Caroline Pether (violin) is the Leader of Manchester Camerata, often assuming the role of soloist and/or Director with the orchestra. She enjoys a regular duo partnership with Camerata's principal cellist Hannah Roberts and guest leads chamber music projects and chamber orchestras across the UK e.g. as Leader of Welsh chamber orchestra Sinfonia Cymru 2016-2021 and of the Zelkova Quartet. Caroline is passionate about enthusing and educating the next generation of musicians, through her work as a violin tutor at the Royal Birmingham Conservatoire and delivering masterclasses and workshops elsewhere. In 2022, Caroline was made an Associate Member of the RNCM (ARNCM), an award made to recent alumni judged to have achieved outstanding success in the early stages of their careers in the music profession.

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Fiona Cross is Principal Clarinet with the Manchester Camerata and with them she has performed the Mozart clarinet concerto and the Strauss Duet-Concertino for clarinet and bassoon. She is a regular guest principal of many of Britain's finest orchestras e.g. Academy of St Martins in the Fields, the LPO, Royal Liverpool Philharmonic, Royal Northern Sinfonia, London Mozart players and the BBC National Orchestra of Wales, also performing extensively with the Chamber Orchestra of Europe.   She has recorded on the Naxos and Hyperion labels, performed at Wigmore Hall and the South Bank Centre, and regularly appears on BBC Radio 3. Fiona is professor of clarinet at Trinity Laban Conservatoire, London. 

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Hannah Roberts is Principal ‘cellist of Manchester Camerata, well-known to Stafford audiences for her memorable performance at the Gatehouse of the Elgar cello concerto. Hannah performs across the UK, Europe and internationally as a soloist and chamber musician.  She is a sought-after teacher and professor of cello at the RAM in London and the RNCM in Manchester, a visiting tutor for the University of Oxford, and has been awarded both HonRAM and FRNCM for her work helping to nurture upcoming ‘cellists.

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Alex Mitchell holds the position of Principal Viola in Manchester Camerata and Joint Assistant Principal Viola at the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra. His awards include prizes at 2012 Beethoven International Competition in Hradek and the 2015 Tokyo International Viola competition. Chamber music has also been a big part of Alex’s life: with Caroline Pether, he was a member of the Zelkova string quartet until 2019. Appropriately for today’s programme, his favourite composer is Mozart.

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Thomas Aldren (violin) was leader of the National Youth Orchestra GB in 2011, completed a Master’s with Distinction from the Royal Academy of Music in 2015, and did a final year of study in Munich. He has an exciting international career as a concert violinist, combining orchestral and solo playing with his passion for chamber music and jazz. Thomas has performed many of the major violin concerti, including those by Mendelssohn, Stravinsky, Sibelius, Mozart and Bach.

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Victor Lim (piano) is a City Music Foundation Artist, Making Music UK’s Philip and Dorothy Green Young Artist and winner of the 2021 RNCM Gold Medal. He has recently played with Manchester Collective and Royal Northern Sinfonia, and will do so with BBC Philharmonic later this year. Victor first performed with Manchester Camerata in 2022, playing Steve Reich’s ‘Music for 18 Instruments’ and is excited to join the ensemble again in today’s concert. He is currently Head of Keyboard Studies at Rossall School, Fleetwood.

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Manchester Camerata is the leading chamber orchestra in the NW, considered by The Times as ‘Britain's most adventurous orchestra’. Projects range from opening Glastonbury Festival for 40,000 people to working in care homes with people living with dementia. “We believe in the transformative and connecting nature of music…… From an orchestral rave performed in isolation to over one million people during the Covid-19 pandemic, to touring Mozart in beautifully intimate concert halls, to re-imagining classical music with electronic producers at the top of their game. We make music that matters. We make music for change.”