'Ambitious, intelligent programming... A young ensemble with bags of promise.'
The Times
Concertos from Bach to 2015
two newly commissioned concertos by Hamish Brown and Will Handysides
as well as JS Bach's legendary 2nd Brandenburg Concerto
with a grand total of five amazing young soloists
14th August 2015
"I was blown away by Candy Nebula. It was so moving and evocative and the flute playing and inclusion of voices was amazing."
Audience member
For our next performance we took the Concerto genre (where a soloist or soloists play alongside a larger group of players) as a topic to explore. Spanning a range of almost 300 years we miss out a lot of romantic concertos that survive as the most famous examples of the genre (e.g. Mendelssohn,Rachmaninoff, Elgar and Grieg) so this concert might have shown a side to the concerto that is genuinely unfamiliar to you. Certainly stylistically we covered a lot of ground during this afternoon concert:
Furiously syncopated funk rhythms are the veins of 'Candy Comet', the 2nd movment of Hamish Brown's Candy Nebula, premiered here by flautist Jaymee Coonjobeeharry. The 3rd movement, entitled 'Spiral Galaxy' wouldn't be out of place in a late Miles Davis album! The final movement of Hamish's piece 'Sprint' is a lively, hammering groove which asks Jaymee to improvise over a string accompaniment in one section - who knows what might happen! Did I mention you can expect to hear an Electric Rhodes Piano and a jazz drum kit?
The other newly commisioned work in our programme couldn't be more disimilar! The cool, spacious, spectral images of Will Handysides's Concerto for Natural Trumpet and Harpsichord feel calculated yet natural: contemplating something completely natural and sold without spin. We're priviledged to have trumpeter Christopher Hart joining us for the premiere, performing on the very rare and fiendishly difficult natural trumpet in F.
To round off the concert we all came together to play Johann Sebastian Bach's Brandenburg Concerto No. 2 to end with a tried and tested flourish. The concept of Concertos seemed to be a ideal excuse to show off some fantastic soloists and composers and we were very lucky to have seven talented young musicians joining us; they were...
Makoto Nakata, violin
Makoto recently graduated from St. Catherine’s College, Oxford with a First-Class Honours in Music. She will be continuing her studies at the Royal Academy of Music from September. She began violin lessons at the age of five and gained a place at the Junior Department of the Royal College of Music two years later where she was the recipient of numerous awards. Makoto was awarded first prize in the Oxford Philomusica Concerto 2013 competition performing the Korngold Violin Concerto.
Makoto's professional orchestral engagements include performing with the Oxford Philomusica in numerous concerts under their Apprenticeship scheme and performing with The Aurora Orchestra at a BBC prom. She also won a place on the LSO String Academy in 2014 and was awarded their Candide Award for Outstanding performance. Makoto is very grateful to be the current holder of the Worshipful Company of Musicians’ Busenhart Morgan Evans Award.
Amy Roberts, oboe
Amy Roberts has recently graduated from the Joint Course between the Royal Northern College of Music and the University of Manchester studying oboe with Jonathan Small and baroque oboe with Tony Robson. In concerts she has recently played with the BBC Philharmonic, Hallé and Mahler Chamber Orchestras both in the UK and abroad.
She recently won the 2015 RNCM Concerto Competition and in September she will start her MA at The Royal Academy of Music in London with Chris Cowie and Melanie Ragge, supported by the Countess of Munster Musical Trust and the Dorothy Grinstead Memorial Fund.
Miriam Nerval, treble recorder
Miriam studied with Ian Wilson, Robert Ehrlich and Pamela Thorby at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama. Recent performance highlights include appearing as a soloist with the English Chamber Orchestra and ‘The Recorder of London’ featuring Simon Callow at the Old Bailey.
She is the first recorder player to be named BBC Music Magazine’s Rising Star: Great Artist of Tomorrow and was asked by Classic FM to give a recorder lesson to Top Gear’s James May. She is grateful for the support she receives as an award winner with the City Music Foundation and Help Musicians UK.
Hamish Brown, composer
Hamish was born in 1993 and grew up in Marlborough, Wiltshire. He is currently studying at the Royal College of Music for an MPerf in Piano Accompaniment with Simon Lepper and Roger Vignoles, and previously read music at the University of Manchester, graduating with first class honours. He has gained DipABRSM and LRSM diplomas, both with distinction, in 2010 and 2012 respectively.
Hamish is a composer and arranger of many chamber and solo works. He has studied composition with Richard Whalley, Camden Reeves and Kevin Malone, and his music has been performed by Vaganza, the Quatuor Danel, and at the New Music North West Festival in 2012 and 2013.
Will Handysides, composer
Composer Will Handysides is interested in meditative, non-climactic forms. His music unfolds slowly and is contemplative, focussing on stasis and hypnotic repetition. Notable collaborators include Composers Ensemble, Bit20 Ensemble, Onyx Brass, Trondheim Sinfonietta, and Tête-à -Tête; conductors Gerry Cornelius and Nicholas Cleobury; and venues St. John’s Smith Square, Grieghallen and Riverside Studios.
Will received First Class Honours from Trinity Laban Conservatoire of Music and Dance. He won the TCM Silver Medal for Composition in 2014. He studied at Griegakademiet in Bergen, Norway; and with Detlev Glanert on the Dartington Advanced Composition Course 2012 (thanks to Michael Tippett Foundation).
Jaymee Coonjobeeharry, flute
As a Scholar of the Royal College of Music, Jaymee Coonjobeeharry is in his first year studying for a Master of Performance degree, generously supported by a Help Musicians UK Leggett Award and the Countess of Munster Musical Trust, taught by Paul Edmund-Davies and Daniel Pailthorpe. Jaymee graduated from Hertford College, Oxford in 2015 with a First Class Masters in Chemistry. Whilst at Oxford he learnt the flute with Michael Cox and Robert Manasse and played principal flute in the University Orchestra and University Sinfonietta. A growing interest in jazz led him to become Musical Director of the Oxford University Jazz Orchestra, and he now plays with the National Youth Jazz Orchestra. As a concerto soloist, his recent performances include Ibert's Flute Concerto with the Zeitgeist Chamber Orchestra. Previously, Jaymee studied at the Royal College of Music Junior Department for 8 years with Margaret Ogonovsky and in 2006 Jaymee received a Gold Bursary from the ABRSM for gaining the highest mark in Grade 8 that year.
Christopher Hart, trumpet
Chris is entering the second year of his Master of Arts degree at the Royal Academy of Music, London. At the Academy last year Chris won the John Solomon Brass Prize and Worshipful Company of Musicians Brass Ensemble Prize. Before coming to London Chris studied at RWCMD in Cardiff, and graduated with First Class Honours.
Chris is an active freelance musician currently trialling the position of Principal Trumpet with the Royal Scottish National Orchestra and the Orchestra of Scottish Opera, as an extra player with the LPO, RPO, BBC NOW (Cardiff) and WNO and has given recitals at the Lantern (Colston Hall) and at the Ribchester Festival. Chris is generously supported by The Countess of Munster Musical Trust, Help Musicians UK, the Greenbank Charitable Trust and the Leverhulme Trust.