Adbaston Community Concert Society
Sunday 5th May 2024
5:30pm: St Michael and All Angels Church, Adbaston, ST20 0QE
Manchester Camerata Principals
Amina Hussain
Flute
Rachel Clegg
Oboe
Alex Mitchell
Viola
Caroline Pether
Violin
Hannah Roberts
Cello
Programme
MOZART, Wolfgang Amadeus Flute Quartet No.1
BRITTEN, Benjamin Phantasy Quartet [Op. 2]
Interval
BERTRAND, Elise Lettera Amorosa
HAYDN, Joseph Flute Quartet in D
MOZART, Wolfgang Amadeus Oboe Quartet [K. 370]
About the Artists...
Amina Hussain
is Principal Flute of the Manchester Camerata, and has freelanced as an orchestral flute player since leaving the RNCM in 1998. She has worked with many major orchestras across the UK and abroad, playing BBC Proms concerts, festivals such as Glastonbury and Isle of Wight Festival, and numerous orchestral recordings and live broadcasts for radio and television, in both classical and pop.
Alongside her career as a stage performer, Amina has worked extensively in community and education, leading creative music-making for social development and wellbeing and specialising in dementia and older adult mental health. Her involvement in Manchester Camerata’s Music in Mind dementia programme, led Amina to study music therapy with Nordoff-Robbins, and in 2019, qualified with her Masters (Nordoff-Robbins Master Music Therapy). This has put her in a unique position of being a music therapist resident within an orchestra, and allows for her roles as a performer, community musician and music therapist to inform each other and develop the role of the orchestra within it’s own local community.
Amina is also Co-Director of String of Hearts CIC, which is passionate about connecting older adults through music-making. Face to face sessions, online groups and a Telephone Music Hotline designed for those without access to the internet, take place in the local communities of Trafford, Wythenshawe and Manchester, with a particular focus on connecting with isolated people through the pandemic.
Rachael Clegg
Rachael Clegg is one of Britain’s busiest freelance oboists and enjoys a varied performing career alongside her teaching commitments.
Born in Lancashire, Rachael has based herself in the north of England after completing her studies at the Royal Northern College of Music, Manchester. Rachael realised her deep love of chamber music by forming an Oboe Trio whilst still a student. Besides performances at the Purcell Room in London, they appeared frequently throughout the UK and were active in commissioning new works for the genre by composers including James MacMillan. In recital, she has performed with the pianist, Kathryn Stott.
Since 1999, Rachael has held the position of Principal Oboe with Manchester Camerata. During this time, the Camerata have recorded the complete cycle of Beethoven Symphonies to great critical acclaim. In addition, Rachael has been a frequent soloist with the orchestra, performing concertos by Mozart and Vaughan Williams amongst others. She was the Cor Anglais soloist at The Bridgewater Hall performing Autumn Legend by Alwyn under the baton of Douglas Boyd. In summer 2014 she performed the Strauss oboe concerto with Manchester Camerata.
During recent seasons, Rachael has been invited to perform as Principal Oboe with the London Symphony Orchestra, Royal Liverpool Philharmonic, BBC Philharmonic, Royal Scottish National Orchestra and most recently with the Budapest Festival Orchestra and has toured with the John Wilson Orchestra.
Hannah Roberts
Hannah Roberts has been announced as the Jacqueline du Pré Professor of Cello.
This new professorship marks Hannah’s significant achievements in music and her contribution to the Academy, whilst honouring the enduring legacy of Jacqueline du Pré. The title has been awarded with the blessing of the du Pré family, and was celebrated at an event at the Academy on Tuesday 26 September, attended by Jacqueline du Pré's sister Hilary.
Hannah’s principal teachers included Susannah Roberts, William Pleeth and Ralph Kirshbaum. She is now one of the outstanding cellists and mentors of her generation, who has nurtured a significant number of today’s leading cellists on the international stage, including Academy alumnus Sheku Kanneh-Mason.
A multiple prize winner in competitions such as Shell LSO, BBC Young Musician, Jacqueline du Pré Memorial and Pierre Fournier awards, Hannah has gone on to give many concerto performances with leading orchestras, including the London Mozart Players, LSO, BBC Concert Orchestra, and the Halle, also making frequent broadcasts for BBC Radio, recording with renowned colleagues for ASV and Decca, and participating in numerous international festivals as both soloist and chamber musician. Hannah is Principal ‘Cello of the Manchester Camerata.
Alex Mitchell
holds the positions of Principal Viola with Manchester Camerata and Joint Assistant Principal Viola at the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra. He was awarded 5th prize at the 2015 Tokyo International Viola Competition and in 2012, 3rd prize at the Beethoven International Competion in Hradek.
Alex began learning the violin with his Dad, Kenneth on his sixth birthday, and two years later started piano lessons with his mum, Elisabeth.
During his seven years of study at the RNCM in Manchester, Alex learned variously with Petr Prause, Nobuko Imai, Garth Knox, Gina McCormack, Wenzhou Li and Asdis Valdimarsdottir. Whilst at the college he won numerous awards such as the ‘Helen Porthouse Paganini Prize’ where he pipped the violinists to the top prize, and the Concerto Competition, the result of which he saw him subsequently performing Martinu’s Viola Concerto with conductor Clark Rundell and the RNCM Symphony Orchestra.
Chamber music has also been a big part of Alex’s life and he was a member of the Zelkova String Quartet until 2019.
Alex’s favourite composer is Mozart and he likes wearing odd socks. In his free time he enjoys walking in the Lake District with his wife Harriet, cooking and watching David Attenborough documentaries.
Caroline Pether
is the Leader of Manchester Camerata, often assuming the role of Soloist and/or Director with the orchestra. Caroline has also worked as Guest Leader/Director at Royal Northern Sinfonia, Manchester Collective, The Hallé and Covent Garden Sinfonia. Chamber music sensibilities are at the heart of Caroline’s music-making; she enjoys a duo partnership with Camerata's Principal Cellist Hannah Roberts and works regularly with chamber ensembles across in the UK. Caroline was also the Leader of Welsh chamber orchestra Sinfonia Cymru from 2016 until 2021. In 2022, Caroline was made an Associate Member of the RNCM (ARNCM).
Caroline is passionate about enthusing and educating the next generation of musicians in her work as both a Violin Tutor at the Royal Birmingham Conservatoire, and as a guest at UK conservatoires and youth orchestras, delivering masterclasses and workshops. Caroline began her studies with leading violin educator and Suzuki teacher Lucy Akehurst at the Royal Birmingham Conservatoire’s esteemed Young Strings Project, and later studied at Chetham’s School of Music and the Royal Northern College of Music with Professor Wen Zhou Li.
From 2010 to 2019 Caroline was the first violinist of the Zelkova Quartet, winners of the 2017 St Martin's Chamber Music Competition and the 2014 Royal Overseas League Elias Fawcett Award for Outstanding Chamber Ensemble. In 2018 they were Hattori Foundation Senior Award winners and Concordia Foundation Selected Artists, and in 2017 they were selected to attend the prestigious International Musician’s Seminar at Prussia Cove. The quartet recorded a CD of music written by Nicholas Simpson released by the label Stone Records and have been heard on BBC Radio 3 numerous times. Through her work with chamber orchestras and her quartet, Caroline has been fortunate to study and work closely with many incredible musicians; Gábor Takács-Nagy, Ferenc Rados, Hatto Beyerle and Peter Cropper to name but a few.
As a soloist Caroline holds a Silver Medal from the Worshipful Company of Musicians and a Postgraduate Performance Award from Help Musicians UK (formerly known as Musicians Benevolent Fund). Solo highlights include performing Dobrinka Tabakova's 'Dawn' for solo violin and solo cello (Hannah Roberts) with Manchester Camerata and Pekka Kuusisto conducting, and performing the Sibelius Violin Concerto in Bridgewater Hall with conductor Yan Pascal Tortelier.
Caroline plays on a violin made by the internationally acclaimed maker Stephan von Baehr.
Website: www.manchestercamerata.co.uk