MUSIC IN THE ROUND - Key Persons
Fellow Traveler is a short single movement for string quartet, composed as a fiftieth birthday present for the stage director Peter Sellars, Adams's long-time collaborator and librettist for his opera Doctor Atomic. It's a characteristic piece of Adams in his most immediately appealing style, marked by punchy rhythms and urgent momentum, that harks back to some of Adams's most successful earlier works such as Shaker Loops and A Short Ride in a Fast Machine.
Antonín Dvořák (1841-1904) composed his String Quintet Op.97 in 1893, starting it a month after completing the New World Symphony. The two works share many of the same characteristics, including a fondness for melodies based on pentatonic (black-note) scales, syncopated rhythms, melodies inspired by Dvořák's discovery of African-American spirituals and hints of the Native American music which he heard during his stay in Spillville, Iowa in Summer 1893.
Cara McAleese is an experienced producer and project manager specialising in arts & health and community arts work. She currently works as Arts and Health Project Manager with Doncaster Community Arts and as a freelance Creative Producer with South Yorkshire Housing Association. Previously she has worked at The Albany in Deptford, the London Symphony Orchestra and the Royal Opera House.
Charles-Valentin Alkan (1813-1888) was a prodigy, described as a child with ‘amazing abilities' at his audition for the Paris Conservatoire in 1820. In the 1830s he established friendships with Liszt and Chopin and gave concerts with both of them. After experiencing bitter professional disappointments in the late 1840s, Alkan became a virtual recluse between 1850 and 1873 when he reappeared unexpectedly and his playing excited a younger generation including Saint-Saëns. An extraordinary pianist (Liszt said that Alkan possessed the finest technique he had ever known) he was also a strikingly original composer. ‘Comme le vent' is the first of his 12 études in all the minor keys, first published in 1857 during his years of retreat. Marked prestissimamente it is a dizzying tour de force.
Chloe Wennersten is a Policy Manager in the Department of Health and Social Care. Prior to this she was Artist & Project Manager for Intermusica Artists' Management and Head of Concerts & Planning for the Academy of Ancient Music. Other previous roles include concerts, festival and artist management at the London Handel Festival, IMG Artists and Ars Eloquentiae.
Frédéric Chopin's late Berceuse (1844) was originally called ‘Variantes' and its theme (echoing a Polish folksong) is followed by 16 short variations, presented over a ground bass which establishes and sustains the mood of a cradle song.
Christopher Glynn is an acclaimed pianist and accompanist and has been Artistic Director of Ryedale Festival since 2010. He is also a Professor at the Royal College of Music, London. His work with Music in the Round includes numerous performances and a collaboration with our Singer-in-Residence Roderick Williams, on our inspirational Schubert in Schools project in 2018/19.
Dr Sarah Price is a lecturer in Music Industries at the University of Liverpool. Sarah's research focuses on qualitative investigation of audience experience, audience behaviour, patterns of attendance and the value of engagement in the arts as part of the Sheffield Performing Arts Research Centre. Her previous studies and PhD included research of Music in the Round's audiences.
Edward has led the community engagement work of the Royal Opera House and run a touring live and digital festival of orchestral music by the Philharmonia Orchestra. He has worked in community arts and education settings including for a creative writing mentoring organisation and produced music, arts education projects and festivals as well as touring dance, music and theatrical work across the UK. He has been a trustee of The Poetry Society, a homelessness relief charity and a youthwork development programme and currently sits on the board of Create Sheffield. He joined Music in the Round in 2021.
Eleanor Alberga was born in Kingston, Jamaica, and she continued her musical studies at the Royal Academy of Music in London. In an interview she singled out the influence of Caribbean rhythms on her music, alongside the works of European contemporary composers. In Dancing with the Shadow another inspiration was modern dance - something Alberga got to know at first-hand when she became pianist for the London Contemporary Dance Theatre in 1978.
Ellen Gallagher is a solicitor-advocate and a Senior Associate at Hamlins LLP, with extensive experience of representing high-profile clients in the media and entertainment industries. Prior to qualification, Ellen worked for many years in the music sector; she trained as a classical violinist and other roles have included Head of Music Administration for English National Opera and as part of the team at Opera North.
Job Titles:
- Creativity and Composition Coordinator ( Freelance )
Outside of Music in the Round, Ellen is a composer who writes predominantly for small chamber groups and soloists. She is studying for a PhD at the Royal Northern College of Music creating a portfolio of compositions through long-term collaboration with performers. Ellen has a passion for community music-making and directs the all-abilities ensemble CoMA Manchester (Contemporary Music for All), where she also plays her flute. She joined Music in the Round in 2021.
Job Titles:
- National Projects Manager
Emma joined Music in the Round in 2023 having previously worked in stage management in theatre for over ten years. Emma studied at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama and has worked for a wide range of theatre companies including on West End musical productions such as Hamilton and Everybody's Talking About Jamie. She has recently returned to her hometown of Sheffield and is thrilled to be back in the city and to be joining the team at Music in the Round.
Ewan grew up in Kent playing cello and double bass. He moved to London in 2002 to study music at King's College, where he returned in 2008 for his PhD, supervised by George Benjamin and Silvina Milstein. Between those spells in London Ewan achieved distinction in his MPhil at Cambridge University, and was subsequently appointed as Composer-in-Residence with the CU Music Society in 2012. Ewan held an Associate Lecturer position at KCL until 2015, and is now Director of Music at Churchill and Murray Edwards Colleges in Cambridge, where he directs the Inter Alios Choir and seeks to broaden the programming and participation of University music making.
Ewan's music has been awarded several international composition prizes including the New York based Counterpoint Competition, the Forme uniche Competition in Adelaide and the Italian Mare Nostrum Competition. His works have been performed by ensembles and soloists including: London Symphony Orchestra, Britten Sinfonia, Fretwork, Küss Quartet, Fukio Ensemble, Lontano, Ensemble Matisse, Consortium 5, The Hermes Experiment, Mercury Quartet, Dr K Sextet, Anton Lukoszevieze, Gaby Bultmann, Thomas Gould and Clare Hammond. Ewan enjoys collaborations with other artforms, and has worked with theatre maker Andrew Dawson, choreographer Katie Green, and Physical theatre company Bottlefed, filmaker Sebastian Barner-Rasmussen, and artists Issam Kourbaj and Tim A Shaw.
Ewan directs the Wilderness Orchestra and choir, which perform his orchestral arrangements of artists such as Radiohead, David Bowie, Queen, Aphex Twin and Nina Simone. They have performed with a number of collaborators including Charlotte Church, Kate Nash, London Contemporary Voices, La Fura del Baus, Camille O'Sullivan, Jessie Ware, Francesca Lombardo, beatboxers Shlomo and Reeps One, and actors Olivia Williams, Rashan Stone and Jack Whitehall.
Ewan is an enthusiastic teacher and enjoys working with young people. He mentors students of the Aldeburgh Young Musician scheme; supervises at Cambridge University; delivers workshops for Cambridge Music Outreach and judges the East Anglian Young Composer of the Year Competition.
London, He Felt Fairly Certain, Had Always Been London (2016)
With the first performance of this Nonet in 1850, Louise Farrenc achieved her greatest success as a composer - so much so that as a result she was able demand (and to get) a teaching salary for her job at the Paris Conservatoire that was the same as that paid to her male colleagues - a remarkable coup in the middle of the nineteenth century.
The premiere took place on 19 March 1850 at the Salle Erard and the ensemble was led by a brilliant young prodigy: Joseph Joachim - still in his teens but already an artist who was in demand all over Europe. Coincidentally, the violin has some unusually florid moments in the Nonet, including a cadenza at the end of the first movement. More remarkable, though, is the skill with which Farrenc shares the musical argument throughout the instruments, though it's not surprising when we note that she was an accomplished composer of orchestral works including three symphonies, the last of which had been played in Paris a year earlier, in 1849.
Given the quality and originality of this music, it's puzzling that Farrenc is not better known. As well as having to battle with prejudice against her gender, she had another issue to face: for composers to enjoy really big success in nineteenth-century Paris they needed to write operas, and Farrenc's interests lay entirely in instrumental music. Still, the Nonet was greeted with tremendous enthusiasm, though her music lapsed into obscurity after her death in 1875. In the last twenty years or so Farrenc has enjoyed a well-deserved revival, with recordings of all her major chamber and orchestral works.
The Nonet is in four movements and has the combination of melodic inventiveness and charm that music by lesser composers often lacks. With echoes of Beethoven, Schubert and Spohr, this is the work of a serious and gifted musician who has a genuinely individual style. The fluency with which the violin cadenza merges seamlessly into the end of the movement is a mark of this. The rather Schubertian opening to the slow movement reveals a superb melodist, and the plucked strings and spiky interjections at the start of the Scherzo - and the rampaging tune that eventually emerges - are vastly appealing and characterful. After a slow introduction, the finale feels easy-going but makes considerable demands on the players.
Ferenc Farkas studied with Leo Weiner at the Franz Liszt Academy in Budapest and later with Ottorino Respighi in Rome. On returning to Budapest in 1932, one of his first commissions was for a film score and he went on to compose extensively for film and theatre productions. At the same time, he began researching Hungarian folk music and began a distinguished teaching career: his pupils included Ligeti and Kurtág.
This work, officially titled Antique Hungarian Dances from the 17 th Century, exists in versions for various solo instruments and ensembles, with the present wind quintet version dating from 1959. In a note on the work, Farkas himself wrote that ‘compared with the rich folk-song heritage of Hungary, our ancient airs and dances that have been preserved in writing have a more modest role. For this work I have been influenced by dances of the 17th century, written by unknown amateurs in a relatively simple style … My interest in this music was first captured in the 1940s. I was so fascinated that I decided to give these melodies new life. I fitted the little dances together, in rondo form, and leaning on Baroque harmony and counterpoint, I attempted a reminiscence of that atmosphere of provincial Hungarian life at the time.'
Gerald Finzi began work on this piece in 1932 but only completed it four years later, in 1936. The first performance was given at the Wigmore Hall by Leon Goossens (to whom Finzi subsequently dedicated the work) and the Menges Quartet, on 24 March 1936. Finzi was particularly touched by Goossens's enthusiasm for the piece, having been unsure if the great oboist would be interested in the work: a nervous composer wrote to his friend Howard Ferguson: "I see that Leon, the pride of oboeland, is playing with the Isolde Menges Quartet … Perhaps he'll say that the Interlude isn't big enough for him."
He needn't have worried, but this lovely work is just one of four published pieces of chamber music by Finzi.
Job Titles:
- Head of Finance at Southbank Sinfonia
Jan Bonar CPFA is Head of Finance at Southbank Sinfonia @ St John's Smith Square, and played a key strategic role in the merger of the two music charities, having been Finance Director of Southbank Sinfonia for several years. Chair of our Finance & Fundraising Committee, she also works as a charity finance consultant, and enjoys singing when work and family allow the time.
Jane has been Music in the Round's Finance Manager since 2015. She has more than 20 years' experience in the arts working for touring companies and venues, including seven years as General Manager of Vincent Dance Theatre and freelance roles since 2010 for Yorkshire-based companies including Gary Clarke Company and Balbir Singh Dance Company. She is also Finance Manager for Sheffield's Site Gallery.
Job Titles:
- Marketing & Communications Manager
Jenny has been Music in the Round's Marketing Manager since 2014. A proud Sheffielder, Jenny is passionate about growing audiences for arts and culture. She began her career in arts marketing over 20 years ago as Marketing Assistant for Sheffield Theatres and has subsequently worked in the Marketing and Communications teams at Imperial War Museum North, Sheffield Museums and Manchester City Galleries.
Jenny Dibden Stevens (Chair) is an experienced Civil Servant currently working as Director of Funding Delivery in the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities. She is also Head of the Government Social Research Service. Jenny volunteers with Music in the Round at events, and enjoys playing her cornet in a local brass band.
Jo has been working in the arts for over 20 years. Before joining Music in the Round in 2018, she was Executive Director of Candoco Dance Company, the UK's leading company of disabled and non-disabled dancers, and Executive Director of Protein Dance. Jo has also worked at the London Mozart Players, Philharmonia Orchestra and the Royal Over-Seas League Annual Music Competition. Native to Yorkshire and a music graduate of Edinburgh University, Jo completed a post-graduate diploma at the Royal College of Music, London, and can still be seen playing her horn in various ensembles across the UK and beyond.
Kerry Andrew is a London-based musician, and author. Her debut novel, Swansong, was published by Jonathan Cape in 2018 and her second SKIN in 2021. She made her short story debut on BBC Radio 4 in 2014 with One Swallow and was shortlisted for the 2018 BBC National Short Story Award.
Kerry is the winner of four British Composer Awards and is best known for her experimental vocal, choral and music-theatre work, often based around themes of community, landscape and myth. She sings with Juice Vocal Ensemble and has released two albums with her band You Are Wolf: Hawk to the Hunting Gone (2014), a collection of avian folk-songs re-interpreted, and Keld (2018), inspired by freshwater folklore.
Job Titles:
- Marketing & Communications Officer
Liv joined Music in the Round in September 2022. She also works as a Musical Director in Neighbourhood Voices choir, as a Project Assistant at Harmony Works and as a freelance composer for film, radio and podcasts. She has a BA (Hons) in Music from the University of York and is currently studying for a Masters in Music Management at the University of Sheffield.
Mark Sutherland is an experienced Government Project Delivery Professional, having worked for the Department for Work and Pensions for nearly 20 years, and is currently a Civil Servant in the Cabinet Office. He has a passion for classical music and opera, is a trustee for Buxton International Festival, and has previously been Vice Chair of Classical Sheffield.
Job Titles:
- Trust / Sheffield City Council
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Pavel Fischer was a founder member and leader of the Škampa Quartet and after an extremely successful performing career, has turned increasingly to teaching and composition. His String Quartet No.3 was written in 2011 and demonstrates his fascination with integrating elements of music from different parts of the world into his work. The ‘Mad Piper' of the title (and the first movement), evokes the Canadian bagpiper Bill Millin who continued to play while under fire on Sword Beach during the initial stages of the D-Day Landings in 1944.
After a fast, aggressive opening (the heat of battle, perhaps?), a plaintive viola melody leads to a reprise of the initial material, followed by a serene coda. The second movement, ‘Carpathian', is a vigorous folk dance with an unceasing, breathless drive. The slow movement, ‘Sad Piper', was inspired by the plaintive song of a Bulgarian piper, here transformed into an eloquent viola solo, supported by quiet sustained chords. The title of the finale, ‘Ursari' recalls the nomadic Romani bear handlers of Eastern Europe, in particular their bear dances (Bartok also composed a ‘Bear Dance' for piano which he later orchestrated). Here the quartet takes on the role of a percussion section as well as string instruments, the music driving forwards until a brief respite for a reflective passage before the dance is taken up again with renewed energy.
Prof Jane Ginsborg (Vice-Chair) is Associate Director of Research at the Royal Northern College of Music. She is a musician as well as a psychologist, and read music at the University of York and studied singing at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama. Following a successful career as a singer, she entered academia and has held numerous posts on editorial and research boards.
Job Titles:
- Emeritus Professor of Medicine, University
Prof Pat Kendall-Taylor is Emeritus Professor of Medicine, University of Newcastle upon Tyne. She has held Trustee positions with charitable organisations including the Snowdrop Project and was Founder of the Endocrine Research Fund. Pat is also an accomplished musician: she won a piano scholarship to the Royal College of Music, and is an active member of various music groups in Sheffield as a pianist and a bassoonist
Red Clay is short work that combines the traditional idea of musical scherzo with living in the South. It references the background of my mother's side of the family that hails from the Mississippi delta region. From the juke joints and casino boats that line the Mississippi river, to the skin tone of kinfolk in the area: a dark skin that looks like it came directly from the red clay. The solo lines are instilled with personality, meant to capture the listener's attention as they wail with "bluesy" riffs that are accompanied (‘comped') by the rest of the ensemble. The result is a virtuosic chamber work that merges classical technique and orchestration with the blues dialect and charm of the south.
Samuel Coleridge-Taylor was born in London and entered to Royal College of Music in 1890 to study the violin. His ability as a composer soon became apparent, and he studied composition with Stanford, becoming one of his favourite pupils. His Piano Quintet Op.1 (1893) heralded the arrival of a remarkable talent, but the Clarinet Quintet, composed in 1895, demonstrates Coleridge-Taylor at the height of his creative powers. Stanford had given his students a challenge, declaring that after Brahms's Clarinet Quintet, written in 1891, nobody would be able to escape its influence. Coleridge-Taylor couldn't resist trying, and when Stanford saw the result he is said to have exclaimed ‘you've done it!' Coleridge-Taylor took his influences not from Brahms but from another great contemporary composer: in places this work sounds like the clarinet quintet that Dvořák never wrote. That's a mark of Coleridge-Taylor's wonderfully fluent and assured writing. The sonata form first movement is both confident and complex, with the clarinet forming part of an intricately-woven ensemble texture. The Larghetto has a free, rhapsodic character, dominated by a haunting main theme. The Scherzo delights in rhythmic tricks while the central Trio section is more lyrical. The opening theme of the finale governs much of what follows until a recollection of the slow movement gives way to an animated coda. The first performance took place at the Royal College of Music on 10 July 1895, with George Anderson playing the clarinet. Afterwards, Stanford wrote to the great violinist Joseph Joachim describing the piece as ‘the most remarkable thing in the younger generation that I have seen.'
Job Titles:
- Programme Director
- Joint Chair
Sughra Begum DL is Programme Director of The ESL Academy, Joint Chair of the Cohesion Advisory Group in Sheffield, and Chair of the Tassibee organisation, a charity for isolated Asian women in Rotherham. She brings a wealth of experience having worked for over 35 years in Further Education and led Voluntary and Community Organisations in various leadership roles.
Job Titles:
- Programme Manager, Sheffield
Tom joined Music in the Round in 2015 and works with us alongside his career as a broadcaster on BBC Radio 3, currently presenting the station's most popular programme Essential Classics. Tom grew up in Stoke-on-Trent and studied classical guitar with Craig Ogden at the Royal Northern College of Music, where he now also lectures. Tom also curates the new music series at Kettle's Yard Art Gallery in Cambridge and is a member of the Artistic Sub-Committee at NMC Recordings.
Verity worked in theatre for ten years before coming to Music in the Round in 2020, moving around the UK to work for organisations including Hull Truck Theatre, The Dukes Lancaster and the Royal Shakespeare Company. In her spare time she enjoys singing and writing.