2009 Performers
Adrian Partington
Adrian Partington was appointed artistic director of the BBC National Chorus of Wales in November 1999. He studied at King's College, Cambridge, where he was the organ scholar, and the Royal College of Music. He has enjoyed parallel careers as conductor, chorus master, pianist and organist.
Adrian is a musician of rare versatility - a successful conductor, chorus master, pianist and organist. He studied at the Royal College of Music under Herbert Howells and Kings College Cambridge where he was both Organ Scholar and Academic Scholar. He took up his post as Director of Music at Gloucester Cathedral in January 2008, and is joint conductor of the Three Choirs Festival. He is also Artistic Director of the BBC National Chorus of Wales, conductor of thr Bristol Choral Society and a lecturer and conductor of the chorus at the Royal Welsh College of Music and Drama, where he and Prof Simon Halsey designed the Masters course in choral conducting. Under Adrian's direction, the Bristol Choral Society has maintained its position as one of the leading big-city choirs in the UK and together they have performed most of the standard large-scale choral-orchestral repertoire in the past decade.
In 2001, for Welsh National Opera, he conducted the first performance of the community opera Katerina and has subsequently conducted several similar projects including the much acclaimed City Songs project in Bristol in 2003. When not conducting, Adrian has a busy schedule as a pianist, organist and harpsichordist, both as soloist and accompanying some leading instrumentalists and singers.
Adrian Partington was appointed artistic director of the BBC National Chorus of Wales in November 1999. He studied at King's College, Cambridge, where he was the organ scholar, and the Royal College of Music. He has enjoyed parallel careers as conductor, chorus master, pianist and organist.
Adrian is a musician of rare versatility - a successful conductor, chorus master, pianist and organist. He studied at the Royal College of Music under Herbert Howells and Kings College Cambridge where he was both Organ Scholar and Academic Scholar. He took up his post as Director of Music at Gloucester Cathedral in January 2008, and is joint conductor of the Three Choirs Festival. He is also Artistic Director of the BBC National Chorus of Wales, conductor of thr Bristol Choral Society and a lecturer and conductor of the chorus at the Royal Welsh College of Music and Drama, where he and Prof Simon Halsey designed the Masters course in choral conducting. Under Adrian's direction, the Bristol Choral Society has maintained its position as one of the leading big-city choirs in the UK and together they have performed most of the standard large-scale choral-orchestral repertoire in the past decade.
In 2001, for Welsh National Opera, he conducted the first performance of the community opera Katerina and has subsequently conducted several similar projects including the much acclaimed City Songs project in Bristol in 2003. When not conducting, Adrian has a busy schedule as a pianist, organist and harpsichordist, both as soloist and accompanying some leading instrumentalists and singers.
Pam Ayres
It was November 1975 when Pam made the first of her appearances on the ITV talent show 'Opportunity Knocks' and this proved to be the start of an incredible career for a unique entertainer. Pam always wanted to be a writer. At school she shone at English and Art, but was 'pretty useless at everything else'. The youngest of six, Pam was born at Stanford-in-the-Vale, Berkshire during the long cold winter of 1947. After leaving school Pam joined the civil service as a clerical assistant, but losing interest before very long, was prompted to join the WRAF and it was here that she developed her love of singing and acting. Slowly, the wild idea emerged that she would like to be an 'entertainer', and on leaving the WRAF she set out to achieve her ambition. By this time her poems had become a hobby and in 1974 a friend arranged for her to go to the local radio station to read some of her poems.
That first broadcast was selected for Radio 4's Pick of the Week and subsequently repeated on Pick of the Year, by which time Radio Oxford had asked her to return and recite more of her poems. Since that appearance on Opportunity Knocks, Pam has appeared on virtually every major TV show in the UK has had her own TV series and has filmed Christmas TV specials in Hong Kong and Canada. She was chosen to appear in the Royal Variety Performance to celebrate the Queen's Silver Jubilee and has been invited to entertain the Queen at Sandringham. Pam was thrilled to be awarded the MBE in the Queen's Birthday honours in 2004.
www.pamayres.com
It was November 1975 when Pam made the first of her appearances on the ITV talent show 'Opportunity Knocks' and this proved to be the start of an incredible career for a unique entertainer. Pam always wanted to be a writer. At school she shone at English and Art, but was 'pretty useless at everything else'. The youngest of six, Pam was born at Stanford-in-the-Vale, Berkshire during the long cold winter of 1947. After leaving school Pam joined the civil service as a clerical assistant, but losing interest before very long, was prompted to join the WRAF and it was here that she developed her love of singing and acting. Slowly, the wild idea emerged that she would like to be an 'entertainer', and on leaving the WRAF she set out to achieve her ambition. By this time her poems had become a hobby and in 1974 a friend arranged for her to go to the local radio station to read some of her poems.
That first broadcast was selected for Radio 4's Pick of the Week and subsequently repeated on Pick of the Year, by which time Radio Oxford had asked her to return and recite more of her poems. Since that appearance on Opportunity Knocks, Pam has appeared on virtually every major TV show in the UK has had her own TV series and has filmed Christmas TV specials in Hong Kong and Canada. She was chosen to appear in the Royal Variety Performance to celebrate the Queen's Silver Jubilee and has been invited to entertain the Queen at Sandringham. Pam was thrilled to be awarded the MBE in the Queen's Birthday honours in 2004.
www.pamayres.com
The Tresca Piano Trio
The Tresca Piano Trio is a dynamic young ensemble based in London. Formed in 2008, the group have received coaching from eminent musicians such as Itzhak Rashkovsky, Michael Dussek and Piers Lane. The trio have a wide range or performance experience and take a keen interest in both mainstream and lesser known repertoire.
The Tresca Piano Trio is a dynamic young ensemble based in London. Formed in 2008, the group have received coaching from eminent musicians such as Itzhak Rashkovsky, Michael Dussek and Piers Lane. The trio have a wide range or performance experience and take a keen interest in both mainstream and lesser known repertoire.
Eduardo Niebla Trio
'World class virtuoso' Eduardo Niebla, spanish guitarist and composer is one of the most brilliant and emotive performers on the world circuit today, fusing 'poignantly poetic ...and fabulous' gypsy jazz with Arabic, Indian, Latin and classical influences. In great demand all over the world, Eduardo gives great pleasure that only a world class virtuoso at his best is capable of. 'The undisputed highlight of this year's Glastonbury Festival. Quite simply brilliant.' (The Sound).
www.eduardoniebla.com
'World class virtuoso' Eduardo Niebla, spanish guitarist and composer is one of the most brilliant and emotive performers on the world circuit today, fusing 'poignantly poetic ...and fabulous' gypsy jazz with Arabic, Indian, Latin and classical influences. In great demand all over the world, Eduardo gives great pleasure that only a world class virtuoso at his best is capable of. 'The undisputed highlight of this year's Glastonbury Festival. Quite simply brilliant.' (The Sound).
www.eduardoniebla.com
Hannah Bethan Roper
Hannah now 13 years old, began playing the violin just before her fourth birthday with her current teacher Barrie Moore. In 2006, Hannah won a scholarship to the Yehudi Menhuin School, but after a short stay there, chose to return to Herefordshire. Since then, she has won bursaries from the Cheltenham Festival of Performing Arts and The English Speaking Union to help fund her studies. Hannah gave her first public performance at Birmingham Catheral aged 9 and her first professional performance with a recital of music for violin and viola at the Ross Live! 2007 Festival.
In that year she was the youngest entrant to reach the finals of the BCC Young Musician of the Year. Having achieved distinction at Grade 8 violin when she was 10, she has recently obtained Dip ABRSM (Performance). Last year, she performed J S Bach's Concerto in E Major with the Musical and Amicable Society Baroque Orchestra in the Ross Live! 2008 Festival. In addition to the violin and viola, Hannah enjoys singing and playing the piano and will be the youngest member of the chorus in the Hereford Three Choirs Festival this year. Hannah has given concerts to raise money for charities and performs in local residential nursing homes. In her spare time she enjoys art, photography and learning to fly at Herefordshire Aero Club.
www.hannahbethanroper.co.uk
Hannah now 13 years old, began playing the violin just before her fourth birthday with her current teacher Barrie Moore. In 2006, Hannah won a scholarship to the Yehudi Menhuin School, but after a short stay there, chose to return to Herefordshire. Since then, she has won bursaries from the Cheltenham Festival of Performing Arts and The English Speaking Union to help fund her studies. Hannah gave her first public performance at Birmingham Catheral aged 9 and her first professional performance with a recital of music for violin and viola at the Ross Live! 2007 Festival.
In that year she was the youngest entrant to reach the finals of the BCC Young Musician of the Year. Having achieved distinction at Grade 8 violin when she was 10, she has recently obtained Dip ABRSM (Performance). Last year, she performed J S Bach's Concerto in E Major with the Musical and Amicable Society Baroque Orchestra in the Ross Live! 2008 Festival. In addition to the violin and viola, Hannah enjoys singing and playing the piano and will be the youngest member of the chorus in the Hereford Three Choirs Festival this year. Hannah has given concerts to raise money for charities and performs in local residential nursing homes. In her spare time she enjoys art, photography and learning to fly at Herefordshire Aero Club.
www.hannahbethanroper.co.uk
Margaret Faultless
Margaret Faultless is an internationally renowned violinist specialising in historical performance practice, much in demand particularly as a concertmaster and director. Since 1989 she has been a leader of The Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment, working with Sir Simon Rattle, Sir Roger Norrington, Ivan Fischer and Vladimir Jurowski in diverse repertoires at major venues such as the Queen Elizabeth Hall in London, Glyndebourne, the Salzburg Festival and in New York. She directed the Orchestra on their first tour of Mexico, a series of Italian Baroque programmes and at the gala reopening of The Royal Festival Hall. For a year she was programme consultant for the OAE. For over twelve years Margaret led the Amsterdam Baroque Orchestra under Ton Koopman, recording all the Bach cantatas including every obbligato for violi, violin piccolo and viola d'amore.
She made her BBC proms debut as a soloist with the ABO in 1997 and was also soloist on their first CD with Yo Yo Ma and a disc of works by Locatelli. Currently she directs and plays with Devon Baroque, and has been a member of the London Haydn Quartet for six years. A graduate of Cambridge University she is a member of the Music Faculty and will take up a Visiting Fellowship at Girton in 2010.
www.devonbaroque.co.uk
Margaret Faultless is an internationally renowned violinist specialising in historical performance practice, much in demand particularly as a concertmaster and director. Since 1989 she has been a leader of The Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment, working with Sir Simon Rattle, Sir Roger Norrington, Ivan Fischer and Vladimir Jurowski in diverse repertoires at major venues such as the Queen Elizabeth Hall in London, Glyndebourne, the Salzburg Festival and in New York. She directed the Orchestra on their first tour of Mexico, a series of Italian Baroque programmes and at the gala reopening of The Royal Festival Hall. For a year she was programme consultant for the OAE. For over twelve years Margaret led the Amsterdam Baroque Orchestra under Ton Koopman, recording all the Bach cantatas including every obbligato for violi, violin piccolo and viola d'amore.
She made her BBC proms debut as a soloist with the ABO in 1997 and was also soloist on their first CD with Yo Yo Ma and a disc of works by Locatelli. Currently she directs and plays with Devon Baroque, and has been a member of the London Haydn Quartet for six years. A graduate of Cambridge University she is a member of the Music Faculty and will take up a Visiting Fellowship at Girton in 2010.
www.devonbaroque.co.uk
Nicholas Mulroy
Born in Liverpool, Nicholas studied at Cambridge University and at The Royal Academy of Music in London. This will be his fourth appearance in three years in Ross, having first sung the Evangelist role in Ross Live's performance of Reinhard Keiser's St Mark Passion in 2007, the title role in the Ross Choral Society's 40th anniversary performance of Handel's Judas Maccabeus in 2008 and tenor solo in Britten's Serenade for Tenor, Horn and Strings in the Ross Live! 2008 Festival.
In a very busy schedule, embracing different periods and genres including opera, oratorio and lieder, recent appearances include performances at Glyndebourne as the Novice in Prokoviev's Betrothal in a Monastery, at the Concertgebouw and Royal Festival Hall under Sir John Eliot Gardiner (Bach Cantatas 147, 60 and 70), at Paris's Opera Comique as Patacha in Chabrier's L'Etoile, as well as Monteverdi Vespers and Campra Requiem in the BBC proms.
In recital, highlights include Vaughan Williams' On Wenlock Edge with Badke Quartet, Janacek's Diary of One who Vanished and Britten's Seven Sonnets of Michelangelo for the Oxford Lieder Festival and Schumann's Liederkreis Op 24 and Die Schoene Muellerin with regular collaborator John Reid.
www.nicholasmulroy.com
Born in Liverpool, Nicholas studied at Cambridge University and at The Royal Academy of Music in London. This will be his fourth appearance in three years in Ross, having first sung the Evangelist role in Ross Live's performance of Reinhard Keiser's St Mark Passion in 2007, the title role in the Ross Choral Society's 40th anniversary performance of Handel's Judas Maccabeus in 2008 and tenor solo in Britten's Serenade for Tenor, Horn and Strings in the Ross Live! 2008 Festival.
In a very busy schedule, embracing different periods and genres including opera, oratorio and lieder, recent appearances include performances at Glyndebourne as the Novice in Prokoviev's Betrothal in a Monastery, at the Concertgebouw and Royal Festival Hall under Sir John Eliot Gardiner (Bach Cantatas 147, 60 and 70), at Paris's Opera Comique as Patacha in Chabrier's L'Etoile, as well as Monteverdi Vespers and Campra Requiem in the BBC proms.
In recital, highlights include Vaughan Williams' On Wenlock Edge with Badke Quartet, Janacek's Diary of One who Vanished and Britten's Seven Sonnets of Michelangelo for the Oxford Lieder Festival and Schumann's Liederkreis Op 24 and Die Schoene Muellerin with regular collaborator John Reid.
www.nicholasmulroy.com
The Musical and Amicable Society
The original Musical and Amicable Society was founded in Birmingham in 1762 by a group of like-minded musicians who gathered regularly at Cooke's Tavern in the Cherry Orchard 'for practice and recreation'. In 2003, Martin Perkins and Kate Fawcett decided to revive this historic society as a collective of Professional period-instrument specialists, performing in combinations ranging from chamber ensembles to full orchestra. Equally at home with Monteverdi or Mozart, and everything in between, the aim is to rediscover the vibrant soundscapes of earlier eras by using historically-appropriate instruments and playing styles. The presiding ethos is one of chamber music - however large or small the formation - where each and every performer has a significant role to play.
Now much in demand, the Society performs regularly throughout the country, including an annual tour of Christmas concerti and a residency at the Ross Live! Festival. As well as researching and devising their own programmes, they enjoy collaborating with enlightened choirs to breath new life into choral masterpieces - as with the delightful but rarely-heard cantata for Holy Week Membra Jesu Nostri by Buxtehude perfomed with the Ross-on-Wye Baroque Singers at Easter this year.
www.amicables.co.uk
The original Musical and Amicable Society was founded in Birmingham in 1762 by a group of like-minded musicians who gathered regularly at Cooke's Tavern in the Cherry Orchard 'for practice and recreation'. In 2003, Martin Perkins and Kate Fawcett decided to revive this historic society as a collective of Professional period-instrument specialists, performing in combinations ranging from chamber ensembles to full orchestra. Equally at home with Monteverdi or Mozart, and everything in between, the aim is to rediscover the vibrant soundscapes of earlier eras by using historically-appropriate instruments and playing styles. The presiding ethos is one of chamber music - however large or small the formation - where each and every performer has a significant role to play.
Now much in demand, the Society performs regularly throughout the country, including an annual tour of Christmas concerti and a residency at the Ross Live! Festival. As well as researching and devising their own programmes, they enjoy collaborating with enlightened choirs to breath new life into choral masterpieces - as with the delightful but rarely-heard cantata for Holy Week Membra Jesu Nostri by Buxtehude perfomed with the Ross-on-Wye Baroque Singers at Easter this year.
www.amicables.co.uk
Take the Space Theatre Company
Siobhan Nicholas - performer and author of Dolce Via
Before training as an actor, Siobhan graduated in History from London University. Since then she has performed with most of the major reps in the UK, including Birmingham Rep and The Royal Exchange, Manchester and toured with companies including Actors Touring Company, The New Vic, Hull Truck and The Natural Theatre Company. She has appeared in films and TV credits include Grange Hill, Hollyoaks, The Bill and Casualty. She has written three plays for Take the Space: Sam and I, Hanging Hooke and Dolce Via. For children, she has written and directed two original plays and adaptations.
Chris Barnes - performer in Dolce Via
Chris's performing career began at the age of eight when he became a chorister at Westminster Abbey. After graduating from Durham University with an honours degree in Music, he ran away to Ringling Brothers, Barnum and Bailey's Circus in America to train nat Clown College. Since then, he has appeared alongside Robert De Niro, Michael Keaton, Keanu Reeves and Allan Bates, while on television he has appeared Silent Witness, Dalziel and Pascoe, Eastenders, Casualty and The Bill. His work in the theatre has taken him all over the world, and in this country he has played in the Young Vic and Actors Touring Company in a repertoire of original work at The Donmar Warehouse. Chris has also written several plays, written music for many shows including Canterbury Tales at The Prince of Wales in London's West End.
www.takethespace.co.uk
Siobhan Nicholas - performer and author of Dolce Via
Before training as an actor, Siobhan graduated in History from London University. Since then she has performed with most of the major reps in the UK, including Birmingham Rep and The Royal Exchange, Manchester and toured with companies including Actors Touring Company, The New Vic, Hull Truck and The Natural Theatre Company. She has appeared in films and TV credits include Grange Hill, Hollyoaks, The Bill and Casualty. She has written three plays for Take the Space: Sam and I, Hanging Hooke and Dolce Via. For children, she has written and directed two original plays and adaptations.
Chris Barnes - performer in Dolce Via
Chris's performing career began at the age of eight when he became a chorister at Westminster Abbey. After graduating from Durham University with an honours degree in Music, he ran away to Ringling Brothers, Barnum and Bailey's Circus in America to train nat Clown College. Since then, he has appeared alongside Robert De Niro, Michael Keaton, Keanu Reeves and Allan Bates, while on television he has appeared Silent Witness, Dalziel and Pascoe, Eastenders, Casualty and The Bill. His work in the theatre has taken him all over the world, and in this country he has played in the Young Vic and Actors Touring Company in a repertoire of original work at The Donmar Warehouse. Chris has also written several plays, written music for many shows including Canterbury Tales at The Prince of Wales in London's West End.
www.takethespace.co.uk
Heartbreak Productions
One of the most accomplished and original of the touring open-air theatre companies, Heartbreak Productions return to Ross for the fifth year running, bringing their own unique blend of crystal-clear story-telling, passionate acting, innovative staging, atmospheric music and comic interaction. They provide a spontaneous, entertaining and wholly theatrical experience which even the downpour in which they played last year could do nothing to diminish
www.heartbreakproductions.co.uk
One of the most accomplished and original of the touring open-air theatre companies, Heartbreak Productions return to Ross for the fifth year running, bringing their own unique blend of crystal-clear story-telling, passionate acting, innovative staging, atmospheric music and comic interaction. They provide a spontaneous, entertaining and wholly theatrical experience which even the downpour in which they played last year could do nothing to diminish
www.heartbreakproductions.co.uk
Ross Live!
1 Market Place, Ross-on-Wye, Herefordshire. HR9 5NX
Tel: 01989 563883 • Email: info@rosslive.org.uk
1 Market Place, Ross-on-Wye, Herefordshire. HR9 5NX
Tel: 01989 563883 • Email: info@rosslive.org.uk