Artists

Since its formation in 2009, the band has performed at a number of high-profile events including the Royal Wedding, The Diamond Jubilee Celebrations, the Olympics, the Mountbatten Festival of Rememberance at the Royal Albert Hall, Strictly Come Dancing from Wembley Arena and was the first Royal Marines Band to march into Parliament.

The primary role of the five Royal Marines Bands is to provide musical support to the Royal Navy and Royal Marines. Most recently ranks from the Band Service have Served with 3 Commando Brigade in Afghanistan. There are currently 15 ranks from The Band of Her Majesty's Royal Marines Scotland deployed to Sierra Leone as part of OPERATION GRITLOCK. They are onboard the Royal Naval medical ship RFA Argus supporting efforts to tackle Ebola.

The Band embraces all kinds of music and is capable of performing in many different musical ensembles - including fanfare teams, dance bands, orchestras and various chamber ensembles; in fact almost any familiar musical ensemble. In addition to this, our instantly recognisable Corps of Drums bring movement, colour and a flavour of Ceremonial and State occasions; of which the Royal Marines Bands are an integral part. Our repertoire includes stirring martial music, popular classics, music of the Big Band era, exciting contemporary works and solo features which all combine to produce performances that are both entertaining and spectacular.

Since then the ensemble has continually renewed itself, drawing again and again from the Berliner. Philharmoniker's membership: its chronicle features such great names and world-famous musicians as the former concertmasters Spivakovsky, Rohn and Borries; the cellists Piatigorsky, Graudan and de Machula; the clarinettist Bürkner and the bassoonist Rothensteiner.

After World War II, the ensemble expanded its already vigorous touring activities within Europe to take in other continents, visiting the USA, Canada, Africa, Japan, Korea, China, Malaysia, New Zealand and Australia. In 1978 the Philharmonic Octet gave its first concerts in Israel and the Soviet Union. It has appeared regularly at the festivals of Salzburg, Lucerne, Edinburgh and Berlin. Paul Hindemith dedicated his Octet to the ensemble in 1958 and played first viola when they gave the premiere in Berlin. Other composers who have written for them include Hans Werner Henze, Boris Blacher, Werner Thärichen, Karl Heinz Wahren, Karlheinz Stockhausen and Isang Yun.

...with whom he subsequently embarked on a twenty concert tour in Italy as well as a recital at the Weill Hall in Carnegie Hall. He is also a member of the prestigious "Chamber Music Society Two" program at the Lincoln Centre in New York.

Chamber music has always been very important to Alexander. He is a founding member of the Sitkovetsky Piano Trio with the pianist Wu Qian and cellist Leonard Elschenbroich, with whom he has won various prizes including the Mecklenburg Vorpommern Kammermusik Prize and has performed all over the UK and Europe including at the Frankfurt Alte Oper, the Concertgebouw in Amsterdam and the Wigmore Hall in London. The trio's debut CD of Czech Repertoire for BIS had stellar reviews and their follow up recording of Mendelssohn Trios will be released in 2015.

Since 2012, he has also played in a String Quartet project with Julia Fischer, meeting once a year to perform in some of Europe's most prestigious venues.

... and wit have made Clare one of the most sought after singers and broadcasters in the country.

Clare has performed across the length and breadth of the UK and across the globe. Her shows are renowned not only for her stunning vocals and great song choices, but also because she has deservedly developed a reputation as one of our most entertaining and witty performers.

Clare loves working with large and small ensemble groups and performs with orchestras, big bands and most regularly with her trio, in 2013 she formed her own Big Band, and a year later created a 16 piece Hollywood Band for a show celebrating the music of Doris Day.

With her band Teal celebrates music of her heroines, the leading lights of the jazz and big band world, Ella Fitzgerald, Peggy Lee, Judy Garland, Doris Day and many of their illustrious contemporaries.

With wit and warmth Clare tells outrageous anecdotes of their extraordinary lives with a few relevant originals and more modern day covers. Her top flight musicians are led by pianist Jason Robello.

Clare grew up in a tiny village near Skipton in Yorkshire, England where she spent her time practicing the Organ, Piano and Clarinet and listening to her Nan's 78s.

... and has performed across five continents. A multi-faceted virtuoso, she performs music from Baroque to the 21st century, the strictly Classical to Gypsy, Klezmer, Argentinian, Balkan and Japanese music.

Harriet has taken part in many world premieres playing music specifically written for her as a soloist, including Robert Fokkens' violin concerto premiered at the Southbank Centre in London and Deborah Prichard's 'Wall of Water' violin concerto, inspired by the paintings of Maggi Hambling.

In addition to her solo work she is a lover of chamber music and is a founder member of the innovative trio ‘Kosmos Ensemble' and violin duo ‘Retorica. The Classical range is explored in Retorica's internationally acclaimed CD of British Violin Duos, which was chosen as ‘Editor's Choice' in Gramophone Magazine, cited for Harriet's “superbly responsive playing … faultless technique and unfailing insight.”

Future highlights include a disk with four solo violin works to be released on the Nimbus label, a third album by Kosmos and new works being written for Retorica by Gabriel Prokofiev and Robert Fokkens.

After performing at the Liberation International Music Festival Harriet will be performing concerto and chamber music in Scotland, Wales, Poland, Germany and Japan. When she is at home Harriet is improvising in diverse styles as well as enjoying arranging and composing music.

Leonard has excited interest as one of the most charismatic cellists of his generation since receiving the Leonard Bernstein award at the opening concert of the 2009 Schleswig Holstein Festival. Since then, Leonard joined the BBC Radio 3 New Generation Artist scheme in 2012, a prestigious award offering performances and recordings with all the BBC orchestras and at the BBC Proms.

As a founding member of the Sitkovetsky Trio, Leonard has performed in London, Hamburg, Frankfurt, Vancouver, Bilbao, Barcelona, Beijing, Shanghai. The trio embark on a US tour in March 2015.

Leonard has a keen interest in contemporary music, commissioning and premiering works by: Luca Lombardi (Essay 3 for solo cello), Arlene Sierra (Butterflies Remember a Mountain for piano trio), Carl Vine (The Village for piano trio), Suzanne Farrin and Mark Simpson, whose piece, Night Music, was commissioned for Leonard by the BBC and performed and broadcast live at Wigmore Hall in March 2014.

His career has since gone from strength to strength, conducting orchestras in the UK and internationally.

He has given World and UK premieres of music by Richard Causton, Jonathan Girling and Bent Sorensen with the CBSO. Michael appears annually in the CBSO main season at Symphony Hall, Birmingham and has also stood in at very late notice for Sakari Oramo, Richard Hickox, Ilan Volkov, Vasilly Sinaisky and Andris Nelsons.

Seal has worked extensively as a conductor throughout the UK as well as on an international level, conducting for the likes of the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, BBC National Orchestra of Wales, the Frankfurt Radio Symphony Orchestra, KBS Symphony Orchestra, and both RTE Concert and National Symphony Orchestras.

Michael has special bond with the CBSO Youth Orchestra, conducting them on numerous occasions, and being involved with them since their foundation. He is also Artistic Advisor and Conductor for the CBSOYO Academy, a chamber orchestra formed in 2007, and conducted them in Birmingham and the Three Choirs Festival.

Michael studied violin and composition at the Birmingham Conservatoire and has studied conducting with Jonathan Del Mar, Sakari Oramo, Andris Nelsons and Jorma Panula.

Collins also has the distinction of being the most frequently invited wind soloist to the BBC Proms, including several appearances at the renowned Last Night of the Proms. He has performed as soloist with many of the world's most significant orchestras and formed strong links with leading conductors.

In 2007, Collins received the Royal Philharmonic Society's Instrumentalist of the Year Award in recognition of the pivotal role that he has played in expanding the clarinet repertoire, commissioning and premièring repertoire by some of today's most highly regarded composers.

In recent seasons Collins has become increasingly highly regarded as a conductor and in September 2010 took the position of Principal Conductor of the City of London Sinfonia. His success in this role is testament to the natural musicianship and galvanising leadership that is evident in both his playing and conducting. We are happy to once again have Collins as our Artist Director of the Liberation International Music Festival.

He has given world and local premières of John Adams' Gnarly Buttons, Elliott Carter's Clarinet Concerto, Brett Dean's Ariel's Music and Turnage's Riffs and Refrains, which was commissioned by the Hallé Orchestra. With a prolific discography, Collins is signed exclusively to Chandos Records and consistently receives the highest critical acclaim for his recordings.

Michael Collins plays exclusively on Yamaha clarinets.

At the Royal College of Music he won all guitar prizes from the college and was the first guitarist to be awarded a Junior Fellowship. In 2002 Morgan won first prize at the National Guitar Competition in Mexico and continues to be a top prize-winner at international competitions.

Since graduating from the Royal College of Music in 2004 (with distinction), Szymanski has performed as a soloist for the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, Orchestra of the Swan, the Welsh Chamber Orchestra, and the Scottish Sinfonia amongst others. Morgan's devotion to chamber music has led to collaborations with many artists including John Williams and Harriet Mackenzie. Morgan's performances as a soloist and with orchestras have taken him to concert halls and festivals all around the globe.

In the UK, Morgan can often be heard on BBC Radio 3. His recordings with his ensemble Machaca on Sarabande Records, have all been very well received. In 2012 Morgan collaborated with twenty visual artists from the UK, Mexico, Portugal and China to produce a visual and auditory journey entitled ‘Sketches of Mexico.' Gramophone Magazine has called it ‘a gorgeous and original tribute to Szymanski's homeland' with Morgan's playing ‘of the highest order.' Morgan is a Live Music Now alumni, the scheme started by Lord Yehudi Menuhin to reach audiences that would otherwise have no access to live music.

He is acclaimed as one of the foremost pianists of our time, for his musicianship, stylistic versatility and commanding technique.

After delivering prize-winning performances throughout the UK and Europe, his activity in the competitive world culminated in the International Tchaikovsky Competition in Moscow in 1982, which shot his name into world-wide prominence. In June 2011 he returned to Moscow as a jury member for the 14th International Tchaikovsky Competition.

Spanning his career, Donohoe has played with the Berliner Philharmoniker as Music Director, performed with all of the major London Orchestras, the Royal Concertgebouw, Leipzig Gewandhaus and Munich Philharmonic amongst others. As well as working with many of the worlds' greatest conductors he has appeared as soloist with the next generation of excellent conductors.

He was an annual visitor to the BBC Proms for seventeen years and has appeared at many other festivals including six consecutive visits as resident artist to the Edinburgh Festival and eleven highly acclaimed appearances at the Bath International Festival.

As well as delivering award winning recordings which have received widespread acclaim, in 2001 Naxos released a disc of music by Gerald Finzi, with Peter Donohoe as soloist. This was the first of a major series of recordings which aimed to raise the public's awareness of British piano concerto repertoire through concert performance and recordings. This has also been released to great critical acclaim.

Peter Donohoe was awarded a C.B.E. for services to music in the 2010 New Year's Honours List

Sarah has appeared several times at the BBC Proms, the Edinburgh Festival & the Three Choirs Festival and is a regular guest with the Classical Opera Company and at London's Wigmore Hall. She is a regular guest on BBC Radio 2's "Friday Night is Music Night;" and was a judge on the second series of BBC TV's "The Choir : Sing While You Work" with Gareth Malone.

Her prestigious concert career has taken her worldwide. Highlights include engagements around North America, Tel Aviv, Tokyo and Bermuda as well as tours throughout Europe and Scandinavia. She has worked with many of the world's leading orchestras including the Academy of Ancient Music, Berlin Philharmonic with conductors including Elder, Hickox, Maazel, Mackerras, Pappano & Rattle.

Roles at the Royal Opera House in Covent Garden have included Micaela/Carmen, Asteria/Tamerlano, Zerlina/Don Giovanni and Woglinde/Der Ring des Nibelungen.

As well as appearing several times at the BBC Proms, Sarah is a regular guest with the Classical Opera Company. She also appears regularly on BBC Radio 2's “Friday Night is Music Night;” and was a judge on the second series of BBC TV's “The Choir : Sing While You Work” with Gareth Malone.

Her vast discography includes Poulenc Songs and The Cole Porter Songbook for Signum Classics, Vaughan Williams' 3rd Symphony for the Halle label and Leighton's 2nd Symphony (BBC National Orchestra of Wales/Hickox) for Chandos amongst many others.

Fox is equally at home in many musical genres including opera, folksong and musical theatre. She is also a highly accomplished recitalist with a particular affinity for French Song.

Other role creations include Perdita (Christopher Wheeldon's The Winter's Tale).

Lamb was born in Boston and trained at the Boston Ballet School with Tatiana Nicolaevna Legat. In 1998 she was named a Presidential Scholar in the Arts and awarded a gold medal by President Bill Clinton at the White House. She joined Boston Ballet that year and was promoted to soloist in 2001 and principal in 2003. Her many awards include silver medals at the Third Japan International Ballet Competition in Nagoya (1999), the New York IBC (2000) and the USA IBC (2002).

Lamb's repertory with the Company includes leading roles in all the classical, dramatic and contemporary repertories, including ballets by Frederick Ashton, George Balanchine, August Bournonville, Kenneth MacMillan, Alastair Marriott, Jerome Robbins and Liam Scarlett. In addition to her role creations for McGregor and Wheeldon, she created a role in David Dawson's The Human Seasons.

Steven's classical roles include Prince Florimund/Désiré (The Sleeping Beauty), the Prince (Cinderella and The Nutcracker), Prince Siegfried (Swan Lake), Colas (La Fille Mal Gardée), Solor (La Bayadère), Oberon (Ashton's The Dream), James (La Sylphide) and Albrecht (Giselle).

His MacMillan repertoire includes Des Grieux (Manon), Romeo (Romeo and Juliet) and the Chosen One (The Rite of Spring).

In contemporary dance, he has worked with such acclaimed choreographers as Christopher Bruce, Alastair Marriott, Alexei Ratmansky, Kim Brandstrup, Liam Scarlett, Christopher Wheeldon (he created the Spirit of Fire in Homage to the Queen, and the Mad Hatter in Alice's Adventures in Wonderland), and Wayne McGregor (Chroma, Limen, Carbon Life).

He has performed as a guest artist with major ballet companies around the world, including recent engagements with American Ballet Theatre, Tokyo Ballet, Hong Kong Ballet, The Australian Ballet and The National Ballet of Canada. He won the 2007 Emerging Male Artist (Classical) and the 2012 Best Male Dancer awards at the Critics' Circle Dance Awards. In 2014, he was named Young Australian of the Year by the Australia Day Foundation.

Steven is the inspiration for the main character in a new Japanese ballet manga, Ballet Hero Fantasy, as well as for the book Steven McRae - Dancer

At fifteen she performed Mozart's E flat Major Concerto (K449) in the Queen Elizabeth Hall and again at the Menuhin Festival in Switzerland. In the same year she also played the Saint-Saens Concerto No.2 with the Philharmonia Orchestra in St. John's, Smith Square. She made her debut recital at the South Bank Purcell Room in 2000 and has since played there again on several occasions, including a recital broadcast by BBC Radio 3 the following year.

Qian gave recitals throughout Europe and the US including the Steinway Halls of Hamburg and New York, where her performance was broadcast by NHK throughout Asia. She has appeared in many of the UK's major venues including the Wigmore, Royal Festival and Bridgewater Halls, and she has made her debut recital in City Hall Hong Kong. Qian's debut recording was released in April 2009 on the Dal Segno label to unanimous critical acclaim.

This season she has made her recital debut at the Chamber Hall of Amsterdam's Concertgebouw and the Kennedy Center in Washington DC and has performed other recitals in Hamburg, Frankfurt, Berlin, Padova and Koblenz. Qian has represented China at the Europalia Festival in Belgium performing Chopin's 2nd Piano Concerto on tour with the Brussels Philharmonic and has just come back from Toronto where she performed the "Yellow River" Piano Concerto at the National Arts Center.

The orchestra appointed Daniel Cohen, the young Israeli conductor as its Musical Director and Principal conductor after the second concert and together the musical partnership has been thrilling and enriching. As Daniel has developed from a young rising star who was a protégé of Daniel Barenboim to an established international conductor so the orchestra has developed alongside him.

The orchestra has also worked with a series of conductors from Christopher Seaman, to Howard Blake and looks forward to future concerts with Michael Collins and Daniel Cohen over the course of 2015 to 2016.

The orchestra has worked regularly with such instrumental soloists as Alison Balsom, Nicola Benedetti, Leonard Elschenbroich, Michael Collins, Alexander Sitkovetsky, and Wu Qian, as well as vocal soloists Elizabeth Watts, Sophie Bevan, Graeme Danby, and Lawrence Zazzo. Linked to each concert are opportunities for masterclasses and educational works for young local students. The leader of the Jersey Chamber Orchestra is Anna Smith.

... programmes of symphony music, chamber music, operatic productions in collaboration with the Opéra de Rennes, all available in almost 25 towns in Brittany, from major cities to small towns. The 43 permanent musicians of the Symphony Orchestra of Rennes are musical “passeurs”, musicians who are enrolled in their own regions, which facilitates, or leads to performances in front of audiences of more than 60,000 people in Brittany – 1500 season ticket holders in Rennes, 6,000 young people attending 200 workshops, courses for teachers, educational courses, and school concerts. The permanent presence in Brittany of high level artistes is the result of a definite political desire to bring together, since 1989, the regional Council, the city of Rennes, the State and the administrative regions of Ille-et-Vilaine and Morbihan in a shared enthusiasm for culture in Brittany.

In 2012, Darrell Ang joined the orchestra's artistic, cultural and regional project in the capacity of musical director.

Gilles Véron travelled with his clarinet from Louisiana to the West Indies (LPAL group), where he stayed for a while, studied and recorded traditional jazz with notably Don Vappié. Jean-Pierre Guillouet, an exceptional trombonist, owes his musicality to his classical training at the Conservatoire in Paris, which he brought into the world of jazz. Gilles Coulombier is a pianist who also cultivated his eclecticism at the Conservatoire of dance, from where he drew his sense of improvisation and accompaniment. Frédérick Lemarchand accompanied the Hubert Travert Jazz Band, where the guitarist Daniel Givone was and now accompanies the Jazz Club of Normandy. Finally, Dominique Youf, as much at ease with binary, as compound rhythm, but beautifully swing, plays both in Big Band and as a trio in numerous musical groups.

Mora is therefore destined to reach new musical shores and set off to conquer new musical territories. Our destination will be the world of cinema through the work of that unconditional lover of classic jazz, Woody Allen.

Mora is therefore destined to reach new musical shores and set off to conquer new musical territories. Our destination will be the world of cinema through the work of that unconditional lover of classic jazz, Woody Allen. He must have paid permanent homage to swing and pre-war jazz for forty years, himself devoting his time to the music every Monday at the Carlyle Hotel in New York. Fifteen theme tunes, fifteen films so many different surroundings, so many cities (Paris, New York...) and of course, memories of situations where human passions meet humour and 'joie de vivre'.

...Cologne Chamber Orchestra and Kammerphilharmonie Graubunden in Switzerland amongst others. She was the featured viola soloist in the BBC TV documentary “The Passions of Vaughan Williams” with Richard Hickox and the Philharmonia Orchestra in Cadogan Hall, London.

Rachel Roberts has performed chamber music at Concertgebouw, Amsterdam; Musikverein (Grand Saal) Vienna; Alte Oper, Frankfurt; Wigmore Hall; Royal Festival Hall, Cadogan Hall, St.John's Smith Square and King's Place. She performs at international festivals including Salzburg Festival, Wiener Festwoche, Schubertiade -Schwarzenberg, Heimbach - Germany, Mecklenburg Vorpommern, Hamburg “Oestertone”, Lofoten - Norway and Stift – Holland. She has collaborated with Christian Tetzlaff, Joshua Bell, Lars Vogt, Isabelle Faust, Lisa Batiashvili, Renaud and Gautier Capucon, Steven Isserlis and Alina Ibragimova.

Prizes for chamber music include the Diapason D'or, ‚Supersonic Award' and CD of the month in Fonoforum Magazine, Germany Highlights this season include a Wigmore Hall concert with Joshua Bell, Steven Isserlis, BBC Radio 3 recitals with the London Conchord Ensemble, live Deutschlandfunk broadcasts with the Tetzlaff Quartet and a solo CD release with pianist Lars Vogt. In May 2015 she'll tour Japan with Christian Tetzlaff, Lars Vogt, and Tania Tetzlaff.

Rachel Roberts is Professor of Viola at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama. She has given masterclasses at the Britten Pears Young Artists Programme, Dartington International Summer School, Chethams School of Music and Birmingham Conservatoire.

He worked a Principal Artist with the Royal Opera House from 1999 to 2004 where roles have included Ned Keene (Peter Grimes), Novice's Friend (Billy Budd), Ping (Turandot), Schaunard (La Boheme), Marullo (Rigoletto), Angelotti (Tosca) and Yamadori (Madame Butterfly)

Elsewhere he has sung the title role in Rigoletto (Luxembourg Festival), Figaro (Il barbiere di Siviglia) with Deutsche Opera am Rhein and Glyndebourne on Tour, Papageno (The Magic Flute), Don Fernando (Fidelio) with Welsh National Opera, The Count (Le Nozze di Figaro) and Pantalone (Love of Three Oranges) at Grange Park. He created the roles of Eddy in Mark-Anthony Turnage's Greek (Munich Biennale), Flaminius in Stephen Oliver's Timon of Athens (ENO) and Achilles in René Koering's Scenes de Chasse(Opéra de Montpellier). Other contemporary roles include Marcel Proust in Schnittke's Life with an Idiot (a co-production between English National Opera and Scottish Opera), Mittenhofer Elegy for Young Lovers (London Sinfonietta/QEH), Frère Léon inSt Françoise d'Assise and Gonzalo in Thomas Ades' The Tempest (Amsterdam Concertgebouw).

Concerts performances include Britten War Requiem and Mendelssohn's Elijah (Amsterdam Concertgebouw), Verdi Requiem(Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra), Turnage's Torn Fields (BCMG/Madrid), Opera Gala with the Hallé Orchestra (Bridgewater Hall and Tatton Park). Elgar The Kingdom (Exeter Cathedral) and Elgar's Light of Life (Tokyo Symphony Orchestra).

...she realised just how unrealistic this was and how hard she would have to work if she ever wanted to become a principal. From then on she became self-disciplined, driven and 100% focused on her goal.

In her first year in the Royal Ballet Upper School she won the Young British Dancer of the Year and also the Silver Medal at the Adeline Genée Awards. After this she was invited to perform at an RAD gala in Japan. Upon her return she found herself thrown in at the deep end with the third years, skipping the second year entirely.

She joined The Royal Ballet in February 2002, as a member of the corps de ballet. In 2003 she was asked to dance Juliet in Sir Kenneth Macmillan’s Romeo and Juliet. Her performances were exceptionally well received and in the same year she was promoted to soloist.

In 2008 at the age of 23, she was awarded principal status in the company. As a principal she has originated the title role in the Royal Ballet’s first new full-length ballet in 16 years; Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland, and last year she originated the role of Queen Hermione in a second full-length ballet, The Winter's Tale.