In addition to their work as brilliant and supportive teachers here at The Abbey, our peripatetic teachers lead busy and varied musical lives on an incredibly diverse range of projects from conducting and composition to producing and performing.
Yijia Cui (double bass) and Oliver Butterworth (percussion) will be joining some of the UK’s most prestigious ensembles and West End shows over the course of the next month. Yijia will be performing with the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra in Cadogan Hall and the Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra in Poole and Bristol.
Oliver will be joining the London Philharmonic Orchestra on tour in Vienna in addition to his work closer to home on shows My Neighbour Totoro, The Devil Wears Prada and Les Misérables.
Meanwhile, Karen Ayton (clarinet) will be supporting international soloist Charlie Lovell-Jones as part of the Reading Symphony Orchestra in a performance of Korngold’s violin concerto at the University’s Great Hall on February 14 (details provided below).
Finally, the GRAMMY awards in Los Angeles provided a nice surprise for one of our peripatetic teachers, Jonathan Slade (flute). A recording he made as part of the Boston Early Music Festival Ensemble with soprano Amanda Forsythe won the GRAMMY for the Best Classical Solo Vocal Album. Jonathan will be joining the ensemble again next month for a performance at the Telemann Festival in Magdeburg, Germany.
