Simon Grant studied singing at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama and began his career as a member of the BBC Singers. He sang with the Swingle Singers for several years, acting as their musical director upon Ward Swingle’s retirement. This vocal octet was able to dispense with its rhythm section when it was discovered that Simon could provide a simultaneous rhythm and bass line vocally. He appeared in a TV commercial for Honda, and for T-mobile, enabling him to show off his extensive extended vocal techniques! His vocal ‘special effects’ were used in Hollywood for the 2007 Academy Awards, when he helped recreate vocally the soundtracks to famous scenes from movies such as Jaws (the shark approaching!), Brief Encounter (a departing train) and Psycho (murder in the shower). He can whistle and hum at the same time, an unusual talent he has demonstrated on numerous television and radio programmes worldwide, including Radio 4’s ‘Pick of the Week’. As Simon’s daughter, Eleanor, shares this talent they were both recently invited to be guests on ‘The Whistling Woman’ (BBC Radio 4). Simon’s whistling can be heard on several film soundtracks including ‘Shiner’, ‘Two Brothers’, ‘Shrek’, ‘Wallace and Gromit – Curse of the Were-Rabbit’ and ‘Surf’s Up’. Simon has arranged and written for numerous singers and vocal groups and was the musical director and arranger for a special Christmas episode of ‘The Bill’ (ITV).

Simon’s rich bass-baritone voice is much in demand, particularly in the field of Mediaeval and Baroque music. He has worked with the Gabrieli and New London Consorts and sang for many years as a member of The Scholars (quartet) and the Consort of Musicke, performing throughout Europe, Japan, Australia and the USA. His many solo recordings include Monteverdi’s Vespers (with the New London Consort), Bach Magnificat (Andrew Parrott) and Charpentier’s Te Deum and missa ‘assumpta est maria’ (Ivor Bolton / St James’s Baroque Players). He has recorded John Blow’s Venus and Adonis, Matthew Locke’s Psyche (Envy and Bacchus) and Monteverdi’s Orfeo (Caronte) and recorded The Play of Daniel (Balthasar) with the Dufay Collective. He played Caronte in a production of Peri’s Orfeo at the Drottningholms Slottsteater in Stockholm and has performed Blow’s Venus and Adonis at Shakespeare’s Globe Theatre in London. Concerts include Bach’s B minor mass in Italy and Germany, St John Passion (Jesus) in Israel, St Matthew Passion in Spain, Handel’s Acis & Galatea (Polypheme) in Budapest and Mozart’s Requiem in London with the London Mozart Players. He sang the role of Caronte to great critical acclaim in a staged production of Monteverdi’s Orfeo at the Queen Elizabeth Hall. He has since sung the role in Beijing, USA, Warsaw, Rotterdam and Jerusalem as well as major festivals throughout the UK. Simon appeared in the New London Consort’s staged version of Purcell’s The Fairy Queen in London and Budapest. He toured Europe in Purcell’s King Arthur as well as performing The Tempest in Paris and Prague.

Simon Grant’s involvement in contemporary music has lead to appearances with the Matrix Ensemble, Electric Phoenix (founder member), Ensemble Modern, Tenebrae, Singcircle and Synergy Vocals. He has performed the music of Luciano Berio at venues such as Carnegie Hall and the Lincoln Centre,  New York, the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion (Los Angeles) and La Scala, Milan. He has sung the part of the Father in Kurt Weill’s Seven Deadly Sins many times, most recently in 2016 with the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra (Glasgow City Halls). He was the soloist in the world premiere of Where two worlds touch (by Helen Chadwick & Howard Moody) at the Salisbury Festival UK.

Simon Blendis enjoys an international career as a chamber musician, soloist and orchestral leader. He was the violinist with the Schubert Ensemble for 23 years, from 1995 until it finished in 2018. With the Ensemble he performed over 1000 concerts in over thirty different countries, recorded over twenty CDs, made frequent broadcasts for BBC Radio 3, and created an extensive library of live performances on YouTube which is still available. He now regularly collaborates as a chamber musician in festivals and with other notable artists.

Simon has been leader of the London Mozart Players since 2014 and is in constant demand as a guest leader. Last season he guest-led the LSO, RPO, Halle, Royal Northern Sinfonia and BBC Philharmonic, and guest-directed the Academy of St. Martin in the Fields and the Scottish Ensemble. He has also shared the position of first concertmaster with Orchestra Ensemble Kanazawa in Japan since 1999, with whom he has recorded Vivaldi’s Four Seasons for the Warner Japan label.

A keen exponent of new music, Simon has had works for solo violin written for him by, amongst others, Tansy Davies, Stuart Macrae, John Woolrich and jazz legend Dave Brubeck, and new violin concertos by David Knotts and Jeff Moore.

Simon is a professor of violin at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama.

Links:

www.simonblendis.com

www.schubertensemble.com

© Aga Tomaszek

Violinist Thomas Gould has forged a distinguished career as a soloist, leader and director.  With a fluency across a number of different genres, Thomas has become a highly sought after collaborator, raising the bar for versatility on his instrument.

His studies at the Royal Academy of Music were followed by solo representation by YCAT (Young Classical Artists Trust), appointments as leader of Aurora and Britten Sinfonia, and membership of the chamber ensembles Artea Quartet and Man Overboard Quintet.  In 2014 Thomas signed an album deal with Edition Classics, and his début album Live in Riga (a live recording of Beethoven’s Violin Concerto) was released a year later to great acclaim.

Gould has performed as soloist with almost all of the major UK orchestras as well as ones in Australia, Denmark, France, Kazakhstan, Kosovo, Latvia, the Netherlands, Russia, Switzerland and the United States.  He has given more than twenty performances of Vaughan Williams’s The Lark Ascending with the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra at London’s Royal Albert Hall.  At the same time he has developed a reputation as a committed interpreter of contemporary works, working with many leading living composers including Michel van der Aa, Thomas Adès, Johannes Berauer, Mark Bowden, Dai Fujikura, Keaton Henson, Gavin Higgins, Jóhann Jóhannsson, James MacMillan, Nico Muhly, Max Richter and John Woolrich.

In recital Thomas has performed with pianists Alasdair Beatson, Ivana Gavric, Joanna MacGregor, John Reid, Gwilym Simcock and Ana-Maria Vera, with accordionist Ksenija Sidorova, cellists Adrian Brendel and Philip Higham, and harpsichordists Patrick Ayrton and Mahan Esfahani.  With the Artea Quartet he has recorded discs of Mendelssohn and Schubert, and with the swing band Man Overboard Quintet two albums, all on Champs Hill Records.

Thomas joined Britten Sinfonia as co-leader in 2006, becoming one of its leaders in 2016. He regularly directs projects from the violin, and has been engaged as a guest director with Sinfonietta Riga, Kölner Kammerorchester, ACO Collective, European Union Youth Orchestra, Cambridge University Chamber Orchestra and Southbank Sinfonia.

Thomas’s interest in jazz stems from his school days and early studies in piano and drums.  He enjoys long-term collaborations with Tim Garland and Gwilym Simcock, and has appeared at the London Jazz Festival and many of the UK’s premier jazz venues and festivals.  In 2017/18 he curated a four-concert series at London’s Kings Place called the Gould Standard.  Thomas been lucky enough to tour or record with Burt Bacharach, Jacob Collier, Jaga Jazzist, Brad Mehldau and Marius Neset.

A more recent strand to Gould’s career is baroque violin.  He is the regular leader of La Nuova Musica with whom he recently recorded an album called Handel’s Unsung Heroes comprising a selection of Handel opera arias featuring virtuosic violin solos.

Highlights of his 2021/22 season include performances of Beethoven and Django Bates with Orchestra of the Swan, Piazzolla with Royal Tunbridge Wells Symphony Orchestra, recitals with Yulia Chaplina and a return to Dartington International Summer School to give concerts and masterclasses.

Thomas plays on a violin made by Giovanni Battista Guadagnini in 1782.

Jessica is a violinist with a persuasive portfolio career combining performing, teaching, seminar presenting, mentoring string teachers and writing violin tutor books.

She is Principal 2^nd violin with OSJ, regularly plays with the Royal Opera House and was a member of the Academy of St. Martin in the Fields.

Passionate about music education, she is Head of Strings at a London Independent School, string consultant and examiner for ABRSM and regularly presents seminars to teachers in the UK and Asia. Her articles are published in international music magazines and her violin tutor books – Best of Grade (1-5), 80 Grade studies (1-5 and 6-8) are published by Faber. Violin and Viola Basics are part of her most recent beginner string method series and are co-authored with Paul Harris. Cello and double-bass Basics will be released in consultation with specialists later in 2021.

She has performed in a variety of venues including Carnegie and Wigmore Halls, Sydney and Royal Opera Houses as well as pop arenas in London and Dubai. She gained a post-graduate scholarship to the Royal Academy of Music with the Amadeus string quartet and was recently made an Associate (ARAM) in recognition of her services to music.

Since her first appearance in a festival at the age of five Cally has been committed to the festival movement and has pursued a career as a speech and drama specialist.  She was the principal of her Buckinghamshire based drama studio for more than 20 years, combining that role with travelling extensively in the UK, Europe and Internationally as an examiner for LAMDA and as an adjudicator.  Cally also delivers workshops on all aspects of communication and performance.  She is a Speech & Drama Representative on the Adjudicators Council of the British and International Federation of Festivals and a former Chairman of the Society of Teachers of Speech and Drama.

Cally believes that performing in festivals not only encourages an appreciation of the arts but also develops the communication and presentation skills so important in today’s world.  Cally is delighted to be returning to adjudicate the Speech & Drama classes at the North London Festival in 2020 and wishes everyone an enjoyable as well as a positive experience.

© Jennie Caldwell

Internationally renowned harpist and composer Catrin Finch is one of the most accomplished harpists of her generation, and has been delighting audiences with her performances across the UK and worldwide, since the age of five.

She started her studies in Wales with Elinor Bennett, achieving the highest mark in the UK for her Grade 8 ABRSM exam at the tender age of nine, and then went on to study at The Purcell School and the Royal Academy of Music with Skaila Kanga, graduating with the Queens Commendation for Excellence in 2002.

In 2000 she had the honour of reviving the ancient tradition of Royal Harpist to H.R.H, the Prince of Wales, a position she held until 2004, which was last held during Queen Victoria’s reign in 1873.

Since then, she has performed extensively throughout the USA, South America, the Middle East, Asia, Australia and Europe, both as a soloist, and appearing with many of the world’s top orchestras.

She has recorded for most of the major international recording companies, including Universal Records, Deutsche Grammophon, EMI and Sony Classical.

Showing her versatility in different musical genres, in 2013 Catrin collaborated with Senegalese kora player Seckou Keita on an album entitled ‘Clychau Dibon’, which won the 2014 Critics Poll Album of the Year fRoots and Best Cross-Cultural Collaboration in Songlines magazine, and two BBC Radio 2 Folk Award Nominations. This successful collaboration continues to this day, with their second album, SOAR, releasing in April 2018 to huge critical acclaim and 5* reviews for their live shows in both The Guardian and The London Evening Standard, and winning fRoots Critics Poll Album of The Year 2018, Songlines Awards Best Fusion Album 2019, The Transglobal World Music Charts Best Transregional Album 2018 and ‘Best Group’ in the 2019 BBC Radio 2 Folk Awards. They have performed extensively throughout the UK, Europe, Australasia and North America, including at festivals such as WOMAD, Shambala, Sfinks, Hay Festival and Lorient Interceltique Festival.

Known for her work within the community and with the younger generation, Catrin is committed to promoting the harp and classical music through her now successful annual Academi Catrin Finch Academy Summer Harp School, an Annual Harp Fun Day and her ‘Classical Café’ evenings.

Acclaimed by the New York Concert Review as ‘Stupendous…totally original and engaging’, at her Carnegie Hall debut recital, British harpist Keziah Thomas enjoys a reputation of a lively and engaging performer and educator. Her work in expanding the repertoire for concert harp has led to the creation of the first solo arrangement of Vivaldi’s Four Seasons and an album of commissioned and previously unrecorded contemporary works hailed as an ‘imaginatively programmed, winningly played recital’ by the BBC Music Magazine.

Keziah is principal harp with the Covent Garden Sinfonia and has appeared in major venues and festivals throughout the world including a solo tour of Japan for Aoyama Harps and performances at the 8th, 9th and 10th World Harp Congresses in Geneva, Dublin and Amsterdam.

The winner of the London Harp Competition, the Camac Harp Competition and the Contemporary Record Society Performing Artists Competition, Keziah Thomas holds an ARCM diploma and bachelors degree from the Royal College of Music and was taught by Danielle Perrett, Daphne Boden and Alison Nicholls.

Keziah is a creative educator and entrepreneur and is the founder of two popular harp programmes; Retreat to the Harp, a series of workshops and study weekends that bring together those who share her love of the harp and Little Harp Social, the group learning programme for adults. Keziah is assistant professor of harp at the Guildhall School and a resident musician for the charity Breathe.

Graham Hobbs is a freelance bassoon player, who works regularly as guest principal and section player with the major orchestras of London and throughout the UK. As such, he has toured, broadcast and recorded extensively. He is also a teacher at the Purcell School and an examiner in music for Trinity College London.