Artists of Bridgewater Sinfonia, Berkhamsted's classical music orchestra
| Edward Beckett | John Bernays | Leon Bosch |
| Chiltern Chamber Choir | Marianne Cotterill | Adrian Davis |
| Giles Fowler | Stuart James | Philippa Schofield |
EDWARD BECKETT
Edward Beckett was born in Ireland, but quickly became influenced by the French tradition of flute playing, his first teacher being the French flautist André Prieur. At eighteen he abandoned an engineering course at Trinity College Dublin to take up a place at the Paris Conservatoire, and four years later graduated with first prizes in flute and chamber music. He spent the next few years in post graduate study with France’s most famous flautist Jean-Pierre Rampal, and with the legendary player and teacher, Marcel Moyse.
Edward returned to Ireland to take up a post with the newly-formed Ulster Orchestra, but after two years moved to London where he has lived ever since. His first five years were mostly spent working with The London Symphony Orchestra, then years as a freelance orchestral and studio player followed, with solo and chamber music engagements as well. He has played principal flute with most of London’s symphony orchestras, chamber orchestras and ensembles and is still a regular guest principal with some of them. He taught for many years at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama who have awarded him a Fellowship of the School.
Edward Beckett’s most recent recordings include Fantaisie, a collection of French pieces for Flute and Orchestra, a disc of Mozart’s works for flute and orchestra including a performance of the Flute and Harp concerto with Skaila Kanga, and a critically acclaimed first recording of Carl Friedrich Abel’s six flute concertos with The Academy of St Martin in the Fields.
JOHN BERNAYS, baritone
John was born in Queensland, Australia. In 1986, he won a postgraduate research scholarship to New College, Oxford, where he completed an M.Phil and was a clerk in New College Choir. He has worked extensively in opera and as a concert artist. Concert engagements include Carmina Burana and Faure’s Requiem (Barbican), Creation (Lichfield Cathedral and Australia) Bach’’s Magnificat (English Chamber Orchestra, Madrid Bach Choir), Britten’s War Requiem (Three Choirs Festival, St. Alban’s Abbey) and St John Passion (Oxford and tour with Australian Chamber Orchestra). He sings Chirstus on the acclaimed Naxos recording of St John Passion. He has also performed regularly with Florilegium, The Finzi Singers, The Academy of Ancient Music and the Monteverdi Choir. He has performed with numerous opera companies, including English Touring Opera, Kent Opera, New Chamber Opera, Scottish Opera Go Round and at Le Chatelet, Paris and the Salzsburg Festival. Repertory includes Count Almaviva, Guglielmo, Don Giovanni, Papageno, Don Alfonso, Dandini, Angelotti, Sharpless, Marullo, Don Fernando, Dancairo, Alfio and Nick Shadow. He joined the Royal Opera Chorus in 2002. Roles for the company have included Yamadori (Madama Butterfly), Chernikovsky (Boris Godunov), Sergeant (Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk) and Maitre d’hotel (La Rondine). He was also the baritone soloist for the Royal Ballet’s staging of Faure’s Requiem.
LEON BOSCH, double bass
Leon Bosch has an honoured place among the select group of virtuoso double bass players worldwide. Concerto engagements in many parts of the world with the likes of conductors Pinchas Zukerman, Nicolas Kraemer, Nicolae Moldoveanu and Guido Johannes Rumstadt have been matched by collaborations with a long line of leading chamber music groups – among them the Lindsay, Belcea and Brodsky string quartets, the Academy of St Martin in the Fields Chamber Ensemble, the Moscow Virtuosi and the Zukerman Chamber Players. Partnerships with solo performers have embraced such pianists as Peter Donohoe, Vladimir Ovchinikov, Mikhail Rudy and Maria João Pires.
Leon Bosch has a growing discography of concerto and recital recordings. This will shortly include two albums devoted to the music of the great Giovanni Bottesini and two featuring music by British composers. Then will follow everything from a disc of Russian music and another of compositions by Domenico Dragonetti, to the complete works for solo double bass by Dittersdorf, Menotti’s concerto and recordings of a string of neglected concertos for the instrument.
CHILTERN CHAMBER CHOIR
Chiltern Chamber Choir was founded by its director, Adrian Davis in 1976. It is centred around the market town of Berkhamsted in the Chilterns and draws its singers from the surrounding towns and villages. They share a passion for singing and perform at least three main concerts each year, mostly with orchestral or organ accompaniment. Though they have outgrown their original chamber choir size, they maintain an enviably high standard of singing. The Choir’s impressive repertoire ranges from music of the 12th century to contemporary works. Since 1996, the Choir has undertaken many concert tours abroad. They have performed programmes of sacred music in cathedrals and abbeys in France, which included Autun, Vezelay, Villesalem, Strasbourg, Colmar, Beaune and Saint Savin. Other venues include churches and cathedrals in Prague, Svata Hora, Florence and Montecatini.
In 1998, the Choir performed Bach’s Mass in B minor in Holland. Two years later, the Chiltern Chamber Choir joined with the Bach Choir of Madrid to record the same work for Spanish Television in Madrid (Video and CD). In November 2001, the Choir joined with the Reutlingen Choir to perform Verdi’s Requiem in Reutlingen and in Berkhamsted. In Autumn 2004 the two choirs sang Mendlessohn’s Elijah in Reutlingen. Also in 2004, Chiltern Chamber Choir joined with Fitzwilliam College Chapel Choir to sing Brahms’ Requiem in Cambridge.
In December 2001, the choir performed Handel’s Messiah in the Auditorio Nacional in Madrid, to great acclaim. The following year, the Chiltern Chamber Choir again joined with the Bach Choir of Madrid to perform works by Bach and Handel in the Teatro Maestranza in Seville. In April 2004, the Chiltern Chamber Choir and the Bach Choir of Madrid performed Bach’s St Matthew Passion in Berkhamsted and also Bach’s B Minor Mass in Berkhamsted in 2006. A further collaboration with the world famous Leipzig GewandhausChor took place in October 2004, with performances in Berkhamsted, Berlin and Leipzig.
At home, the choir enjoys a fine reputation amongst its loyal and numerous supporters, who recognize the very high standard of its performances.
MARIANNE COTTERILL, Soprano
Brought up in Denmark and studying at Copenhagen University, Marianne Cotterill won several scholarships
enabling her to study at the Royal College of Music and now privately with Margaret Hyde.
Her career started
in Baroque music performing with leading established groups such as The Consort of Musicke, Chiaroscuro and
Drottningholm Barockensemble at the Proms and for Belgian, Israeli and Danish Radio. She has recorded songs
by Purcell and Händel for Nuova Era. Since 1990 she has been a regular soloist for BBC Radio 2 and as a recitalist
she performs regularly at St John's Smith Square and she has sung for Classic FM and Danish Radio. Concert
engagements in recent years have included Beethoven's Ninth Symphony in Bath and Missa Solemnis in Gloucester
Cathedral, Mahler's Second Symphony, Brahms’ Requiem at Birmingham Symphony Hall and his Liebeslieder Waltzes
and Rossini’s Petite Messe Solennelle for St Albans Choral Society, Haydn’s The Creation at St Alban's Abbey
and a Schubertiade for the 2006 Hampstead and Highgate Festival. In 2007 she sang Haydn’s Nelson Mass conducted
by Ron Corp for the festival, in a summer gala concert with Bushey Symphony Orchestra and in Haydn’s The Creation
with the Bridgewater Sinfonia (then the Bridgewater Band) and the Chiltern Chamber Choir.
Marianne started her operatic career in 1996 and she has premiered many contemporary roles here and abroad. Other roles include: Adina/ L’Elisir d’Amore, Mimi/La Bohème, and Belinda/ Dido and Aeneas. Since 1999 she has understudied for Glyndebourne where roles include: Servilia/ La Clemenza di Tito, Diane/ Iphigénie en Aulide, Bertha/ Euryanthe and the title role in Rodelinda. This production travelled to Châtelet, Paris in 2002. In 2004 she joined the Royal Opera House Chorus and also understudied the Female Convict in the ROH's Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk. In January 2005 she had her Royal Opera House, Covent Garden debut in Turandot, and later that year also she has understudied the role of Gerhilde in the ROH’s production of Die Walküre, which also was performed at the BBC Promenade Concerts. In 2006 she understudied the roles of Esmeralda in the ROH’s production of The Bartered Bride and Chloë in The Queen of Spades.
ADRIAN DAVIS, conductor
Adrian Davis was born and educated in Salisbury. He studied organ with the cathedral organist, Dr Christopher Dearnley, before obtaining a scholarship to the Guildhall School of Music where he studied organ with Nicholas Danby and composition with Edmund Rubbra. He gained an organ diploma and won the Augustus Manns prize for organ before graduating.
Adrian held posts as Director of Music in the City of London and in South Devon before going to Berkhamsted School in 1973, a post he held for 24 years. Since 1997 he has been Director of Music at St Peter’s Church, Berkhamsted.
He is harpsichordist with the Cantello Trio, Serenata and Director of the Chiltern Chamber Choir and the Bridgewater Sinfonia. As a harpsichordist and organist, Adrian has given concerts in cathedrals, churches and concert halls in the UK, France, Zimbabwe, Germany, Holland and the Czech Republic.
During the past few years, Adrian has directed many choral concerts abroad and to great acclaim - in Paris, Chartres, Nürenberg, Prague, Svata Hora, Florence, Beaune; in Holland, Berlin, Madrid and Seville.
His work as an examiner for the Associated Board of the Royals Schools of Music also takes Adrian to many parts of the world.
GILES FOWLER, trumpet
Giles’s early musical training came from the junior department of Birmingham Conservatoire before studying at the Royal College of Music. He was Principal Trumpet with the Young Musicians Symphony Orchestra and was also a member of the European Community Youth Orchestra. Whilst at the Royal College, Giles won prizes for brass playing, gave the first performance of Neil Crossland’s Trumpet Concerto, was lead trumpet of the Big Band and participated in Masterclasses with John Wallace. Giles is currently Principal Trumpet in the All Souls Orchestra with whom he has appeared as soloist and broadcast on BBC2. Recent engagements have included a live Radio 4 broadcast playing for Her Majesty the Queen, touring with the RPO and recording for BBC TV Songs of Praise with Sir Harry Secombe.
Stuart James, violin
Stuart spent his early career as freelance with the Orchestra of English National Opera, the English Chamber Orchestra, the London Symphony Orchestra, and the London Mozart Players. In 1990 he joined the Philharmonia Orchestra for a period of 17 years. Stuart more recently returned to Berkhamsted and now divides his time between performing - he works with several London orchestras and is leader of the Bridgewater Sinfonia - and teaching at Berkhamsted Collegiate School where he was once a pupil himself.
Philippa Schofield, 'cello
Philippa grew up and went to school in Berkhamted. She studied the 'cello at the Royal Academy of Music after which she was offered a position in the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra under the conductorship of Simon Rattle. After four years she returned to London to work as a member of the Orchestra of the Royal Opera House at Covent Garden. She has since remained a freelance player. She is Principal ‘Cello with the Bridgewater Sinfonia.
