LEON STRING QUARTET - Key Persons
Kammy combines her current STEM studies with freelance chamber and orchestral work. She is currently a music scholar at the university of Kent and leader of the university symphony orchestra.
She plays an exceptional copy of the historical 1728 Tononi violin made by renowned contemporary Belgian maker, Simon Peters.
Karen Jolliffe is a versatile and experienced violinist based in Kent, regularly engaged as a freelance solo, orchestral and chamber musician.
Karen's performance repertoire is very diverse, with past concert programmes including works by Janáček, Ravel and Silvestrov. In recent years, Karen has also specialised in championing a large range of contemporary music.
As a session violinist, Karen has also recorded for television and radio including the BBC, and features on several bands' albums.
For the past eight years, Karen has enjoyed her role as a violin teacher in Canterbury, and also in Kent schools, including Highworth Grammar School and Ashford School. She feels privileged to be teaching and inspiring the next generation of string players!
Karen is also a keen orchestrator and arranger, and regularly arranges music for the Leon String Quartet.
Karen plays on two violins: One from 1907 by the German luthier Henreich Heberlein Jr., kindly donated by Eric Richards in 2010, and the other a 2015 Guarneri model by Canterbury Luthier Philippe Briand.
Matthew is a composer and violist and learned to play the violin at the age of 5 and also began composing at the age of 9.
In 2013 he completed a Master of Music in Composition at the Royal Northern College of Music, where he studied with Adam Gorb and Paul Patterson, with a scholarship kindly supported by the Richard Newitt and Radcliffe trusts.
Matthew has since gone on to study for a PhD at RNCM in composition. He frequently writes arrangements for the quartet and the quartet have also performed many of his compositions around the UK.
Michael leads a busy and diverse performing life. His freelance work allows him to perform as a soloist, chamber musician and orchestral player. He has performed across the UK, including Edinburgh Fringe, Southbank Centre, Canterbury Cathedral, Canterbury Festival, Deal Festival, Sacconi Festival, Leicester Guildhall and Trinity Arts Centre.
Michael loves playing in the theatre and recently performed as part of Half a Strings ‘Boulder' at the Edinburgh Festival and in a production of ‘The Frogs' for House on a Hill Productions at Jermyn Street Theatre. Michael won the Christ Church Music Department Scholarship for two consecutive years and was also awarded the Canterbury Arts Council Scholarship and Lord Lieutenants Fund Grant.
As well as performing, Michael is has taught cello within a wide range of institutions such as King's Rochester, Cheltenham Ladies' College, The Centre for Young Musicians and Junior Guildhall.