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Robert Plane, clarinet

Robert Plane’s career as a solo and chamber clarinettist is rich and varied. Concerto appearances in Europe, Asia and North America have included performances of Mozart’s Clarinet Concerto in Madrid with the City of London Sinfonia, Beijing with the BBC National Orchestra of Wales and in the USA with the Virginia Symphony. A champion of new music as well as the classics, Rob is equally at home performing Christian Jost’s concerto ‘Heart of Darkness’ with the Dortmunder Philharmoniker and Simon Holt’s ‘Centauromachy’ at the 2011 BBC Proms as playing Finzi with the Zurich Chamber Orchestra, Stanford with the Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra and Copland with the London Mozart Players. He has given the world premieres of concertos by Judith Bingham, Diana Burrell, Piers Hellawell and Mark Boden.

Rob has tirelessly pursued a particular passion for British clarinet music in concert and on disc, his Gramophone Award-winning account of Finzi’s Concerto and Gramophone Award-shortlisted Bax Sonatas being just two of a large collection of recordings of works by the great English Romantics. He has performed and recorded with the Gould Piano Trio for thirty years, and their recording of Messiaen’s Quartet for the End of Time to mark the composer’s centenary was hailed by BBC Music Magazine as the ‘finest modern recording’ of this epic masterpiece. He also appears on the Goulds’ recorded cycles of Beethoven and Brahms Trios. They commissioned Huw Watkins to compose ‘Four Fables’ in 2018, in celebration of the twentieth anniversary of the Corbridge Chamber Music Festival which they direct together in Northumberland.

Rob has explored the clarinet quintet repertoire with a number of the finest string quartets, opening BBC Radio 3’s ‘Brahms Experience’ with a live broadcast from St. George’s Bristol of the Brahms Quintet with the Skampa Quartet. He enjoys a close relationship with the Elias String Quartet, making his debut at the 2023 Schubertiade Schwarzenberg with them in Brahms, and joining them at the Wigmore Hall for Brahms and Bliss. They will give the premiere of Judith Bingham’s new clarinet quintet at the 2024 Three Choirs Festival. He has given concerts in Germany and the USA with the Mandelring Quartet and at home in the UK with, amongst others, the Marmen, Castalian, Maggini, Brodsky, Carducci, Sacconi and Callino Quartets.

Rob is clarinettist of Ensemble 360 and enjoys exploring chamber music of all kinds with them at their home in the Crucible, Sheffield and country-wide. He is also a member of Trio Meister Raro alongside violist Rachel Roberts and pianist Tim Horton, performing a selection of acknowledged masterpieces and fascinating curiosities, with a particular focus on themes of storytelling and fantasy.

Rob has enjoyed a thirty-year long relationship with the Royal Over-Seas League since winning the competition’s Gold Medal in 1992, highlights of which have included a recital tour of New Zealand and a gala performance of Bruch’s Double Concerto with the Symphony Orchestra of Sri Lanka in Colombo as part of the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting.

Always keen to take on a challenge, Rob gave his first performance of Boulez’s epic ‘Dialogue de l’ombre double’ at the Belfast Sonorities Festival in 2018, a work he subsequently revived in Manchester’s Stoller Hall in 2019 and at Cardiff’s WhirlWinds Festival in 2022. Cross-discipline collaborations have included performances with leading South Asian dance specialist Mayuri Boonham. His delving into unjustly neglected works has unearthed concertos by Iain Hamilton, Ruth Gipps and Richard Walthew, which he subsequently recorded at Glasgow City Halls with the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra and Martyn Brabbins. The resulting disc, ‘Reawakened’, was released in July 2020 by Champs Hill Records.

In February 2023 Rob released a disc of chamber music by Pamela Harrison (the subject of an ongoing research project) on Resonus Classics with the Gould Piano Trio and other collaborators, which was given a special feature in Clarinet & Saxophone Magazine and selected as one of Gramophone Magazine’s “best new classical albums”. His recent solo album ‘Isotonic’ was released in July 2023, also on Resonus, and features four of his commissions from the past twenty-five years, including the clarinet concertos of Diana Burrell and Mark David Boden, recorded with the BBC Philharmonic. Releases in 2024 included ’Pierrot Portraits’ with Ensemble 360 and soprano Claire Booth as well as a second volume of the chamber music and songs of Pamela Harrison.

Rob was principal clarinet of the BBC National Orchestra of Wales for over twenty years and has held the same position with the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra and Royal Northern Sinfonia. In a distinguished orchestral career, he has performed as guest principal clarinet with the Chamber Orchestra of Europe, Concertgebouw Orchestra Amsterdam, London Symphony Orchestra and in Aurora Orchestra’s performances of Brahms Symphony no. 1 from memory. He was invited by composer James Newton Howard to be solo clarinettist for the score to the Disney film Maleficent. A respected teacher and educator, he holds the post of Head of Woodwind Performance at the Royal Welsh College of Music and Drama.

Graham Mitchell, bass

Graham is Principal Bass of ENO, the regular bassist with The Nash Ensemble and Head ofStrings at the Royal Academy of Music. He was a member of the Philharmonia Orchestra from 1998-2011 and works regularly with the Berlin Philharmonic and Chamber Orchestra of Europe. As a guest principal, Graham has led most of the orchestras in the UK including the London Symphony Orchestra.

Graham has performed and recorded over the years with many soloists and chamber ensembles including Anthony Marwood, James Crabb, Pekka Kuusisto and Imogen Cooper; the Florestan, Gould, and Kungsbacka Piano trios; and the Belcea, Navarra, Elias, and Takács quartets.

In 2007 Graham was invited by Steven Isserlis to perform at the IMS Prussia Cove Chamber Festival followed by a national tour and concert at Wigmore Hall. This resulted in IMS Prussia Cove winning the chamber prize at the prestigious Royal Philharmonic Society Awards. His recording of Schubert’s Trout Quintet with Paul Lewis and the Leopold String Trio was praised as ‘one of the finest modern Trouts available’ (The Sunday Times).

Graham plays on a 1750 double bass attributed to Testore. He is extremely thankful to the Stradivari Trust for their support.

Philip Higham, ‘cello

Born in Edinburgh, Philip studied with Ruth Beauchamp at St Mary’s Music School and subsequently at the RNCM with Emma Ferrand and Ralph Kirshbaum. He also enjoyed mentoring from Steven Isserlis. In 2008 he became the first UK cellist to win 1st Prize in the Bach Leipzig competition, and followed it with major prizes in 2009 Lutoslawski Competition, and the 2010 Grand Prix Emmanuel Feuermann in Berlin. He was selected for representation by Young Classical Artist Trust between 2009 and 2014.

He has appeared as soloist with the Philharmonia Orchestra, the Hallé Orchestra (broadcast by BBC Radio 3), the Royal Northern Sinfonia and Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra. He has given recitals at the Wigmore Hall, Brighton Festival and Lichfield Festival, and further afield in Germany, Istanbul and Washington DC. In 2014 he performed the complete Bach Suites in Tokyo at the Musashino Cultural Foundation, and again at Wigmore Hall in 2017.

Philip has been described as ‘possessing that rare combination of refined technique with subtle and expressive musicianship… all the qualities of a world-class artist’ (The Strad), and has been praised for his ‘expansive but tender playing’ (Gramophone). His debut recording of the Britten Solo Suites (Delphian, 2013) was named instrumental disc of the month in both Gramophone and BBC Music magazines. He has also recently released the complete Bach Suites, to critical acclaim.

Philip was appointed Principal Cello of the Scottish Chamber Orchestra in 2016. He plays a fine Milanese cello by Carlo Giuseppe Testore, made in 1697, and is grateful for continued support from Harriet’s Trust.

Alexander Janiczek, violin

Alexander is one of the most experienced concert masters in Europe. He started at an early age at Camerata Salzburg where he both conducted and performed. Since then he has appeared as a guest conductor with all the notable chamber orchestras in Europe. With the Chamber Orchestra of Europe he toured extensively throughout Europe and the Far East, built close musical collaborations with other leading artists such as Mitsuko Uchida, and conducted the COE, with great success, in a disc of Stravinsky’s Apollon Musagète and Pulcinella Suite.
In 2011, Alexander was appointed Associate Artist with the Scottish Chamber Orchestra. Today he is concertmaster of the Dresden Festival Orchestra, which plays romantic instruments, and, in addition to invitations from guest concertmasters of the Orchester des Champs Elysées, he regularly collaborates with the Orchestra of the Eighteenth Century.
Alexander Janiczek teaches violin at the Guildhall School of Music & Drama. He plays the ex-‘Sorkin’ Giuseppe Guarneri, del Gesù, Cremona 1731, who was loaned to him by the National Bank of Austria.

PAVEL HAAS QUARTET

Veronika Jarůšková, violin
Marek Zwiebel, violin
Šimon Truszka, viola
Peter Jarůšek, cello

The Pavel Haas Quartet is revered across the globe for its richness of timbre, infectious passion and intuitive rapport. Performing at the world’s most prestigious concert halls and having won five Gramophone Awards and numerous others for their recordings, the Quartet is firmly established as one of the world’s foremost chamber ensembles.

The Quartet appears at major venues including Wigmore Hall, London; Konzerthaus and Philharmonie, Berlin; Konzerthaus and Musikverein, Vienna; Elbphilharmonie, Hamburg; Concertgebouw and Muziekgebouw, Amsterdam; Tonhalle, Zürich; Théâtre de la Ville, Paris; Accademia di Santa Cecilia, Rome; BOZAR, Brussels; NCPA, Beijing; LG Arts Centre and Seoul Arts Center, Seoul and Carnegie Hall, New York. In celebration of its 20th anniversary, the Quartet was invited to be on the cover of The Strad’s June 2022 issue and was the featured interview in BBC Music Magazine . It was included in the latter magazine’s 10 greatest string quartet ensembles of all time and described as “stylistically powerful and richly sonorous, [and] known for its passionate and fearless performances”.

Highlights of the 24/25 season include a return to Carnegie Hall in celebration of the Year of Czech Music in 2024, where the Quartet will play in events alongside the Czech Philharmonic and Prague Philharmonic Choir. Furthermore, the Quartet returns to the Wigmore Hall for three concerts; Concertgebouw, Amsterdam; Liederhalle, Stuttgart and Musikverein für Steiermark, Graz. Festival appearances include: Rheingau Music Festival, Schubertiade, Bath Mozartfest and the Dvorák Prague Festival. In December 2024 and March 2025 the quartet will tour North America.

Since September 2022, the Pavel Haas Quartet has been Curator at the Dvořák Prague Festival where they curate chamber music concerts including programming all the Dvořák String Quartets over three seasons.

The Pavel Haas Quartet records exclusively for Supraphon. Their recent recording of the Brahms Viola and Piano Quintets with Boris Giltburg and their former member, Pavel Nikl, was released to critical acclaim in May 2022. The recording was described as “radiant and vivacious” by The Strad, and was Presto Classical’s Recording of the Week. For their previous album of Shostakovich String Quartets (2019), they received the Recording of the Year by Classic Prague Awards and were named one of the 100 best records of the year by The Times.

The Quartet received their five Gramophone Awards for their recordings of Dvořák, Smetana, Schubert, Janáček and Haas, as well as Dvořák’s String Quartets No.12 ‘American’ and No.13, for which they were awarded the most coveted prize, Gramophone Recording of the Year in 2011. The Sunday Times commented: “their account of the ‘American’ Quartet belongs alongside the greatest performances on disc.” Further accolades include BBC Music Magazine Awards and the Diapason d’Or de l’Année in 2010 for their recording of Prokofiev String Quartets Nos. 1 & 2.

Since winning the Paolo Borciani competition in Italy in 2005, further highlights early on in their career have included the nomination as ECHO Rising Stars in 2007, the participation in the BBC New Generation Artists scheme between 2007-2009 and the Special Ensemble Scholarship the Borletti-Buitoni Trust awarded to them in 2010. The Quartet is based in Prague and studied with the late Milan Skampa, the legendary violist of the Smetana Quartet. They take their name from the Czech-Jewish composer Pavel Haas (1899-1944) who was imprisoned at Theresienstadt in 1941 and was tragically killed at Auschwitz three years later. His legacy includes three wonderful string quartets.

SALLY BEAMISH, COMPOSER/VIOLA

Sally BeamishM OBE, FRSE was born in London. She began her career as a viola player with the Raphael Ensemble, Academy of St Martins and London Sinfonietta, before moving to Scotland in 1990 to focus on composition. She was appointed a fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh in 2015, and of the Royal Swedish Academy in 2022. In 2018 she won the Award for Inspiration at the British Composer Awards, and in 2020 was awarded an OBE in the Queen’s birthday honours.

She has written three major oratorios. Knotgrass Elegy (text by Donald Goodbrand Saunders) was premiered by the BBC Symphony Orchestra and chorus in the BBC Proms 2001, and has recently been named in BBC Music Magazine as one of the top 6 oratorios of the 20th and 21st century. Equal Voices (text by Sir Andrew Motion) was premiered by the LSO with Gianandrea Noseda in 2014. The Judas Passion (text by David Harsent) was commissioned by the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment and premiered in the UK and USA in 2018.

She is known for her many concertos for internationally-renowned soloists, including Branford Marsalis, Dame Evelyn Glennie, Håkan Hardenberger, Steven Isserlis and Tabea Zimmermann. Her harp concerto, Hive, was premiered at the BBC Proms in 2022, by Catrin Finch, with BBCNOW conducted by Ariane Matiakh, and shortlisted for a South Bank Sky Arts Award.

Her recent concerto, Distans, for violinist Janine Jansen and clarinettist Martin Fröst, was co-commissioned by the Concertgebouw, London Symphony Orchestra, Swedish Radio Symphony (who gave the premiere in 2021) and Oslo Philharmonic. It received its Dutch premiere in Amsterdam with the Concertgebouw conducted by Klaus Mäkelä in April 2023, and the London premiere at the Barbican will be in June 2024, with the LSO conducted by Gianandrea Noseda.​

​In June 2023 Roderick Williams performed her Four Songs from Hafez, with the Sinfonia of London conducted by John Wilson. Her third full-length ballet, A Christmas Carol, with choreographer Sir David Bintley, for Finnish National Ballet, received its premiere run in December 2023, to considerable critical acclaim.

She returned to performing in 2015, when her daughter, luthier Stephanie Irvine, made her a viola. Since then she has returned to live in England, and has performed regularly with chamber ensembles including Divertimenti, and as a guest with the Elias and Chilingirian quartets. She has performed at Musikdorf Ernen, in the Ryedale, Trondheim and Oxford Festivals, and in the Australian Festival of Chamber Music, amongst others, as well as giving solo recitals in London and Brighton.

Future commissioned works include a piano quartet and several concertos, and she was recently appointed Composer in Residence with the Yehudi Menuhin School, where she mentors composers and performs her works with staff and pupils. Her Partita for string octet will be included in the 2024 centenary celebrations of Sir Neville Marriner at Wigmore Hall, London, performed by the Academy of St Martin-in- the-Fields.

BELCEA STRING QUARTET

Corina Belcea, violin
Suyeon Kang, violin
Krzysztof Chorzelski, viola
Antoine Lederlin, cello

Passion, coupled with precision, unheard-of expressivity and pure emotion characterize the concerts of the Belcea Quartet. With the Romanian violinist Corina Belcea, the Korean-Australian Suyeon Kang on second violin, the Polish violist Krzysztof Chorzelski and the French cellist Antoine Lederlin, four different artistic provenances meet and unite to create unique excellence.
The ensemble’s repertoire spans Haydn, Mozart, Beethoven to Bartok, Janacek to Szymanowski. They also continue to introduce new works by current composers to the audience such as Julian Anderson (2024), Guillaume Connesson (2023), Joseph Phibbs (2018), Krzysztof Penderecki (2016), Thomas Larcher (2015) and Mark-Anthony Turnage (2014 & 2010). These commissioned works are created in association with the Belcea Quarte Trust, the quartet’s own foundation, whose aim is to continually broaden the string quartet literature as well as to support young quartets through concentrated joint coaching sessions. In this way they can also pass on to the next generation the experience they gained as students of the Amadeus & Alban Berg Quartet.
In addition to the complete recordings of the String Quartets by Bartók, Beethoven, Brahms (Diapason d’or de l’année 2016) and Britten, the quartet’s wide-ranging discography includes works by Berg, Dutilleux, Mozart, Schoenberg, Schubert, Shostakovich, Janáček & Ligeti (among others). In spring 2022, Alpha Classics released the two String Sextets by Brahms performed with Tabea Zimmermann and Jean-Guihen Queyras.
Their performances of all Beethoven String Quartets at the Konzerthaus Vienna in 2012 were released on DVD by EuroArts in 2014, followed by the release of a recording of Britten’s three String Quartets in 2015.
From 2017 to 2020, the quartet held the prestigious position of Ensemble in Residence at the Pierre Boulez Hall in Berlin. Since then, they have performed there regularly. In addition, the Belcea Quartet has been part of a shared String Quartet series at the Vienna Konzerthaus since 2010. The Quatuor Ébène has been the partner ensemble in this series since the 21/22 season.
Quartet concerts this season will take the Belcea Quartet to renowned venues such as the Stockholm Konserthus, the Wigmore Hall London, the Théâtre des Champs-Elysées and the Flagey in Brussels. A special highlight will be the octet tour with the Quatuor Ébène through North and South America, as well as Asia, where they will perform at Carnegie Hall in New York, NY, the Teatro Cultura Artística in São Paulo and the Grand Hall of the Lee Shau Kee Lecture Center in Hong Kong, among others.

MARK PADMORE, TENOR

Mark Padmore was born in London and studied at King’s College,
Cambridge. He has established an international career in opera,
concert and recital. His appearances in Bach Passions have gained
particular notice, especially his renowned performances as Evangelist
in the St Matthew and St John Passions with the Berlin Philharmonic
and Simon Rattle, staged by Peter Sellars.
This season Mark sings Evangelist in the St Matthew Passion with the
Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra and Simon Rattle and with the
Turku Philharmonic Orchestra; tours Japan appearing first at the Le
Pont International Music Festival, followed by a recital at Topan Hall
with the guitarist Yasuji Ohagi and ending the tour with performances
of Britten Nocturne with the Gunma Symphony Orchestra. He will also
sing the Nocturne in the current season with the BBC Scottish
Symphony Orchestra and Ryan Wigglesworth and the Freiburg
Chamber Orchestra while on the recital platform highlights include
Schubert Winterreise with Julius Drake for Temple Music as well as
with Till Fellner at the Innsbrucker Festwochen.
Recent highlights included Judith Weir’s In the Land of Uz at the
Worcester Three Choirs Festival; recitals, including performances in
Barcelona and Madrid with Julius Drake; Alicante with the Elias String
Quartet; the Muziekgebouw Amsterdam with Till Fellner; the Théâtre
de l’Athénée Paris with Julius Drake and Schubert Winterreise with
Mitsuko Uchida at Carnegie Hall New York, the Kimmel Center
Philadelphia and the University of California at Berkeley.
Following a residency at Wigmore Hall in the 2021/22 season where he
celebrated his relationship with pianists Till Fellner, Imogen Cooper,
Mitsuko Uchida and Paul Lewis he recently returned to sing Vaughan
Williams and Fauré with the Elias Quartet and James Baillieu.
Mark’s most recent opera appearance was at the Grand Théâtre de
Genève, singing the title role in a new production of Monteverdi Il
ritorno d’Ulisse in patria conducted by Fabio Biondi. Another highlight
was a new production of Britten’s Death in Venice at the Royal Opera
House, Covent Garden where his performance was described as a “tour
de force” and “exquisite of voice, [presenting] Aschenbach’s physical
and spiritual breakdown with extraordinary detail and insight”. Previous
roles have included Captain Vere in Britten Billy Budd and Evangelist in
a staging of St Matthew Passion for the Glyndebourne Festival, and
leading roles in Harrison Birtwistle The Corridor and The Cure at the
Aldeburgh Festival.
In concert Mark performs with the world’s leading orchestras. He was
Artist in Residence for the 2017/18 season with the Berlin Philharmonic
and held a similar position with the Bavarian Radio Symphony
Orchestra in 2016/17. His work with the Orchestra of the Age of
Enlightenment has involved projects exploring both the Bach St John
and St Matthew Passion without conductor which attracted worldwide
acclaim.

His extensive and award-winning discography includes Schumann
Dichterliebe with Kristian Bezuidenhout and Schubert song cycles with
Paul Lewis, both for Harmonia Mundi. Described by the New York
Times as “Schubert Masters” Mark Padmore and Mitsuko Uchida
recently embarked on a series of highly acclaimed, worldwide recitals
and this partnership has culminated in a recording on Decca Classics of
Schubert Schwanengesang and Beethoven An die ferne Geliebte.
Mark was Artistic Director of the St. Endellion Summer Music Festival
in Cornwall from 2012-2022, voted 2016 Vocalist of the Year by
Musical America and appointed CBE in the 2019 Queens’ Birthday
Honours List.

MARK COCKER

MARK COCKER is a multi-award-winning author of creative non-fiction, a naturalist and a writing tutor. He writes or broadcasts on nature in a variety of national media. He reviews for the Spectator and other publications. In 20245 he began his 39th continuous year as a country diarist for The Guardian and Guardian Weekly and has now written well over 1,000 articles for both papers.

His 13 books, covering works of biography, history, literary criticism and memoir, include Loneliness and Time (1992), Birders: Tales of a Tribe (2001), and Birds Britannica (2005). His environmental history Our Place (Cape, 2018) was shortlisted for the Thwaites Wainwright and the Richard Jefferies Prizes. The longest and most arduous of his projects, Birds and People (Cape, 2013), was published to international acclaim and was a collaboration with the photographer David Tipling. Between them his last four works have been shortlisted for nine awards. Crow Country was shortlisted for the Samuel Johnson Prize (2008) and won the New Angle Prize in 2009, while A Claxton Diary won the East Anglian Book of the Year Award (2019). Last year he published his most ambitious book One Midsummer’s Day: Swifts and the Story of Life on Earth (Cape), which came out in paperback in June 2024. It was recently shortlisted for the Richard Jefferies Prize. He has recently completed a new book On Seeing: Nature, yet to be placed with a publisher.

He received an honorary Doctorate of Literature from the University of East Anglia (2016), where he has placed his archive. He was awarded a Winston Churchill Travel Fellowship (1999) to study birds in magico-medicinal practices in Benin and Cameroon. He lives in Derbyshire on the street where he was born and is married to the arts professional Mary Muir, from whom he gets many of his best ideas! He has co-founded several environmental organisations, including the Oriental Bird Club and New Networks for Nature, and was on the founding council of the African Bird Club. Between them, the first and last have donated hundreds of thousands of pounds towards action for birds.

Should you wish to email, there is a contact form below the latest news tab above. He acts as a professional editor/consultant for other peoples’ writing. This service is administered exclusively by the wonderful Moniack Mhor writing centre in Scotland under their Made to Measure mentoring programme which is described here. He also teaches masterclasses in nature writing – at Broughton Hall, a major wilding project in Yorkshire as well as Shimpling Park a remarkable organic farm in mid. Suffolk.