Conductor Timothy Reynish
Conductor Timothy Reynish has recently been appointed to the prestigious staff of the International Chamber Music Studio at the Royal Northern College of Music.
In the nineties he emerged as one of the leading conductors of wind bands and wind ensembles in the world, and in the past few years he has conducted many of the principal professional bands in Asia, Europe, North and South America; these include civilian bands such as Dallas Wind Symphony, State of São Paulo Symphonic Band, Brazil, Volga Wind Orchestra of Saratov, Russia, Cordoba Symphonic Band, Argentina, Philharmonic Winds, Singapore, and leading military bands including the "President's Own" US Marine Band, Staff Band of the Norwegian Army, US Military Academy West Point, Singapore Armed Forces Band, Croatian Army Symphonic Wind Orchestra Zagreb, Hungarian Army Symphonic Band Budapest, Royal Military School of Music, Kneller Hall, and the Band of the Royal Marines, Portsmouth.
He comes to the wind world via a thorough grounding in orchestral music and opera, having studied horn with Aubrey Brain and Frank Probyn and been a member of the National Youth Orchestra for six years. He was a music scholar at Cambridge, working under Raymond Leppard and Sir David Willcocks and held principal horn positions with the Northern Sinfonia, Sadler's Wells Opera (now ENO) and the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra. At Birmingham in the seventies, he founded the Birmingham Sinfonietta from members of the CBSO and gave a series of contemporary concerts; he regularly directed the London Contemporary Players and was Guest Conductor with the Amsterdam Sinfonia.
His conducting studies were on short courses with George Hurst at Canford Summer School, Sir Charles Groves and Sir Adrian Boult, with Dean Dixon in Hilversum and Franco Ferrara in Accademia Musicale Chigiana in Siena, where he won the Diploma of Merit.
A prize winner in the Mitropoulos International Conducting Competition in New York, he has conducted concerts with the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra, the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra, the Hallé Orchestra, the BBC Regional Orchestras and the London Symphony Orchestra as well as in Norway, Holland and Germany, and opera in Sweden.
For many years he was Principal Conductor with the Merseyside Youth Orchestra and staff conductor with the National Youth Orchestra of Great Britain. Artists with whom he has worked include James Galway, Melinda Maxwell, Gervase de Peyer, Frank Lloyd, John Wallace, Joe Alessi, Evelyn Glennie, Andrew Watkinson, Alexander Baillie, Colin Carr, Julian Lloyd Webber, Jane Manning, Christine Rice, John Tomlinson, Martin Roscoe, Peter Donohoe. To find out more about Dr Tim Reynish please visit his website.
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Conductor Andrew Bassey
Conductor Andrew Bassey started Northamptonshire Orchestral Winds(Main or Advanced Wind Orchestra) in October 2005, with only nine players. Within 8 months the numbers grew to over 30 and the band was able to put on an inaugural concert tour of Northamptonshire culminating in NOWs first commercially recorded CD, entitled ‘Celebration’. NOW was invited to perform in a showcase concert at the London International Wind Band Festival on 1st July 2006, and as a result of that was invited to perform in Carnegie Hall in New York. NOW went on its New York tour in March 2008 and performed ‘L’homme Arme’ (Christopher Marshall), ‘Schindler’s List’ (Williams/Custer), and ‘Dances from Crete’ (Adam Gorb) to much excitement from the thousand strong Carnegie Hall audience.
Andrew began his first starters/beginner band class in 2007 and after many more beginner classes (with some players coming on stream without going to beginner classes), this has culminated in 2 more community wind orchestras. Andrew is still keen to expand.
Andrew Bassey is a professionally trained musician and teacher with over 25 years experience.
Andrew came to Northampton in 1997 to take up a woodwind post with the Northamptonshire’s award winning Music Service NMPAS, having just returned from nearly 3 years as principal bassoon in 2 South African orchestras. Andrew studied at the Royal Northern College of Music and graduated in 1983. He was not from a musical family, in fact he was brought up on a poor council estate in Manchester, and musical instrument tuition was not available at his local junior school. However, Andrew started his musical training at the age of six in the Salvation Army on a cornet (a brass instrument like the trumpet), becoming a regular soloist at the age of nine. Andrew went on to learn to a high level all the instruments of the brass band by the time he was twelve. He took up the bassoon at 16 and within 6 months Andrew was principal bassoon in the Manchester Youth Orchestra, reaching grade 8 standard and performing Weber’s Bassoon Concerto within one year of starting.
Andrew had an absorbing interest in all musical instruments and while at college completed an ‘Art of Teaching All Woodwind Instruments’ course for all woodwind instruments, each instrument was taught by top college professors.
Andrew also took up conducting at the RNCM studying with Timothy Reynish and Sir Charles Groves. Later he studied orchestral conducting with George Hurst at Canford, and again twice on the wind band conductors course also at Canford Summer School.
After leaving college Andrew continued to freelance on the bassoon in professional Orchestras, like BBC Philharmonic, Halle, Northern Sinfonia, Northern Ballet, Opera North, Manchester Camerata, and Manchester Sinfonia, until he took up full time positions as principal bassoon in the South African Chamber Orchestra (Mmabatho) in 1994, and in the Performing Arts Council of the Orange Free State (PACOFS in Bloemfontein) in 1995.
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Trumpet Soloist
Steve Waterman
Steve began his career while studying at Trinity College Of Music, and since then has worked regularly on the British and International jazz scene.
He has recorded 7 critically acclaimed CDs under his own name featuring many original compositions and arrangements:
BUDDY BOLDEN BLEW IT [MST 0056]
NIGHT LIGHTS [MST 0050]
OUR DELIGHT [MST 0041]
OCTOBER ARRIVAL [HYDRO CD03]
STABLEMATES [MST CD0035]
OUT OF TOUCH [ASC CD32]
DESTINATION UNKNOWN [ASC CD4]
Steve has co -written with John ONeil a highly acclaimed Jazz Trumpet tutor book -
THE JAZZ METHOD FOR TRUMPET published by Schott & Co.
He is also professor of Jazz Trumpet at Trinity College of Music in London, visiting Jazz Trumpet specialist at The Royal Northern College Of Music and The Purcell School. Steve also teaches on many summer jazz courses and has conducted numerous Trumpet master classes and workshops ranging in size from small groups to big bands throughout the UK, Spain, Finland, Latvia, Germany, Peru, U.S.A, Russia, South Africa and Cuba.
Geneva Instruments
We are very grateful for the generous support and sponsorship of Geneva Instruments with which this part of the course would not be possible. These trumpets are of the very best quality and NOW Summer Course trumpeters will have the opportunity to peruse what Geneva Instruments have on offer.
Rod Franks writes ‘‘A superb trumpet made in Great Britain by Geneva Instruments which I am proud to be involved in the development of and is truly representative of Great Britsh design and engineering. My new trumpet has already been used on the soundtracks of two blockbuster films – the last Harry Potter movie and Thor.
It is so easy to play in all registers, has lots of musical colours and you have so many options as to how it looks and sounds. I’m thrilled with it, and after 22 years helping Yamaha, I have told Tim Oldroyd at Geneva that I think I know how to compete with the big trumpet makers and my students at the Royal Academy of Music in London think it’s a superb instrument and it’s a dead cert to fly off the shelves because of its look, sound and competitive price.
My colleagues in the LSO in many sections have commented on its sound as well as the great conductors Gergiev and Haitink – that’s good enough for me. Watch out Yamaha and Bach...... there is a new kid on the block!’’
Please visit Geneva Instruments' website.
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Ben Palmer
Conductor
Ben Palmer is the musical director of the Orchestra of St Paul's, the Bartholdy Chamber Orchestra, Stamford Chamber Orchestra and Barnet Youth Wind Orchestra. Throughout the 2011/12 season he will act as assistant conductor to Sir Roger Norrington, working with the Stuttgart Radio Symphony Orchestra, Zurich Chamber Orchestra, the Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester Berlin and the Zurich Tonhalle Orchestra. He has conducted Britten Sinfonia and Birmingham Contemporary Music Group, and is regularly invited to work with some of the UK’s finest amateur orchestras. He makes regular appearances at the Southbank Centre and St John’s, Smith Square, and in 2010 made his debut at the Royal Albert Hall.
2011/12 will see performances with the Orchestra of St Paul's at Purcell Room, St John’s, Smith Square and LSO St Luke’s, and a double-bill of Pierrot lunaire and Façade at the Barber Institute of Fine Arts in Birmingham. Ben will make his debut at St George’s Bristol with Brandon Hill Chamber Orchestra, and will return to conduct Birmingham University Symphony Orchestra in a programme including Stravinsky’s Symphony in C.
Ben is in great demand as a choral conductor, and is musical director of The Syred Consort, Woking Choral Society, Kingston Orpheus Choir and South West Essex Choir. Recent repertoire includes Verdi Requiem, The Dream of Gerontius, Israel in Egypt and Bach’s St John Passion, Christmas Oratorio and Mass in B minor. Forthcoming performances include Bach’s St Matthew Passion, Orff’s Carmina Burana and Tippett’s A Child of Our Time. His opera work includes productions of Le nozze di Figaro,Così fan tutte, Die Zauberflöte, Ravel’s L’enfant et les sortilèges, Dido and Aeneas and Die Fledermaus.
Recent highlights include the Lambert Piano Concerto with David Owen Norris (the opening concert of the 2011 English Music Festival), Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony and Mahler songs with Roderick Williams at St John’s, Smith Square, and, with the Wolsey Orchestra, the first large-scale symphonic concert to take place in The Apex, the new concert hall in Bury St Edmunds.
A trumpeter and composer by training, Ben studied music at the University of Birmingham, graduating with first class honours in 2003. He stayed on at Birmingham to complete an MPhil in composition with Vic Hoyland, before moving to London in 2005 to study at the Royal Academy of Music with Simon Bainbridge. Ben has conducted orchestral concerts throughout the UK and in China, Germany, Hungary, Italy, Poland and the Seychelles.
Plans for 2012/13 include his debut at the Queen Elizabeth Hall and returns to Purcell Room and St John’s, Smith Square, all with the Orchestra of St Paul's, and a second invitation to conduct the Ipswich-based Wolsey Orchestra. It is Ben’s lifetime ambition to conduct all the Haydn symphonies. www.benpalmer.net
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Martin Ellerby
Composer
Martin Ellerby is a composer of international standing, whose works have been performed, broadcast and recorded to critical acclaim across Europe, Asia and the USA. His catalogue comprises compositions spanning a diverse range of media, including orchestral, choral, concert band, brass band, ballet, instrumental and chamber, together with a substantial number of commercial orchestrations and arrangements.
Ellerby’s works are published extensively and recorded on over 75 commercial CDs to date. Key performances include the BBC Promenade Concerts, Leipzig Gewandhaus, Barbican Centre, Royal Albert Hall, South Bank Centre and many major international festivals, including Edinburgh, Harrogate, Zurich and Kuhmo Chamber Music (Finland).
Martin combines a busy schedule as a professional composer with work in education, where he is currently Visiting Professor (with responsibility for curriculum design) at the Royal Air Force: Headquarters Music Services. He is also Artistic Director for Studio Music Company, London and Senior Producer for Polyphonic Recordings.
In his previous post as Head of Composition and Contemporary Music at the London College of Music and Media, Martin was responsible for the co-ordination and development of a high profile department of over 50 composition students at undergraduate and postgraduate levels. He instigated and designed four specialist composition programs at Masters level, while also preparing a range of detailed undergraduate syllabuses. Martin contributed to the artistic focus of the school by being proactive in overseeing the inclusion of a substantial number of student works in concert programmes, hosting a range of Composers’ Festivals and organising frequent workshops and specialist composers’ concerts.
Click here for more about Martin.
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