Blog Archives
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.
CASTALIAN STRING QUARTET
Sini Simonen, violin
Daniel Roberts, violin
Natalie Loughran, viola
Steffan Morris, cello
The Castalian String Quartet is taking the international chamber music scene by storm. Gaining renown for interpretations “full of poetry, joy and sorrow, realised to such perfection” (The Observer), they have recently been announced as the first Hans Keller String Quartet in Residence at the University of Oxford.
Formed in 2011, the quartet studied with Oliver Wille at the Hochschule für Musik, Hannover, before being selected by the Young Classical Artists Trust (YCAT) in 2016. They were awarded First Prize at the 2015 Lyon International Chamber Music Competition and in 2018 were recipients of the inaugural Merito String Quartet Award and Valentin Erben Prize, and a prestigious Borletti-Buitoni Trust Fellowship. The ensemble was named Young Artist of the Year at the 2019 Royal Philharmonic Society Awards.
Recent debuts include New York’s Carnegie Hall, the Berlin Philharmonie, Vienna Konzerthaus, Hamburg’s Elbphilharmonie, Paris Philharmonie and the Concertgebouw in Amsterdam. The Castalian String Quartet performs frequently at the Wigmore Hall in its home city of London. In 2018 they recorded Haydn’s Op.76 quartets for the Wigmore Live label and were joined by pianists Stephen Hough and Cédric Tiberghien, violist Isabel Charisius and clarinetist Michaels Collins for a Brahms and Schumann series in the 2019-20 season. Their next Wigmore Hall cycle will feature all three quartets by Benjamin Britten. The quartet often appears at festivals such as Spoleto USA, Aldeburgh, North Norfolk, Cheltenham, East Neuk, Lockenhaus and Heidelberger Frühling. Recent and upcoming premieres include works by Charlotte Bray, Edmund Finnis, Mark Simpson, Simon Rowland-Jones and Sir Mark-Anthony Turnage.
The Castalian String Quartet’s 2022 release Between Two Words (Delphian Records), presenting music by Orlando di Lasso, Thomas Adès, Ludwig van Beethoven and John Dowland, was given a double five-star review as BBC Music Magazine’s ‘Album of the Month’: “this outstanding disc offers listeners a true philosophical journey…a series of intricately connected works, each performed with rare beauty and originality by a quartet at the height of its powers…[the Heiliger Dankgesang from Beethoven Op.132] is nothing short of a revelation in its lucidity of line and sheer beauty of sound.”
The quartet’s name is derived from the Castalian Spring in the ancient city of Delphi. According to Greek mythology, the nymph Castalia transformed herself into a fountain to evade Apollo’s pursuit, thus creating a source of poetic inspiration for all who drink from her waters. Committed to inspiring a diverse audience for classical music, the Castalians have performed everywhere from the great concert halls to maximum security prisons and even the Colombian rainforest. When not on stage, Finnish first violinist Sini Simonen bags Munros, American violist Natalie Loughran makes a mean cocktail and the Welshmen, second violinist Daniel Roberts and cellist Steffan Morris, get overly emotional about rugby.
ELIAS STRING QUARTET
The Elias String Quartet is celebrated for its deep musical understanding and bold performances, which have earned the ensemble an international following and frequent tours across Europe and the US. Their ability to convey profound musical meaning, especially across entire quartet cycles, has made them a fixture in the world’s most prestigious concert halls and festivals.
Since their rise to prominence as BBC Radio 3 New Generation Artists in 2009, the quartet has made Wigmore Hall a second home, having completed cycles there of Beethoven, Schumann, and Mendelssohn. Their innovative Beethoven Project, in which they shared their research and insights on the composer’s complete string quartets online, demonstrated their commitment to both musical excellence and audience engagement, with performances at eleven different venues across the UK, including Wigmore Hall.
They are regular visitors to prestigious festivals around the world, with recent visits to Schubertiade, Rheingau Musik Festival and Bal y Gay Festival, and they perform in the world’s great chamber venues, including Carnegie Hall, Library of Congress, Vienna’s Musikverein, Berlin Konzerthaus and Amsterdam’s Concertgebouw. They recently toured the US and Canada with a complete Beethoven quartet cycle, before taking it to Suntory Hall, Tokyo. This season’s highlights include a Mendelssohn programme at the Oslo Quartet Series and visits to Norwich Chamber Music and Turner Sims.
The players are keen advocates of contemporary music. Last season they gave the world premiere of Judith Bingham’s Clarinet Quintet at the Three Choirs Festival and have commissioned many works from composers such as Emily Howard, Sally Beamish, Colin Matthews and Timo Andres. They also enjoy collaborations with chamber music partners such as Leon Fleisher, Robert Plane, Michael Collins, Joan Rogers and Mark Padmore, and the, Jerusalem and Vertavo quartets.
As articulate representatives for classical music, the players are often invited to perform and discuss music on radio and have appeared on BBC TV’s Newsnight programme. They are committed to coaching the next generation of chamber musicians, teaching at the Royal Northern College of Music, where they themselves met and formed in 1998. They also studied at the Hochschule in Cologne with the Alban Berg Quartet. Other mentors included Peter Cropper, Hugh Maguire, György Kurtág, Gábor Takács-Nagy, Henri Dutilleux and Rainer Schmidt.
The Elias String Quartet’s discography includes Schumann and Dvořák piano quintets with Jonathan Biss (Onyx), French harp music with Sandrine Chatron (Ambroisie), Alexander Goehr’s Piano Quintet with Daniel Becker (Meridian), Britten quartets (Sonimage), Mendelssohn (ASV Gold) and the complete Beethoven quartets (Wigmore Hall Live).
JOSEPH MIDDLETON, PIANO
Joseph Middleton is Director of Leeds Lieder, Musician-in-Residence at Pembroke College Cambridge and a Professor and Fellow at his alma mater, the Royal Academy of Music.
The 24/25 season sees Joseph partner artists including Veronique Gens, Sir Simon Keenlyside, Ian Bostridge, Dame Sarah Connolly, Masabane Cecilia Rangwanasha, Huw Montague Rendall, Roderick Williams, Florian Boesch, Christoph Prégardien, Carolyn Sampson and James Newby in recital. With Louise Alder and Mauro Peter he performs Wolf’s Italienisches Liederbuch in Wigmore Hall, Frankfurt Oper, Vienna Musikverein, Barcelona, Leeds and Cambridge. To celebrate the launch of Fatma Said’s new Lied Album for Warner records he accompanies her in a tour across Europe that includes the Wigmore Hall, Hamburg Elbphilharmonie, Paris Louvre, Linz, Oslo, Munich, Aix-en-Provence and Hanover. Joseph also returns to the Berlin BoulezSaal and Schubertiade Schwarzenberg with Sophie Rennert and his recording projects include an ongoing 5-album set of Mahler Lieder for Signum Records and Wolf Lieder for BIS Records
In recent seasons, Joseph has appeared at London’s Wigmore Hall, Royal Opera House and Royal Festival Hall, the Vienna Konzerthaus, Amsterdam Concertgebouw and Muziekgebouw, Köln Philharmonie, Strasbourg, Frankfurt, Lille and Gothenburg Opera houses, Berlin Boulez Saal, Paris Musée d’Orsay, Zürich Tonhalle, deSingel Antwerp, Luxembourg Philharmonie, Bozar Brussels, Tokyo’s Oji Hall and New York’s Alice Tully Hall. He regularly appears at festivals in Aix-en-Provence, Aldeburgh, Edinburgh, Munich, Schubertiade Schwarzenberg and Hohenems, Stuttgart, Frankfurt, Ravinia, Japan, San Francisco, Toronto and Vancouver as well as the BBC Proms.
Joseph enjoys partnerships with many internationally-established singers. In 2023/24 he returned to the Life Victoria Festival Barcelona – where he was the 22/23 Artist-in-Residence – with Miah Persson and Dame Sarah Connolly. Further appearances with Dame Sarah included performances in Seville, Amsterdam, and at the Wigmore Hall. He joined Sir Simon Keenlyside in Cambridge; Louise Alder in Vienna and London; Fatma Said in Vienna, Dortmund, Amsterdam, and at London’s Barbican Centre; Carolyn Sampson in Amsterdam, Zeist and London; and Katharina Konradi at the Schubertiade in Schwarzenberg, Vilabertran and at the Wigmore Hall where he also partners Iestyn Davies, Nicky Spence, Mary Bevan, James Newby, Ashley Riches, and Ruby Hughes.
His fast-growing discography on Harmonia Mundi, BIS, Chandos and Signum Records have won him a Diapason D’or, Edison Award, Prix Caecilia as well as numerous Gramophone and BBC Music Magazine Award nominations.
JAMES NEWBY, BARITONE
James Newby is a former BBC New Generation Artist and Rising Star of the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment. As well as a 2022 BBT Award winner, he was an ECHO Rising Star (2022/23) with appearances at major concert halls throughout Europe.
A recipient of the Richard Tauber Prize for best interpretation of a Schubert Lied at the 2015 Wigmore Hall/Kohn International Song Competition, James has since enjoyed a close relationship with the Hall. Appearances there include Mahler Rückert-Lieder in 2023 with Mitsuko Uchida as part of BBT’s 20th anniversary celebrations, Die schöne Müllerin with Simon Lepper and a mixed programme of Dowland, Schubert, Wolf and Liszt with Joseph
Middleton.
A member of the Ensemble of the Staatsoper Hannover from 2019 to 2022 he garnered particular praise for his debut as Eddy in Mark-Anthony Turnage’s Greek. Other important role debuts in Hannover included Guglielmo Così fan tutte and the title role in Eugene Onegin. James has since appeared at Opéra national du Rhin; Theater an der Wien; made his Garsington Opera debut in 2024 as Demetrius in A Midsummer Night’s Dream and returned to Hannover, as a guest, for Eugene Onegin. This season James will appear as Demetrius A Midsummer Night’s Dream at Opera North and at Opéra de Lausanne in a Laurent Pelly production, as well as Guglielmo for Norwegian National Opera, making his house debut in all three venues. The 2024/25 season also includes an important new commission for baritone by Michael Zev Gordon with the Britten Sinfonia; The Poet in Otto Ketting’s Ithaka Symphony for solo baritone with the Netherlands Radio Philharmonic Orchestra; and recitals at the Oxford Song Festival, Concertgebouw Amsterdam and the National Concert Hall, Dublin. Past concert performances include Haydn The Creation with the Slovenian Philharmonic Orchestra conducted by Bart Van Reyn; Handel’s Messiah with Harry Christophers and The Sixteen; Berlioz with the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra and Mozart with the London Philharmonic Orchestra. He has also performed baroque repertoire with conductors David Bates, Jonathan Cohen and John Butt and toured in Europe with the Orchestra of the Eighteenth Century.
Recordings remain an important part of his schedule and his 2020 debut solo album I Wonder as I Wander (BIS) with pianist Joseph Middleton met with worldwide acclaim and was awarded the Diapason d’Or Découverte.
James studies with Robert Dean.
SERGIO PIRES, CLARINET
Sérgio Fernandes Pires is widely recognized as one of the most dynamic and accomplished clarinetists of his generation, regularly captivating audiences worldwide as a Soloist, Chamber Musician, and Orchestral Player.
Since 2016, Sérgio has served as the Solo Clarinetist with the Winterthur MusikKollegium in Switzerland and, as of 2023, holds the esteemed position of Principal Clarinetist with the prestigious London Symphony Orchestra.
Renowned for his solo performances, Sérgio Pires has performed as a soloist with distinguished orchestras including the London Symphony Orchestra, Bremen Philharmonic (Germany), Berliner Symphoniker, Basel Symphony Orchestra, Chamber Orchestra Basel (Switzerland), Sinfonieorchester Wupperthal, Musikkollegium Winterthur, among others, in concert halls such as Berliner Philharmonie, Tonhalle Zürich and Konzerthaus Berlin. His repertoire spans from the classics of Mozart and Weber to more modern works by Nielsen, Veress and Penderecki Notably, he has garnered numerous accolades, winning over a dozen prizes in esteemed international competitions such as the Cluj International Clarinet Competition (First Prize, 2017) and the Concorso Internazionale Marco Fiorindo (First Prize, 2012).
Sérgio’s artistry is further showcased through his extensive discography, featuring collaborations with renowned artists and labels including BIS, MDG, Genuin, and Avi. His recordings have received widespread acclaim from music critics globally.
A sought-after chamber musician, Sérgio Pires has performed alongside luminaries such as Heinz Holliger, Emmanuel Pahud, Emmanuel Ceysson, Krzysztof Chorzelski and Radovan Vlatkovic.
Additionally, he has made significant contributions to music education, having taught (2019-2023) at the Universidade do Minho, Portugal, and currently serving as an Assistant Teacher at the Hochschule für Musik der Stadt Basel, François Benda’s clarinet class. Sérgio’s pedagogical outreach extends internationally through masterclasses and educational videos that have more than 30.000 views, reaching a diverse global audience.
With a rich orchestral background, Sérgio Pires has been an active participant in esteemed orchestras from a young age, including the European Union Youth Orchestra and the Gustav Mahler Jugendorchester. He has collaborated with renowned ensembles worldwide, including the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra and Tonkünstler Orchestra.
Born in 1995, Sérgio began his musical journey at the age of 8 and pursued his education at the Academia de Música Valentim Moreira de Sá in Guimarães, with Vitor Matos, before completing his Master’s degree in Performance-Soloist with distinction at the Hochschule für Musik der Stadt Basel under François Benda’s tutelage.
An esteemed artist endorsed by Henry Selmer and Silverstein Works, Sérgio Pires is also a scholar of the Mozartgesellschaft Dortmund, Germany.
DIYANG MEI, VIOLA
It was thanks to his grandfather’s love of music that Diyang Mei started playing the violin when he was five. At the age of ten, he switched to the viola at the suggestion of Shaowu Wang, with whom he studied at the Central Conservatory in Beijing, and immediately fell in love with the instrument’s dark and mysterious sound. It was also at this time that he saw a television documentary about Herbert von Karajan and the Berliner Philharmoniker. From that moment on, he dreamed of becoming part of this orchestra. In 2014, the musician continued his training in Germany – first at the University of Music and Performing Arts Munich under Hariolf Schlichtig, and later under Nobuko Imai at the Kronberg Academy. In addition to several other competitions, the violist won first prize at the ARD International Music Competition in 2018. The following year, Diyang Mei was offered the position of principal violist with the Munich Philharmonic. In 2022 he joined the Berliner Philharmoniker in the same position.
Diyang Mei also performs as a soloist with the Symphonieorchester des Bayerischen Rundfunks, the SWR Symphonieorchester Stuttgart, the Konzerthausorchester Berlin, the Scottish Chamber Orchestra and the Shanghai Symphony Orchestra, among others. His chamber music partners include András Schiff, Ana Chumachenco, Sabine Meyer and Christoph Prégardien. The musician’s favourite pastimes include cooking, reading, cycling and watching films.
His instrument by Antonio Mariani from 1646 is made available to him from a private collection.
ANDREW MANZE, CONDUCTOR
Andrew Manze is widely celebrated as one of the most stimulating and inspirational conductors of his generation. His extensive and scholarly knowledge of the repertoire, together with his boundless energy and warmth, mark him out. He held the position of Chief Conductor of the NDR Radiophilharmonie in Hannover from 2014 until 2023. Since 2018, he has been Principal Guest Conductor of the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra. In April, he was appointed Principal Guest Conductor of the Scottish Chamber Orchestra, starting from September 2024.
Manze’s time as Chief Conductor in Hannover saw him lead the orchestra in highly successful tours to China in 2016 and 2019, as well as a return to Japan in 2022. Manze and the orchestra made a major series of award-winning recordings for Pentatone, focused on the works of Mendelssohn and Mozart. The first recording in the Mendelssohn series won the Preis der Deutschen Schallplatten Kritik. Manze has also recorded a cycle of the complete Vaughan Williams symphonies with the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra for Onyx Classics to critical acclaim.
In great demand as a guest conductor across the globe, Manze has long-standing relationships with many leading orchestras, including the Royal Concertgebouworkest, the Munich Philharmonic, Rotterdam Philharmonic, Royal Stockholm Philharmonic, Bamberg Symphoniker, Oslo Philharmonic, Finnish Radio, Mozarteum Orchester Salzburg, Chamber Orchestra of Europe, RSB Berlin, and the Dresden Philharmonic among others. In the 24/25 season, Manze will also make debuts with the Toronto Symphony Orchestra and the Orchestre Symphonique de Montréal, and return to the Hallé Orchestra, the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra, and the Salzburg Festival.
In North America, Manze has been a regular guest at the Mostly Mozart Festival in New York City, and in recent seasons has conducted the Boston Symphony, New York and Los Angeles Philharmonics. The 22/23 season saw Manze makes his operatic debut with the Bayerische Staatsoper in Munich, conducting performances of Purcell’s “Dido and Aeneas” alongside Schoenberg’s “Erwartung”. Other highlights of recent seasons include debuts with the Vienna Symphony Orchestra, the London Philharmonic and Swedish Radio Orchestras.
From 2006 to 2014, Manze was Principal Conductor and Artistic Director of the Helsingborg Symphony Orchestra. During this time he made a number of recordings with them including Beethoven Eroica (Harmonia Mundi) and a cycle of Brahms symphonies (CPO). He was also Principal Guest Conductor of the Norwegian Radio Symphony Orchestra from 2008 to 2011, and held the title of Associate Guest Conductor of the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra for four seasons.
After reading Classics at Cambridge University, Manze studied the violin and rapidly became a leading specialist in the world of historical performance practice. He became Associate Director of the Academy of Ancient Music in 1996, and then Artistic Director of the English Concert from 2003 to 2007. As a violinist, Manze released an astonishing variety of recordings, many of them award-winning.
Manze is a Fellow of the Royal Academy of Music, Visiting Professor at the Oslo Academy, and has contributed to new editions of sonatas and concerti by Bach and Mozart, published by Bärenreiter, Breitkopf and Härtel. He also teaches, writes about, and edits music, as well as broadcasting regularly on radio and television. In November 2011 Andrew Manze received the prestigious ‘Rolf Schock Prize’ in Stockholm.
