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Recitalists’ Showcase
Sunday 5th May 2019 at 2:30 pm

An afternoon of Classical Music compered by Peter Jones and performed by a number of our regular St George’s Friday lunchtime and Saturday Coffee recitalists.

Alasdair Friend organ

Julia Hart violin

The Hammig String Quartet

Clare Morganpiano

Tamara Ravenhillsoprano

Martin Sharpe piano

Online ticket sales for this event are closed.

Online ticket sales for this event are closed.

Refreshments

Tea and cake will be available for purchase at this event either in the interval or after the performance

Artist Information

Alasdair Friend

Organ

Alasdair Friend joined the choir at St. George’s in February 1982. He studied the organ at St. Dunstan College in Catford, and was organ student at St. George’s from 1985 to 1987 passing his ARCO exams in 1986. From 1987 to 1990, he was organ scholar of Downing College, Cambridge, where he read Music and History. While at Downing, he conducted the college choirs and orchestra, and sang in a number of university chamber choirs. Since graduating, Alasdair has been assistant organist at a number of London churches, before returning to St. George’s, where he now plays regularly. He has also accompanied various choral societies on tours to Italy, Austria, France and the Czech Republic. When not playing the organ, Alasdair works as a solicitor in London.

Julia Hart

Violinist

Julia Hart is currently studying with Michal Cwizewicz, having previously graduated with a Masters from Trinity Laban Conservatoire of Music and Dance in London. At Trinity she was a TCL and Len Smith & Felicity Young Scholar under the tutelage of Diana Cummings.  Before entering Trinity she studied with Eszter Boda-Katona.

Julia’s greatest passion is chamber music, and she enjoys working with a variety of musicians in different settings. Her recent recitals with pianist Saki Matsumoto took place at Kuki Cultural Centre in Saitama and the Sonorium in Tokyo, Japan. She has performed with guitarist Karen Yeung at Ripley Arts Centre and St. Matthew’s Westminster, and saxophonist Stephanie Legg at pop-up cafes, department stores, family events as well as in London churches. In a string quartet, she has received masterclasses from the Carducci, Wihan and Brodsky Quartets and performed at various churches in London, the Undercroft Theatre in Eastbourne, as well as hosting workshops for children in primary schools and Saturday music centres.

Julia has undertaken solo masterclasses across Europe and Japan, with violinists Marco Rizzi, Yair Kless, Vasko Vassilev, Anne Shih, Kazuki Sawa, Federico Agostini and Oleh Krysa.

Julia believes that through exploring a piece, one encounters a never-ending stream of possibilities in both musical style and expression. The accompanying stimulation and challenge give her a reason to believe that the art of performance is a lifelong project.

The Hammig String Quartet

The Hammig String Quartet was formed in 1989, taking its name from the violin-maker Wilhelm Hammig (1838-1925). Over the years the quartet has given many recitals across England and Wales and has made several visits to Leichlingen, Germany.  They are frequent performers at St George’s, Beckenham in both the Friday lunchtime and Saturday morning Coffee Concert series, and for other special events and services.

Recital venues have included Concord College Shropshire, the Usher Art Gallery Lincoln, the Atheaneum Bury St Edmunds, St Anne and St Agnes Gresham Street, St Alfege Greenwich, St Mary’s Balham, St Katherine’s Knockholt and the River and Rowing Museum Henley on Thames.  They played at Penn House Amersham for the National Society for Epilepsy, and performed as part of the ‘Rochester 1400’ celebrations.  Since 2005 they have participated in annual fundraising Celebrity Christmas Carol Concerts for the Cystic Fibrosis Trust at Odiham, and for some years gave fundraising recitals for the Beckenham and Borders branch of the National Childbirth Trust.  They have played at St Martin in the Fields with the Bromley Boy Singers in their New Year’s concert, and in several concerts for the South London Singers and Wareham Choral Society.  In February 2010 they were invited to join Keziah Thomas for a joint quartet and harp concert in aid of the Romanian Aid Foundation.  In May 2011 they played Shostakovich’s 8th quartet in a lecture recital given by Anna Davis at the St George’s Arts Festival.  More recently the quartet has given recitals at the Colour House Theatre at Merton Abbey Mills, St Mary’s Bromley, St Nicholas Brighton, St Leonard’s Seaford, St Matthews Westminster, and Purley United Reformed Church.  In February 2014 they played at the Mansion House for the Gardeners Livery Company Banquet, in the presence of Prince Edward, and again in 2015.  They were honoured to be the inaugural artists in residence at St John’s Catford for the season 2017-18.

Following the death in 2013 of their friend and colleague of more than twenty years, Paul Collen, they explored the string trio repertoire for a few years as well as performing piano quartets with Clare Wibberley, and oboe and cor anglais quartets with Caroline Marwood.   In September 2017 they were delighted to welcome Sarah Colley as their new permanent violinist.

Clare Morgan

Pianist

Clare Morgan started piano lessons at the age of 5 and at age 13 became a Junior Exhibitioner at the Royal Academy of Music. She was educated at Tunbridge Wells Girls’ Grammar School and, on leaving there, became a full-time student at the Academy, where she studied Piano and Viola, gaining the GRSM (Hons) and LRAM diploma. Since then, Clare has been much in demand as an accompanist for singers and instrumentalists locally and further afield. This she has combined with administrative work within musical organisations, including the Royal College of Music and most recently St Paul’s Cathedral School. She has been a member of St George’s Choir since moving to Beckenham in 2002 and also does occasional instrumental teaching.

Tamara Ravenhill

Soprano

Tamara Ravenhill studied violin from childhood in her native Ukraine.  She began vocal studies with Lyudmila Tretiak in Kyiv, then Dodi Protero in New York and later with Enid Hartle and Robert Presley in London.  She currently studies with Paula Anglin.  Opera roles include: Rosalinda (Die Fledermaus); Mimi (La Bohème); Countess (The Marriage of Figaro); Alice Ford (Falstaff); Guilietta (The Tales of Hoffmann); Tatiana (Eugene Onegin, scenes); Donna Elvira (Don Giovanni); Fiordiligi (Così fan tutti); Elettra (Idomeneo); Vitelia (La Clemenza di Tito).  Tamara sang the title role of Suor Angelica in Zezere Arts Festival, Portugal.  Her oratorio and concert highlights include Verdi’s Requiem and an orchestral version of Wagner’s Wesendonk Lieder.

Martin Sharpe

Accompanist

Martin Sharpe studied piano at the Royal College of Music as a Junior Exhibitioner where his teacher was John Barstow. Whilst there he made a broadcast for BBC radio performing works by Beethoven and Debussy.

 

Martin went on to pursue a career outside music, working in Whitehall; but he has continued to perform regularly at local concerts as a soloist, accompanist and duettist. He is currently chairman of Bromley Music Makers where he enjoys providing performance opportunities in London and elsewhere for the club’s student members from national music colleges.

 



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