SEASON SOLOISTS

• AILISH TYNAN  soprano

  Born in Ireland, Ailish Tynan received the BBC Cardiff Singer of the World Rosenblatt Recital Prize in 2003, was a Young Artist for the Royal Opera House and a BBC New Generation Artist.

   

  Her operatic engagements include Gretel Hänsel und Gretel (ROH, WNO and Scottish Opera); Tigrane Radamisto (ENO); Papagena Die Zauberflöte (Teatro alla Scala); Sophie Der Rosenkavalier (Royal Swedish Opera); Héro Béatrice et Bénédict (Houston Grand Opera) and Vixen The Cunning Little Vixen (Grange Park Opera).

   

  A prolific concert and recording artist, Ailish works frequently with British and international orchestras. Her recent concert highlights include Mahler Symphony No.2 (Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia); Mahler Symphony No. 4 (Prague Symphony Orchestra) and Handel Messiah (Academy of Ancient Music).

   

  In recital Ailish works regularly with pianist including Iain Burnside, Malcolm Martineau, Graham Johnson, Julius Drake, Roger Vignoles, Chris Glynn and James Baillieu, giving recitals extensively including the Wigmore Hall, Edinburgh, City of London, Cheltenham and West Cork Music Festivals.

   

  Recent and future engagements include Grace Williams’ Fairest of Stars at the BBC Proms (BBC National Orchestra of Wales); Handel Messiah (Royal Scottish National Orchestra); Mahler Symphony No. 2 (Royal Philharmonic Orchestra) and a return to the Royal Opera House for their 2015/16 season.

• DAME ANN MURRAY  mezzo soprano

  Ann Murray was born in Dublin and studied with Frederick Cox at the Royal Manchester College of Music. She has established close links with both the English National Opera, for whom she has sung the title roles in Handel's "Xerxes" and "Ariodante" and Donizetti’s “Maria Stuarda”, and with the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden, where her roles have included Cherubino, Dorabella, Donna Elvira, Rosina, Octavian, and new productions of "L'Enfant et les Sortilèges", "Ariadne auf Naxos", "Idomeneo", "Mitridate, Re di Ponto", "Cosi fan Tutte", "Mosé in Egitto", "Alcina" and "Giulio Cesare".

   

  Much sought after as a concert singer, she has sung with the Orchestre de Paris under Kubelik, the Philadelphia Orchestra under Sawallisch, the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra under Muti, the Chicago Symphony Orchestra under Solti, the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra under Haitink and in the Musikverein, Vienna under Sawallisch and Harnoncourt.  She sings in Great Britain with the leading orchestras, at the BBC Promenade Concerts (where she has sung at both the First and Last Nights of the Proms) and at the major festivals.

   

  Ann Murray's recital appearances have taken her to Paris, Brussels, Amsterdam, Geneva, Dresden, Zurich, Frankfurt, Madrid, London, Dublin, the Aldeburgh, Edinburgh, Munich and Salzburg Festivals and both the Konzerthaus and Musikverein in Vienna. Her discography reflects not only her broad concert and recital repertoire but also many of her great operatic roles, including Purcell's Dido under Harnoncourt, Dorabella under Levine, Cherubino under Muti, Hansel under Colin Davis, Sextus under Harnoncourt and Donna Elvira under Solti.

   

  Her operatic engagements have taken her to Hamburg, Dresden, Brussels, Paris, Berlin, Cologne, Zurich, Amsterdam, the Chicago Lyric Opera and the Metropolitan Opera, New York. At La Scala, Milan her roles have included Donna Elvira, Sextus, Dorabella and Cherubino under Muti.  For the Bavarian State Opera, Munich she has sung Cherubino, Dorabella, Sextus, Elvira, the Composer, Octavian, Xerxes, Ariodante, Giulio Cesare and Rinaldo; at the Vienna State Opera Idamantes, Cherubino, Charlotte, Rosina, Octavian and the Composer; and at the Salzburg Festival Cecilio and Sextus under Cambreling, La Cenerentola under Chailly, Nicklausse and Cherubino under Levine, Dorabella and Donna Elvira under Muti and Octavian under Maazel.

   

  Recent opera engagements have included return visits to English National Opera ( “Pilgrim’s Progress”, “The Turn of the Screw”), Welsh National Opera (Countess, “Pique Dame”), the Royal Opera ( “Hansel und Gretel”, “Le nozze di Figaro”, “La Fille du Regiment”), the Opera de Paris (“Le nozze di Figaro”), the Metropolitan Opera, New York (“Le nozze di Figaro”, “La Fille du Regiment”), the  Glyndebourne Festival (“Le nozze di Figaro) and her debut with Los Angeles Opera (“The Turn of the Screw”).  She returns to the Salzburg Festival and the Royal Opera for “Le nozze di Figaro” and performs in “The Turn of the Screw” at the Deutsche Staatsoper, Berlin.

   

  In 1997 Ann Murray was made an Honorary Doctor of Music by the National University of Ireland, in 1998 she was made a Kammersängerin of the Bavarian State Opera and in 1999 an Honorary Fellow of the Royal Academy of Music. In the 2002 Golden Jubilee Queen’s Birthday Honours she was appointed an honorary Dame Commander of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire.  In 2004 she was awarded the Bavarian Order of Merit.

   

• GEORGE CLIFFORD  violin & concertmaster

  George Clifford is a versatile musician, equally at home playing the organ and conducting the choir at his local parish church in East Grinstead, singing bass, tenor and alto in choirs around the UK and playing Indian film music on the electric violin as he is playing historical violins and violas.  George began life as a modern violinist, studying with Igor Petrushevski at the Royal Academy of Music (RAM) in London.  During his undergraduate course he was offered the opportunity to take up baroque violin as a second study and jumped at the chance, having loved historically informed performances of baroque and classical music from an early age.  Under the guidance of Simon Standage, George discovered exciting new repertoire and possibilities. He went on to study baroque and classical violin full time with Matthew Truscott, leader of the OAE, and completed a Master of Arts degree with Distinction in 2011.  George was awarded the prestigious DipRAM for an outstanding final recital.

   

  During his studies at the RAM, George received guidance and coaching from Rachel Podger, Margaret Faultless, Kati Debretzeni, Nicolette Moonen, Lisa Beznosiuk, Jed Wentz, Daniël Brüggen, Peter Holtslag, Laurence Cummings, Terence Charlston, Paula Chateauneuf and Elizabeth Kenny. He has also worked with directors and conductors including Sir John Eliot Gardiner, Trevor Pinnock, the Late Sir Charles Mackerras, Jane Glover, Edward Higginbottom and John Butt. George took part in the RAM/Kohn Foundation Bach Cantata series from its inception in 2009, playing 2-3 cantatas once a month under Iain Ledingham.  Other musicians George has worked with include Charles Hazelwood, Richard Egarr, Steven Devine, Robert Levin, Pavlo Beznosiuk, Mark Padmore, Mark Deller and Neil Jenkins and he has played with ensembles including the OAE, the Academy of Ancient Music, the Gabrieli Consort & Players, the Dunedin Consort, the Hanover Band, the International Baroque Players, New Century Baroque, Charivari Agréable, Oxford Baroque, Brecon Baroque, The Amadè Players, Poeticall Musicke, The Regent’s Soloists, Britten-Pears Baroque Orchestra and La Nuova Musica.

   

  In 2011 George was selected as a participant in the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment’s apprenticeship scheme, the ‘Ann and Peter Law OAE Experience for young players’ on both violin and viola. In May 2012 George gave the modern London Première of Vivaldi’s Sonata RV.815 for violin and basso continuo, which had been recently rediscovered at the Foundling Museum in London, and in October, gave the broadcast Première live on BBC Radio 3 and made the Première recording of the work. George’s debut album ‘Ravishing Sweetenesse’ was released in December 2013 with the record label Veterum Musica, featuring solo violin music by Baltzar, Biber, Westhoff, Telemann and Pisendel. George also features on many of Veterum Musica’s other albums with the ensemble Poeticall Musicke, which can be downloaded free at Veterum Musica.

   

• ANNA DRYSDALE  natural horn

  As a freelance natural horn player, Anna has appeared with the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment, Florilegium and Yorkshire Baroque Soloists. She plays regularly with period wind ensemble Boxwood and Brass, who explore exciting and virtuosic wind music from the 1700s and 1800s. Other ensemble experience includes Ars Eloquentiae, Dartington Baroque Orchestra, the Elia Ensemble, Jeune Orchestre Atlantique and the Academy of Ancient Music's AAMplify Orchestra.

   

  She studied from 2010 to 2014 at the Royal College of Music, where her natural horn teachers were Sue Dent and Roger Montgomery. She left with a First, having won the Richard III Prize in the Early Music Competition and been a Concerto Competition finalist. She has recently moved on to complete her masters studies at the Royal Academy of Music with Martin Owen, Katy Woolley, Michael Thompson and Roger Montgomery, supported by Help Musicians UK, the Countess of Munster Trust, the Richard Merewether Award and the Women's Careers Foundation.

   

  As well as the natural horn, Anna is a busy modern horn player. In the past year, she has won both horn competitions at the Academy, receiving both the Bob Paxman and Dennis Brain Horn Prizes. She is currently a member of both the European Union Youth Orchestra and the Gustav Mahler Jugendorchester, has worked as an extra with the Philharmonisches Orchester Giessen and has been selected for London Sinfonietta Academy. She will be appearing as a soloist at this year's British Horn Society day.

   

  Anna's solo debut with The Amadè Players was in 2013, and she is excited to be returning to play Mozart Horn Concerto K495 with the orchestra in the 2015 season. Anna has been principal horn with The Amadè Players since 2013.

   

  She plays on a Jungwirth Lausmann, purchased with the help of the Wolfson Foundation, the Macfarlane Walker Trust and the EMI Music Sound Foundation.

• POPPY WALSHAW  violoncello

  Cellist Poppy Walshaw is active as a soloist, chamber musician, and continuo player on period and modern instruments. She works regularly with leading Early Music orchestras such as the English Baroque Soloists, Orchestre Révolutionnaire et Romantique, The English Concert, Academy of Ancient Music, Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment, Dunedin Consort and Arcangelo. Poppy read Music and Natural Sciences at Cambridge University then studied with Alexander Baillie in Bremen, Germany, gaining her postgraduate diploma with the highest possible mark. She was subsequently a Continuo Scholar at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama with Alison McGillivray and Louise Hopkins.

   

  She now works throughout Europe and is in demand as a soloist, with recent and forthcoming recitals in Holland and Germany. She has performed solo concertos with Arte dei Suonatori in Poland and with Fiori Musicali, La Serenissima and the International Baroque Players at festivals throughout the UK. Forthcoming performances include Monn concerto at St John’s Smith Square, and CPE Bach A minor concerto with Fiori Musicali.

   

  Poppy has performed as continuo cellist of the English Baroque Soloists for Sir John Eliot Gardiner on several occasions, including at the Metropolitan Museum in New York and to HRH Prince Charles, the latter with the Monteverdi Choir and also performing a solo sonata. She has been principal cellist of St James’ Baroque Players in Westminster Abbey for many high-profile events, notably the main Handel Death day and Purcell anniversary concerts in 2009, broadcast Europe-wide by BBC Radio 3. Currently she is continuo cellist for several orchestras throughout Europe: Oslo Baroque Orchestra, Arte dei Suonatori, Fiori Musicali, and Le Chardon (Germany, concertmaster Simon Standage/Pauline Nobes).

   

  Her other continuo activities have included for the English Concert, Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment, Early Opera Company, Irish Baroque Orchestra, Classical Opera Company, Les Ambassadeurs, and European Union Baroque Orchestra.

   

  Poppy regularly collaborates with renowned violinist Simon Standage in several chamber ensembles: as a member of fortepiano trio The Music Collection, for Collegium Musicum 90, and for recordings of Viotti quartets, Haydn trios, and most recently Hummel and Schubert Trout quintets for Chandos. Her many orchestral CD recordings include with The English Concert, Orchestre Révolutionnaire et Romantique, Early Opera Company, Gabrieli Consort and Players, and Arte dei Suonatori.

   

  Performances on the viola da gamba include at the National Theatre for Jonathan Miller’s production of the Matthew Passion, and as a soloist for Brandenburg concertos with the Academy of Ancient Music in China and Australia.

   

  Poppy is also an Alexander Technique teacher, certified by STAT in 2012, and is an assistant Alexander teacher at the Royal College of Music and Arts Ed drama school.

• REBECCA RAMSEY  soprano

  Rebecca Ramsey is an active soloist and ensemble singer, performing repertoire from the 12th to the 21st Century. She has performed at the internationally renowned Edinburgh and Salzburg Festivals, with groups including the Monteverdi Choir, Jonathan Cohen with Arcangelo, Ludus Baroque, Echoris, the Syred Consort and Blossom Street.  Rebecca graduated with an MMus from Trinity Laban in 2011 and completed the Morley College opera course in 2013 where she had the privilege of working with, among others, directors Dr Jonathan Miller, Joe Austin, John La Bouchardière, and Mike Ashman, conductor Ian Page of the Classical Opera Company and Soprano Dame Anne Evans.

   

  Operatic and Oratorio highlights include: Belinda (Dido and Aeneas); La Musica (L’Orfeo) with Amadé Players; Almirena (Rinaldo) with Nicholas Kraemer and Harry Fehr; Deceit (The Triumph of Time and Truth) with Paul Goodwin, Mozart Great C Minor Mass with St Paul’s Knightsbridge Festival Chorus, Haydn Missa Sancti Nicolai and Handel Ode for St Cecilia’s Day with Wessex Baroque and Monteverdi Vespers 1610 with Greenwich Baroque Orchestra.

   

  Opera scenes have included: Susanna (Le Nozze di Figaro), Titania (Midsummer Night’s Dream) and Gretel (Hänsel und Gretel), Poppea (L'incoronazione di Poppea), Ilia (Idomeneo), Tina (Miss Fortune) and Bird (Blonde Eckbert).

   

  Rebecca is also passionate about music education, teaching privately, and working with ensembles specialising in multi-discipline arts projects involving education, participation and performance in schools, universities and the wider community.

• KATIE HOLMES  violin

  Since graduating from the Royal Academy of Music with a Bachelors Degree in modern violin and viola, followed by a Masters Degree in Historical Performance, Katie has quickly become much sought-after as a string-player. She is a member of La Serenissima, the UK's leading exponents of the music of Vivaldi, Arcangelo, one of the world’s leading ensembles made up of musicians who excel on both historical and modern instruments, and is one of the leaders of the Apollo Baroque Consort, specialising in seventeenth and eighteenth century music, as well as playing for the Amadè Players.

   

  During her Masters Degree at the Academy, Katie studied with Simon Standage and Maggie Faultless, was a winner of the Early Music Prize in 2013 and was Commended in the Mica Comberti Bach Prize. She was selected to be a part of the Gresham lecture-recital series with Christopher Hogwood, as well as being invited to play in the RAM/Köhn Foundation Bach Cantata Series, directed by Masaki Suzuki, Maggie Faultless, Rachel Podger and Madeline Easton. She was also part of the Academy Baroque Ensemble which, in 2014, toured with Rachel Podger culminating in concerts at Wigmore Hall and the Tivoli Gardens, Copenhagen.

   

  As a modern player, Katie has played with the Royal Northern Sinfonia and was a member of the Southbank Sinfonia, with whom she performed as one of the soloists in Mozart's Sinfonia Concertante. She now freelances for a wide variety of ensembles which have included leading performances of West Side Story and Donezetti's L'elisir d'amore.

• DOMINIKA FEHÉR  violin

  Dominika Fehér was born in Hungary and since moving to the UK has become a sought after freelance violinist in London, as a soloist, concertmaster and orchestra player.

   

  After completing her Masters degree at the Franz Liszt Academy, Budapest in 2011, Dominika picked up the baroque violin and studied historical performance at Birmingham Conservatoire under the tutelage of Margaret Faultless, Lucy Russell and Oliver Webber. She was a member of the European Union Baroque Orchestra in 2012 and was Principal 2nd violin with Devon Baroque for their 2013/2014 season. She has appeared on the BBC, including several live radio broadcasts and has recorded with the Wallfisch Band.

   

  Dominika enjoys a versatile career: performing on the ‘modern’ violin as Principal/Co-Principal second violin with the Orchestra of the Swan, educational work with the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment and Spitalfields Music as well as teaching the violin privately.

   

  With The Amadè Players, Dominika has held the Principal second violin chair since moving to London, and recently performed the present double concerto at St John’s Smith Square, as well as in a live broadcast for BBC Radio 3’s ‘In Tune’ programme with Sean Rafferty.

   

• OLWEN FOULKES  recorder

  Recorder player Olwen Foulkes is the current Christopher Hogwood Scholar at the Royal Academy of Music where she is studying at postgraduate level with Pamela Thorby and Anna Stegmann.
  
  

  Olwen has performed in Bach cantata series with the Sinfonia of St. John’s, Cambridge (directed by Maggie Faultless), Oxford Baroque Soloists, and in the Kohn Foundation series at the Royal Academy of Music. Olwen has recently performed as a concerto soloist with Music For Awhile, 21st Century Baroque, the Amadè Players, and Belfast Baroque, and she is looking forward to her solo concerto debut at St. John Smith’s Square in 2016. Other appearances include dates with Musica Poetica, Hampstead Garden Opera, Amadè Players, and the RAM Baroque Orchestra, and chamber recitals in various UK venues including the Greenwich International Early Music Festival in 2014. Olwen is excited to begin a series of events at Handel House Museum having been selected for the 2015-16 Handel House Talent Scheme.
  
  

  Olwen studied in Stockholm with Dan Laurin during 2014-15 and her approach to sound and expression have been hugely inspired and developed through his guidance. Olwen previously studied under Peter Holtslag (RAM 2011-2013), and Peter Robinson (Junior Department, Trinity Laban 2004-2010), and she has been very fortunate to play in masterclasses for Daniël Brüggen, Jorge Isaac, Erik Bosgraaf, and Piers Adams. She graduated from the Royal Academy of Music in 2014 with a first class honours degree and as a recipient of four awards.
  
  

  Olwen is hugely grateful for the financial assistance that Help Musicians UK have granted her under the Emerging Artists scheme as this has made her postgraduate studies possible. She would also like to thank the Walter Bergmann Trust, EMI Sound Foundation, Loan Fund for Musical Instruments, and the Wolfson fund for the support that they have so kindly given towards instrument purchase.
  
  

  Also a baroque violinist, Olwen has performed in the Kohn Foundation Bach series, under the baton of Stephen Layton with the Orchestra of Polyphony, for a live broadcast on BBC Radio 3 ‘In Tune with the Amadè Players, under the direction of the late Christopher Hogwood in the Gresham Lecture series at Spitalfields, with the Cambridge University Collegium Musicum, and in various concerts with the RAM Baroque Orchestra.

   

   

• CHARLOTTE EZAZ  soprano

  Soprano Charlotte Ezaz makes her professional debut with The Amadè Players in the 2015-2016 season.  Currently studying history and English at Mansfield College, University of Oxford, Charlotte has performed the roles of Gianetta (The Gondoliers, Sullivan) and Eurydice (Orpheus in the Underworld, Offenbach).

   

  Charlotte has spent much of the past few years travelling the world – teaching in France, exploring India by motorbike and discovering much about herself. This is portrayed in her musical performance, with a  maturity that belies her age – Charlotte’s debut comes after she was  heard performing as the soprano soloist in Fauré’s Requiem by Nicholas Newland.

   

  We are delighted to be welcoming Charlotte as a soloist in our Enlightenment programme for the Bloomsbury Festival, and she will join us again for March 2016’s International Women’s Day programme at St John’s Smith Square.