice, Venice and the Festival of Aix-en-Provence.
In Australia he has appeared at the Sydney and Melbourne Opera houses and in the USA at Dallas, Wolftrap, San Francisco and Santa Fe.
His concert career is equally wide-ranging. In Europe he is well known as a recitalist, with a large following. He has sung at every major festival in France and in 1992 the French government honoured him with admission to ‘L’Ordre des Arts et des Lettres’. In the same year he was awarded the Medal of Honour of the City of Paris.
James Bowman has made over 150 recordings with all the major record labels, under such directors as Britten, Harnoncourt, Mackerras, Leppard, Hogwood, Bruggen and Pinnock. He has recorded ‘Messiah’ four times, under Willcocks, Koopman, Dorati and Parrott. Many of his recordings have been with The King’s Consort for Hyperion, recording all the Purcell Odes, Church music and Solo songs, as well as various solo discs of music by Bach, Handel, Vivaldi, Pergolesi, Hasse, Domenico Scarlatti and Dowland.
James Bowman has given the world premiere of many important contemporary compositions, including works by Benjamin Britten, Michael Tippett, Peter Maxwell Davies, Richard Rodney Bennett, Robin Holloway, Geoffrey Burgon, Michael Nyman, Alan Ridout and Tariq O’Regan.
In May 1996 he received the Honorary Degree of Doctor of Music from the University of Newcastle upon Tyne, and was made CBE in the 1997 Queen’s Birthday Honours. He is also an Honorary Fellow of New College, Oxford and in October 2000 became a Gentleman of Her Majesty’s Chapel Royal, St. James’s Palace.
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Ronald Brautigam - Fortepiano
 Ronald Brautigam, one of Holland's leading musicians, is remarkable not only for his virtuosity and musicality but also for the eclectic nature of his musical interests. He was born in Amsterdam and studied with Jan Wijn, continuing his studies in London and in the United States of America - with Rudolf Serkin. In 1984 he was awarded the Nederlandse Muziekprijs, the highest Dutch musical award.
Since then Ronald Brautigam performs regularly with leading European orchestras under distinguished conductors including Frans Brüggen, Riccardo Chailly, Charles Dutoit, Ivan Fischer, Bernard Haitink, Philippe Herreweghe, Christopher Hogwood, Ton Koopman, Roger Norrington, Simon Rattle and Edo de Waart.
Besides his performances on modern instruments Ronald Brautigam has developed a great passion for the fortepiano. He regularly gives recitals on his own fortepiano, including several Mozart and Beethoven sonata cycles, and has played concertos with the 18th-Century Orchestra, the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment, the Hanover Band, Concerto Copenhagen and l'Orchestre des Champs-Elysées.
He is also a devoted player of chamber-music, regularly working together with Isabelle van Keulen, Nobuko Imai and Melvyn Tan.
In 1995 Ronald Brautigam began a long association with the Swedish label BIS. Since then he has recorded Mendelssohn's Piano Concertos (with Nieuw Sinfonietta Amsterdam), and the complete piano works of Mozart and Haydn on the fortepiano. In 2004 one of the Haydn CDs (Volume 7) won the Critic's Award for a Keyboard release at the Classical Awards held at the MIDEM international music convention in Cannes, France. That same year saw the release of the first of a series of 17 CDs with Beethoven's piano music, also on the fortepiano. For Decca, Ronald Brautigam has recorded piano concertos by Shostakovich, Hindemith and Frank Martin with the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra and Riccardo Chailly.
His forthcoming concerts include concertos with the London Philharmonic Orchestra, Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra, Gewandhaus Orchester, Indianapolis Symphony Orchestra, City Chamber Orchestra of Hong Kong, Canberra Symphony Orchestra, Orchestra of the 18th-Century and l'Orchestre des Champs-Elysées.
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Catherine Bott - Soprano
 Catherine Bott studied at the Guildhall and then spent two years singing everything from Bach to Berio with the Swingles before beginning her solo career. She is recognised as a virtuoso of early music: among her many recordings in this field are Bach’s St. John Passion with the Choir of King’s College, Cambridge, Monteverdi’s L’Incoronazione di Poppaea with Sir John Eliot Gardiner and Purcell’s Dido and Aeneas with the Academy of Ancient Music, whose re-release last year was awarded a Diapason d’Or in France.
In contrast, she is much in demand by contemporary composers and has premiered and recorded works by Craig Armstrong, Jonathan Dove, Michael Nyman and Errollyn Wallen. Her two most recent cd releases are Delectatio Angeli for Hyperion, “an utter delight, outstanding” (International Record Review) and Convivencia for the innovative new Fred label,”a rare commitment worthy of spoken theatre” (Gramophone). Her next Hyperion recording will be an album of popular songs by Lionel Monckton with Ronald Corp and the New London Orchestra.
Catherine Bott presents The Early Music Show on BBC Radio 3: she was a high-profile presenter of R3’s award-winning Bach Christmas programmes in December 2005, and in May this year will be giving a series of talks on the music of Bach in Germany.
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Mhairi Lawson - Soprano
 While still a student at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama, Mhairi won the International Early Music Network Young Artists Prize with the fortepianist Olga Tverskaya, which led to her first CD recording of Haydn's English and Scottish Songs (premiere recording on original instruments).
As a soloist Mhairi has appeared at such venues as New York's Lincoln Centre, Paris' Cite de la Musique, Theatre de Chatelet and Opera Comique, Edinburgh's Festival Theatre, Utrecht's Vredenburg, London's Royal Opera and Coliseum Theatres with such companies as English National Opera, Les Arts Florissants, The Gabrieli Consort and The Scottish Chamber Orchestra.
Mhairi has a special interest in the music of 18th Century Scotland and Italy, of which she has given many performances and recorded for CD with Concerto Caledonia ('Mungrel Stuff' was Sunday Times choice CD and 'A red, red rose' has just been released). With the virtuoso baroque band, La Serenissima, Mhairi had performed Vivaldi's 'La Senna Festeggiante' and 'Laudate Pueri' in Venice, and recorded arias by Vivaldi, Hasse and Giacomelli for their latest disc 'Vivaldi in Arcadia', which has received much critical acclaim in Music industry publications such as 'Gramophone', 'Diapason' and 'BBC Music Magazine'.
At London's Wigmore Hall, Mhairi has given many performances of the dramatic works of Handel ('Alcina' and 'Aci, Galatea e Polifemo'), Purcell ('King Arthur' and 'Fairy Queen') and Hasse's rarely performed serenata 'Antonio e Cleopatra', all with the Early Opera Company.
Recent and current projects include concert and operatic arias by Mozart with the Orchestre National des pays de la Loire (France) directed by Philip Pickett, recitals of Wolf's 'Italienische Liederbuch' and English Songs with the pianist Julius Drake, a recording of Scottish Classical Songs by the Earl of Kelly for Linn Records, a recording of Vivaldi sacred music with La Serenissima for Avie, Handel's 'Athalia' in Madrid and Bach's St John Passion and B minor Mass in Germany.
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Lisa Wilson: Soprano
Lisa Wilson studied English at Gonville and Caius College, Cambridge, where she held a choral scholarship. She has recently completed two years of Post-Graduate training with Professor Susan McCulloch at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama. From September 2006 she will be starting the Guildhall's two-year Opera Course.
Awards for solo singing include the Oxford Post-diploma Recital Award and the Dudley Recital Award, as well as a Godfrey-Paignton Trust bursary to study with Emma Kirkby at Dartington International Summer School.
Solo work includes cantatas with the Avison Ensemble in Newcastle, Bach's Christmas Oratorio Parts IV and V with Haslingfield Choral Society, Handel's Ode for Saint Cecilia's Day and Vivaldi's Dixit Dominus with Cherwell Choral Society, Handel's Messiah with Stratford-Upon-Avon Choral Society, Handel's Acis and Galatea and Haydn's Nelson Mass with Haslingfield Choral Society in Cambridge, Handel's Dixit Dominus with Peterborough Choral Society and Handel's Solomon, Bach's St John Passion, Mozart's Requiem, and Haydn's Creation with various choirs in Oxford.
Operatic roles include Belinda (Dido and Aeneas) with the Guildhall, Amy (Jacko's Hour) with the Guildhall Opera Course, Susanna and The Countess (The Marriage of Figaro), Ottavia and Damigella (Poppea) and Gloria (Krenek's What Price Confidence?) with New Chamber Opera.
She sings with many professional choirs, including The BBC Singers, the Brompton Oratory, London, Oxford Camerata and The Sixteen, with whom she has toured four continents, and sung in venues such as St John's, Smith Square, the Sheldonian and the Barbican.
Lisa is supported at Dartington Summer School by bursaries from Joan Haward and Investec Bank, and in her further study at the Guildhall by the Elmley Foundation and Worcester Consolidated Charities.
Future plans include First Lady (the Magic Flute) for Dartington International Advanced Opera Course and a Lieder recital for Cambridge Summer Music.
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Tom Dunn - Viola
Tom Dunn is much in demand as a chamber musician and orchestral player. A member of the newly formed string sextet The Chamber Players, Tom is also a regular guest of the London Bridge Ensemble and the Picander Ensemble, with whom he has recently recorded Dvorak's two Piano Quartets for the Merlin Classics label.
As an orchestral musician, Tom has played with numerous orchestras including appearances as Guest Principal Viola with the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, the Oslo Philharmonic, the BBC National Orchestra of Wales, the Manchester Camerata and the Avison Ensemble. He has been Co-Principal Viola of the London Mozart Players since 2002.
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Venera Bojkova - Piano
 Venera was born in Sofia, Bulgaria, and studied at the State Conservatoire of Music. Her piano professors were both graduates of Moscow Conservatoire, Nicolai Evrov and Lubomir Dinolov, both being among Bulgaria's foremost recitalists and teachers. After graduation she became a teacher at the conservatoire and performed throughout Bulgaria in recitals and as a concerto soloist. In 1991 she became pianist in residence in the Northern Province of South Africa, coming to the UK in 1993.
As well as performing throughout UK, she has performed throughout Europe, Russia, South Africa and the USA. As an accompanist, Venera has toured with singers from the Metropolitan Opera, New York, the 1997 Cardiff Singer of the World, Guan Yang, and the outstanding English mezzo-soprano Carol Wilson.
Venera also performs as part of a piano duo with a Bulgarian colleague, Valentina Seferinova, with whom she has recorded a CD of music for two pianos, and as a member of the Broadwood Piano Quintet. She also runs a popular series of monthly piano master classes for advanced pianists in the Caedmon Hall, Gateshead.
Additionally, Venera conducts the Bishop Auckland Choral Society and has an extensive teaching practice, teaching students at Durham and Newcastle Universities, Durham High School and Durham School as well as a small number privately.
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Mark J Chambers - Counter Tenor
 Mark J. Chambers entered the Royal Northern College of Music in 1988, graduating in 1992 with a GRNCM (upper division) and was awarded the John Mcleod prize for male singers. Mark has received coaching from Michael Chance, James Bowman and David Wilson Johnson.
Solo work has included Bach Mass in B minor in the Concertgebouw, Amsterdam and on tour in Europe with Sir John Eliot Gardiner and the Monteverdi Choir, the role of David in Handel Saul, Bach Mass in B Minor and St. Matthew Passion all with Richard Hickox, Bach St. John Passion in King's College, Cambridge and Haydn St. Nicholas Mass in the Barbican Centre both with Stephen Cleobury, Handel Judas Maccebeus at the Karlsruhe Handel Festival with Roy Goodman and a residency at Rutgers University, New Jersey performing Bach.
Operatic work has included many roles in operas by Handel, including Narciso and Ottone from Agrippina, the role of Dardano in Amadigi, Andronico in Tamerlano, (at the Britten Pears School) Arsace in Berenice and Arsemenes in Xerxes. Other roles include Oberon in Britten A Midsummer Night's Dream (RNCM) ,Ottone in Monteverdi L'incorinatione di Poppea, Speranza and Pastore in Monteverdi L'Orfeo with Philip Pickett directed by Jonathan Miller and chorus in a production of Rameau Les Boreades at the Salzburg Festival, conducted by Sir Simon Rattle.
Mark has made many recordings including counter tenor duets by Purcell and Blow with Ryland Angel, solo motets by Grandi with the The English Cornett and Sackbutt Ensemble directed by Rob Howarth and songs by Edmund Rubbra and Vaughan Williams with David Mason, to commemorate the anniversary of Rubbra's birth.
Future engagements include Bach St Matthew Passion, with the Monteverdi
Choir and Sir John Eliot Gardiner, performances of The Venetian Coronation
with Paul Mcreesh, a world premiere by Joby Talbot in the City of London
festival with the chambers choir Tenebrae, and further performances of Orfeo
in Paris and New Zealand.
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Sarah-Jane Davies - Soprano
 Born and educated in Wales, Sarah-Jane is a graduate of the Royal College of Music, from which she also holds three 1st Class Postgraduate Diplomas in Performance and Advanced Performance (Concert and Opera singing). She is a student of Lillian Watson. Sarah-Jane is currently a member of the ENO Young Singers Programme.
Her opera experience includes: For English National Opera: Mozart The Magic Flute (Pamina and 1st Lady); Handel Xerxes (Romilda); Jephtha (Angel); Massenet Thaïs (Crobyle) at the Barbican in concert; Prokofiev War and Peace (Dunyasha) for the BBC Proms, Albert Hall. For Garsington Manor Opera: Mozart Le Nozze di Figaro (Contessa) and Cosi fan Tutte (Fiordiligi). Handel Agrippina (title role) for London Handel Festival; Die Zauberflöte (Pamina) and Britten The Turn of the Screw (Miss Jessel) for Benjamin Britten International Opera School, RCM; Le Nozze di Figaro (Contessa) for BYO, at Queen Elisabeth Hall.
Sarah-Jane's various concerts include: Mendelssohn Elijah; Mozart Exsultate Jubilate, Requiem; Handel Messiah; Brahms Requiem; Bach Magnificat; Recitals at Aldeburgh and Brecon with Morriston Orpheus Male Voice Choir; Eton College with the London Welsh Male Voice Choir; gave a St David's Day concert attended by HRH Prince Andrew. Radio appearances on BBC Radio3.
Her many prizes and awards include: 2003 London Young Welsh Singer of the Year;
2003 MOSCA Young Welsh Singer of the Year. At the RCM: 2003 Cuthbert Smith Prize; 2002 Vivian Prins and Wienberger Awards; Sybil Tutton Award MBF.
This season's plans include: Mozart recitals to include Exsultate Jubilate, South France, and North Wales International Festival; Cosi Fan Tutte (Fiordiligi) Opera Holland Park; Electra (5th Maid) Strauss for the opening concert of The Edinburgh International Festival; The Marriage of Figaro (Countess) and La Clemenza di Tito (Servilia) for ENO. Welsh representative for 2007 BBC Cardiff Singer of the World.
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Andrew Gant - Harpsichord
 Born and educated in Wales, Andrew Gant was a choral scholar at St John’s College, Cambridge under the direction of the late Dr. George Guest. He subsequently sang with most of the country’s leading ensembles, including The Tallis Scholars, The Sixteen, The Monteverdi Choir and the Cambridge Singers. He was first tenor and musical director of the Light Blues male-voice sextet, for whom he wrote many arrangements and with whom he toured all over the world.
His degree at Cambridge was in Music and English and included the Arthur Quiller-Couch prize for best creative work for the libretto of his opera Blake. He later studied composition at the Royal Academy of Music with Paul Patterson, gaining the degree of M.Mus and two of the Academy’s composition prizes. His opera The Basement Room was written for the Academy’s opera school and performed at the Academy and the Cambridge Festival. In 2002 he was awarded the degree of PhD in composition and contemporary music by Goldsmith’s College, University of London, where he studied with Dr. Sadie Harrison.
Andrew Gant has worked in church music all his adult life, singing regularly with all the professional church choirs in London including a two-year period as a tenor Lay Vicar at Westminster Abbey, appointed by the Abbey Organist Simon Preston. In the early 1990s he moved from singing in church choirs to directing them, and has held posts as conductor at Selwyn College, Cambridge, The Royal Military Chapel (The Guards Chapel), Wellington Barracks, London, and Worcester College, Oxford. He has given regular concerts with his choirs, and led them on foreign tours and in broadcasts and recordings. In September 2000 he took up his current post as Organist, Choirmaster and Composer at Her Majesty’s Chapel Royal.
The choir of the Chapel Royal has existed since at least the Norman Conquest, and its roll of musicians includes Robert Fayrfax, William Cornyshe, Thomas Tallis, William Byrd, Orlando Gibbons, Henry Purcell, John Blow and George Frederic Handel. Its duties today are much as they have always been: to sing the weekly service in the Chapel Royal at St James’s Palace and to perform for the monarch at other occasions as required. In recent years these have included annual events such as the Royal Maundy ceremony and Remembrance Day Parade in Whitehall, the Golden Jubilee service at St Paul’s Cathedral, the funeral of Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth the Queen Mother at Westminster Abbey, and other weddings, funerals and baptisms of members of the Royal Family and the Royal Household. The choir consists of six Gentlemen-in-Ordinary, who are professional singers, and ten Children of the Chapel (boy choristers). The children are educated at City of London School, and receive a generous scholarship towards their school fees. Andrew Gant is always happy to talk to prospective parents about chorister places at the Chapel Royal.
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Anner Bylsma - Cello
 At a very early age Anner Bylsma received the most significant part of his education from his father, who was a passionate musician himself. He studied at the Royal Conservatoire in the Hague - his native town - with Carel Boomkamp, a splendid teacher and musician, which resulted in a Prix d'Excellence. Bylsma was already principal cellist with the Netherlands Opera when in 1959 he won first prize at the Pablo Casals Competition in Mexico. From 1962 to 1968 he held the position of principal cellist of the Concertgebouw Orchestra in Amsterdam. During this time the early music movement was becoming more popular; this resulted in an increase of touring and recordings for Anner Bylsma with a number of well-known early music conductors including Frans Brüggen and Gustav Leonhard.
Anner Bylsma's career has included performances with chamber orchestras including the Freiburger Barock, Age of Enlightenment, Orpheus and Australian Chamber Orchestras and Tafelmusik. He has also given many recitals with fortepiano, pianoforte and harpsichord as well as concerts with his chamber group l'Archibudelli.
Anner Bylsma's expertise as an early music cellist has kept him in demand as a recording artist. His recordings include works for the cello in the 17th century and by François Servais (Harmonia Mundi-BMG), many discs of works by Boccherini (BMG and Sony), as well as Dotzauer and Franchomme (Sony), and a number of performances on the rarely played cello piccolo. Mr Bylsma has also recorded extensively for Sony-Vivarte, both as a soloist and as a member of l'Archibudelli; among these are works by Mendelssohn, Mozart, Beethoven, Schubert and Bruckner, as well as Onslow, Michael Haydn, Gade, Spohr and Reicha. All these CDs have been extremely well received and have received many awards.
Anner Bylsma often takes time out of his busy performing schedule to give masterclasses at well-known institutions including the Paris Conservatory, the Berlin Hochschule and the Juilliard School in New York.
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Mark Kroll - Harpsichord
Mark Kroll has been acclaimed as one of the world's leading harpsichordists and fortepianists. During a career spanning three decades, he has performed throughout North and South America, Europe and the Middle East, winning critical praise for his expressive playing and virtuosity. He has also served as the harpsichordist for the Boston Symphony since 1979, and can be heard on the orchestra's recordings of Vivaldi's The Four Seasons with Seiji Ozawa and Joseph Silverstein.
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Robert Levin - Piano
The American pianist Robert Levin has given recitals, chamber concerts and appeared as a concerto soloist throughout Europe and the United States and has received worldwide acclaim for his many recordings. Equally at home at the fortepiano, he has appeared with the Orchestra of the 18th Century, the English Baroque Soloists, the Handel & Haydn Society and the Academy of Ancient Music, and with the London Classical Players. Levin is unique among today's pianists in his restoration of the Classical period practice of improvised embellishments and cadenzas.
A recognized Mozart scholar, Robert Levin´s completions of Mozart fragments have been published by Bärenreiter and Peters, recorded and performed throughout the world. His reconstruction of the Sinfonia Concertante for four wind instruments and orchestra, K. 297 B, was premièred by the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra at the Salzburg "Mozartwoche" and has subsequently been performed worldwide. In August 1991, his new version of the Mozart Requiem was premiered by Helmuth Rilling at the European Music Festival in Stuttgart to a standing ovation.
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Pieter Wispelwey - Cello
Wispelwey is one of the first of a generation of performers equally adept on either the 'authentic' or modern cello. His expert stylistic knowledge, original and profound musical thinking, augmented by a phenomenal technique enable him to render individual, yet remarkable interpretations of the cello repertoire.
Wispelwey is in keen demand as soloist. A typical review in Melbourne’s The Age reported: “To say Pieter Wispelwey’s music-making is ravishing is to utter an understatement of huge proportions….one of the world’s great cellists.” His career spans five continents with recital appearances in the Amsterdam and has recorded with the Netherlands Philharmonic Orchestra.
Future highlights include concertos with the BBC Symphony Orchestra, the Hallé Orchestra, the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment, Japan Philharmonic and a tour of the Far East and Australia with the Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchester as well as recitals in Paris, London, Amsterdam and Lisbon. Further engagements include return visits to the Edinburgh Festival and the Great Performers Series at the Lincoln Center, New York, following his successful debut at their Mostly Mozart Festival.
Pieter Wispelwey has made numerous award-winning recordings for the Channel Classics label.
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Deborah Thorne - Cello
Deborah Thorne studied at Clare College Cambridge, the Royal Academy of Music and Maastricht conservatorium. She has held positions in the Northern Sinfonia and at the RSAMD and now enjoys a varied life of performing and teaching on modern and baroque cello as a freelance player based in the north east.
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