Anna Brown is a British violinist born in London. She is currently studying for her undergraduate degree in violin performance on a scholarship to the Guildhall School of Music and Drama in the class of Krysia Osostowicz.
Anna has won numerous awards for her playing including the John McAslan violin prize at the Junior Royal Academy of Music, where she held a scholarship, as well as both the Wandsworth and Richmond Young Musician of the Year titles.
Anna is a dedicated chamber musician and has also received many accolades for her chamber music playing. Her string quartet at the Guildhall School, Quartet Concrète, are prize winners of the St James’ Chamber prize and during their time together have been selected for many prestigious masterclasses including studies with András Keller and Chamber Studio’s Hans Keller Forum mentorship program for the 2023/24 season.
As well as leading her string quartet, Anna enjoys leading larger ensembles. She has led the Symphony Orchestra at the Junior Royal Academy of Music as well as the Symphony and Chamber Orchestras of King’s College School Wimbledon.
Anna is also passionate about Historical Performance and has led different sized ensembles performing orchestral and opera repertoire as well as giving performances at St Martin in the Fields, London.
Alastair King works mainly as an orchestrator and conductor on Film and TV projects. These include Downton Abbey, The Martian, Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, Dad’s Army and Doctor Who. He has also had success as a concert composer including performances by the BBC Philharmonic and the London Symphony Orchestra. A recent recording of his Concertinfouro for clarinet and strings was recorded by Matthew Hunt and The Chamber Orchestra Of London and is available on i-Tunes. The Amadeus Orchestra has commissioned and given first performances of his orchestral works Irpy and Straight On ’Til Morning and the chamber ensemble piece Dance Marathon $1000 Stake.
Philip is currently Principal Conductor of the Amadeus Orchestra, Principal Conductor of the Mozart Symphony Orchestra in London and from 1998 until 2014 was Principal Guest Conductor of the Crimean State Symphony Orchestra. He has also often worked with Manchester Camerata and his recording with them “Great British Recorder Concertos” was described by Gramophone Magazine as “first class” and was “highly recommended” by the Penguin CD guide.
With Victoria Opera North West, Philip made the first complete recording of The Maid of Artois by Balfe. It was extremely well received by Radio Three’s Saturday morning CD review, being voted as “audience favourite”. In addition to his recording work, Philip has broadcast on television and radio in the UK and abroad, most recently conducting Mahler’s Second Symphony on BBC Radio 3 in a shared concert with Sir Simon Rattle. He has commissioned many new works, most notably those composed by Alastair King, and in 2008 gave a world premiere of a reconstructed work by Alan Rawsthorne.
Recently Philip has given concerts with Steven Isserlis, Steven Varcoe, Raphael Wallfisch and Janis Kelly and has directed ‘speaking soloists’ such as Griff Rhys Jones, Stephanie Cole, Jilly Cooper, Edward Fox, Simon Callow, Brian Blessed, Sir Trevor MacDonald, David Walliams, Richard E Grant and Jack Dee.
As a freelance conductor, Philip has worked with the Singapore Symphony Orchestra, Bombay Chamber Orchestra, the Symphony Orchestra of India, the Bath Philharmonia, the Pardubice Chamber Orchestra, the Manchester Concert Orchestra, the Bournemouth Symphony Chorus and the Kwa Zulu Natal Symphony Orchestra. In 2002 Philip took the Amadeus Orchestra to Bombay at the invitation of the British Council and has given over 35 concerts in China. In September of 2009, Philip appeared at the Grosvenor House Hotel alongside Leslie Garratt, Dancers from the Royal
Ballet and Kylie Minogue. In December 2010 Philip appeared on BBC2 with presenter James May in a programme that encourages lapsed musicians to rekindle their enthusiasm for playing music. Recently, Philip conducted the Moscow TV and Radio State Orchestra and the chorus and soloists from the Kirov Opera in a performance of Mozart’s Requiem in Moscow and was soon invited back for a repeat performance.
As a composer, Philip has had performances of his music in Europe and Asia and has also worked for the BBC as an arranger. In 2021 his work 'The Gruffalo' for narrator and orchestra was premiered in Cadogan Hall, London. Philip is the recipient of an honorary doctorate for artistic services given by the President of Ukraine following his premiere performance in that country of Elgar’s First Symphony.
Philip’s recent recordings include:
• Great British Recorder Concertos with Manchester Camerata and John Turner, described by Gramophone Magazine as "first class"
• the first complete recording of The Maid of Artois by Balfe with Victoria Opera North West, recently voted audience favourite on Radio Three's Saturday morning CD review.
• Over the Water, with Manchester Camerata
One of the liveliest and most enterprising musical personalities on the British music scene, Cuban American Odaline de la Martinez pursues a busy international career performing a great variety of repertoire ranging from Mozart symphonies to the latest of contemporary music.
Cuban American composer and conductor Odaline de la Martinez pursues a demanding and successful career composing – particularly opera, conducting repertoire from Mozart symphonies to the latest contemporary music, and recording CDs often with LORELT (Lontano Records) which she founded in 1992.
Martinez studied at Tulane University (USA) and the Royal Academy of Music, where she founded her ensemble Lontano in 1976. Martinez was the first woman in history to conduct a BBC Prom at the Royal Albert Hall. With Lontano she has travelled the world
She has received numerous awards including a Marshall Scholarship from the British Government and a Guggenheim Fellowship (USA). Her first opera Sister Aimee: An American Legend (1984) was premiered at Tulane University in 1984, followed by two other productions at the Royal College of Music (1987) and in Marin County College, California (1995). Her second opera Imoinda (from her Slavery Opera Trilogy) (2005-2008), was commissioned by the Caribbean Women Writers’ Alliance (CWWA) with funds from the Heritage Lottery Fund, England. The Crossing also from her Trilogy was commissioned by Tulane University and premiered in New Orleans in April 2013, while there as composer in residence. This work received its UK Premiere in November 2014 at the opening concert of The Fifth London Festival of American Music.
In 2015 Martinez was awarded an Opera America grant to make a video of Imoinda. Odaline de la Martinez is in demand throughout the world both as an orchestra and opera conductor and with her ensemble Lontano. She has
recorded numerous CDs for LORELT, her own record label, as well as Summit, BMI, and Albany Records in the United States, Chandos, Metier and Conifer Classics in the UK and Da Capo in Denmark. As a musician she has acquired a remarkable reputation for her versatile and eclectic vision, and supreme ability to work with others to make the vision a reality.
Andrew’s formal music training was at the Royal
Academy of Music and Trinity College of Music. After Graduating he was appointed principal Tuba of the Opera House in Santiago, Chile, and then returned to the UK to build a freelance career.
Andy has played with many of the country's top
orchestras including The Royal Opera House Covent Garden, The Halle, City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra, Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra and London
Philharmonic Orchestra. He also regularly played for the West End production of Chicago. Andrew has a keen interest in historical performance and plays for the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment, appearing on the BBC documentary The Symphony, and with the Gabrieli Consort, including the BBC Proms. He also enjoys the lighter side of music performance having toured the UK and USA
with pop legend Elton John and even dressing up to perform at ‘Shakespeare's Globe’.
Andy performs numerous London solo recitals for the
family Concert series Bach to Baby, giving all ages the chance to hear the ‘virtuosic’ side to the Tuba.
Along with playing engagements Andy works with many Brass Bands conducting and tutoring sections, from Strata Brass (Yorkshire Championship section) to bands across the sections in the South East. Successes have included gaining Bedford Town Band promotion to the championship section and Waterbeach Brass promotion to the second section.
Andy teaches the Tuba and Euphonium students at Bedford School and has delivered master classes at Trinity College of music and The Royal Northern College of Music as well as regularly teaching and coaching at The Royal Academy of Music Junior Department.
Jonny studied orchestral percussion and timpani at Trinity College of Music and graduated in 2010. Since then he has performed and recorded with some of the UK’s and Europe’s most prestigious orchestras and ensembles such as the English National Opera, Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, The Symphonic Brass of London, Ulster Orchestra and RTÉ National Symphony Orchestra.
In addition to his classical work he currently holds the percussion chair at the Thursford Christmas Spectacular, has played the marimba on the Lion King UK tour and has performed with the world famous Disney Concert Orchestra.
Jonnys British television work includes being the timpanist on Dave Gorman's Modern Life is Goodish as well as documentaries for the BBC on Benjamin Britten. He has also recorded for the BBC, RTÉ, Ameritz, Naxos, and Resonsus Classics labels as well as radio and television ‘jingles’.
Some of Jonnys more diverse work includes performing Club Classics with Judge Jules, the Tafahum World Music Ensemble and recording the soundtrack to the film Neethaane En Ponvasantham with the album alone selling more than 8.5 million copies.
Jonny is passionate about education and offers masterclasses and orchestral coaching to Hertfordshire County Youth Music Ensembles and the Amadeus Academy Orchestra.
