OUR COURSE TUTORS
Elizabeth Altman - PIANO and ENSEMBLE
Elizabeth’s talent was early recognised; she made her concert debut at the age of 6, represented Leeds in a BBC TV Series in her young teens and later performing Mozart and Beethoven concertos for BBC TV as well as broadcasting the first performance of Thomas Pitfield’s Piano concert.
Following success in the last BBC Piano Competition, the forerunner of the BBC ‘Young Musician of the Year’, the Daily Telegraph singled out the ‘rare distinction’ of her playing and the Arts Council promoted her South Bank debut to critical acclaim. She has since toured the UK in concerts and major festivals including Aldborough and Leeds
In 1990, returning to concertising from time at home with young family, she became musical and artistic director of English Camerata, Yorkshire’s professional touring chamber ensemble. Under her direction they receive enthusiastic support from both audiences and critics with numerous concerts in the region’s festivals and concert series and in national tours, thanks to several major sponsorships. Their Mozart Bicentennial Celebration concerts in 1991 won critical admiration and played to capacity audiences.
A feature of programmes has been Mozart concertos directed from the keyboard of which the Yorkshire Post wrote “......{she] secured a wholly unified interpretation, the stylistic purity and pianistic fluency of which it was a privilege to savour”.
She has become well-known for her passionate interest in musical education; her pupils, many now prize-winners themselves, are taking their place in the profession and sponsorship has enabled her to make, with colleagues, presentations about all aspects of music to new generations in schools and colleges. The ECS chamber music Courses were founded with the encouragement of one such sponsor to take on this work in the area of adult education.
She has been honoured by the Royal Academy of Music for her distinguished contribution to the music profession.
Ofer Falk - VIOLIN
Born in Israel in 1967, Ofer studied with the legendary pedagogue Ilona Feher in Tel-Aviv and later with Professor Dora Schwarzberg in Vienna.
Awarded annual scholarships by the America-Israel Cultural Foundation (1981-1992) for solo and Chamber Music Studies, Ofer has also won numerous prizes in International competitions including the Henryk Szerying special prize in 1993 and top prizes in the Tchaikovsky 10th International Competition in Moscow 1994 and in the Montreal International Violin Competition 1995.
Ofer is a professor of Violin at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama in London as well as a Violin professor at Trinity College of Music in London, where he also teaches chamber music.
In February 2003, Ofer made his debut performance as soloist with the English Chamber Orchestra and was immediately re-invited for subsequent performances. In the UK, he has also performed concerti at the Barbican, the Queen Elizabeth Hall and the Purcell Room. He has performed as soloist with many Israeli Orchestras. In Russia, Ofer has performed as a soloist and recitalist in most of the main venues, including the Bolshoi and Mali Theatres in Moscow.
His performances were broadcast on both radio and television including BBC Radio 3, German Radio-Berlin, Israeli Radio and Television, Russian State Radio and Television, Canadian Radio (CBC).
Ofer is an accomplished chamber musician. He was founder member and leader of the Schidlof Quartet (1994-2001) and the Falk Quartet (2001-2003), performing with such artists as Murray Perahia and Jack Brymer. He has recorded three CDs with the Schidlof Quartet (Linn Records) and one with the Falk Quartet (Black Box Label). In 2006 Ofer was appointed as the leader of the Allegri Quartet.
Ofer has frequently appeared as guest leader of the English Chamber Orchestra and the Scottish Chamber Orchestra.
Born in Israel in 1967, Ofer studied with the legendary pedagogue Ilona Feher in Tel-Aviv and later with Professor Dora Schwarzberg in Vienna.
Pal Banda - CELLO
Pal was born into a musical family in Budapest. He began to learn the cello at the age of 9. At the Franz Liszt Academy of Music he studied with his father, EdeBanda as well as György Kurtág and Ferenc Rados. A British council Scholarship took him to Prussia Cove where he pursued further studies with Ralph Kirshbaum. In 1982 Pal received a commendation on the Moscow International Tchaikovsky Competition and the following year won the 1st prize on the Popper Competition at the Liszt Academy, Budapest. In 1983 Pal was invited by Sandor Vegh to become Principal Cello in theCamerataAcademica, Salzburg.In 1984 he became a member of The Chamber Orchestra of Europe. As a soloist he has performed in his native Hungary (for Radio and TV) as well as France, Holland, Denmark Austria and UK and Singapore, and was member of several ensembles including the FitzwilliamQuartet and the KatinPiano Trio. In 2008 he had recitals in Brussels, Paris, Budapest, Amsterdam and London. Pal has been a member of several chamber music formations, such as Fitzwilliam Quartet, Katin Piano Trio and was the cellist of the Allegri Quartet for 10 years till 2008.Pal also teaches at the Purcell School as well as giving masterclassesin the USA, Greece, Singapore Hungaryand England and was one of the directors of the PaxosInternational Festival from 1999-2004. Future recitals are planned for this spring in France, Belgium, Hungary and England. Pal is regularly invited as an adjudicator and a participant of the International Musicians Seminar at Prussia Cove.His cello is by T&L Carcassi, 1752.
Some of the press reviews:“...in the texturally detailed, inexorably unfolding slow variations – with some exceptionally lovely playing in the second of them from the Allegri'scurrent cellist, Pal Banda.“ (The Independent 9/1/04)“Pal Banda... sumptuously long-legged of tone.” (Sunday Independent 11/1/04)
Deborah Chandler - CELLO Support
Deborah is a freelance cellist working throughout the UK and abroad as a chamber, solo and orchestral musician. She graduated from the RNCM in 2006, where she studied with Emma Ferrand and has since continued her studies with Hannah Roberts, Pal Banda and Peter Dixon. Deborah performs with the Fenyo piano trio, with whom she recently toured Egypt and Jordan on board the Saga Ruby Cruise ship. In 2009 they will be cruising the Western Mediterranean and the British Isles. She plays with several freelance, professional and training orchestras such as the English Sinfonia, Orchestra of Northern Ballet Theatre, the National Symphony Orchestra, Britten Pears Orchestra and Sinfonia Cymru. Recent solo appearances include Haydn C major with the Tyneside Chamber Orchestra and Bach’s D minor cello suite in Alwinton, Northumberland. Deborah is an enthusiastic educator and enjoys providing everything from individual cello teaching and Orchestral coaching, to workshops with 30 or more children!
Julian Farrell - CLARINET
Julian Farrell studied the clarinet at the Royal College of Music and at The Akadamie fur Music und Darstellende Kunst in Vienna. Since entering the profession he has become recognised as one of London’s foremost clarinettists, playing with most of the leading orchestras and ensembles. He has also appeared as a soloist with orchestras such as the English chamber orchestra, The Orchestra of St Johns Smith Square and the Academy of St Martin in The Fields with whom he was principal clarinet for 25 years. Recent CD releases include a recording of English wind music with the Elysian Wind Quintet for Chandos, several CDs with the Fibonacci Sequence, and a critically acclaimed recording of The Mozart Clarinet Quintet with the Delme String Quartet. He is a regular broadcaster and in November played Messiaen’s quartet for the end of time live on radio 3 from the Bridgewater Hall in Manchester. He has been a Professor at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama since 1985.
Dr. Devorina Gamalova - VIOLIN; VIOLA
Devorina graduated as a solo violinist in 1988 from the State Academy of Music in Sofia under Prof. Bojan Letchev (D. Oistrach’s pupil) and Dora Bratchkova. The same year, she was appointed the leader of the Riesa Symphony Orchestra (currently Neue Elbland Philharmonie) in Germany, a position she held until 1992. She then moved to England for two years postgraduate study at the Royal College of Music with the remarkable Russian violinist Prof. Grigory Zhislin, whom she assisted from 1999 to 2003. In 1994 she was awarded The Leverhulme Trust Scholarship for a further year of advanced solo studies in viola at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama in London under Prof. David Takeno, and in 2002 she gained her Master’s degree. In 2008 she completed her PhD at the London College of Music (TVU) and was awarded the degree outright.
Since 1989, Devorina has worked extensively as a soloist and chamber musician, including performances for recordings, broadcasts and TV productions in Bulgaria, Germany, Italy and England (BBC Radio 3). Between 1995 and 1998, she was also a regular recitalist for Yehudi Menuhin’s Live Music Now! organisation.
She plays now a 1770 Joseph Gagliano violin and performs throughout Europe as a soloist, recitalist and quartet player.
Dr. Gamalova is also very much in demand as a teacher and combines regular teaching at several conservatories in London (TCM, LCM, GC) and Birmingham with masterclasses in UK, Germany, Bulgaria and Italy.
Besides her musical activities she is engaged in translating, publishing, organizational and research work.
“The Bulgarian violinist Devorina Gamalova is certainly a violinist with impressive dexterity. …Her silver tone is most attractive.
The Strad
Linda Kolláti - CELLO Support
Linda studied at the Lizst Academy in Budapest and later in New York and at London’s Guildhall.
A prize-winner at the Starker Competition, she has made her home in London since 2006.
Susan Marshall - VIOLIN
Susan read music at Hull University and has pursued a career in teaching and freelance playing. Since Duncan Druce first inspired her to take up the baroque violin she has specialised in performing on early bowed instruments, including medieval fiddle, rebec and renaissance violin. With Estampie she toured in the UK and recorded for Naxos. She now performs and records with the York Waits, is a member of Leeds Baroque Orchestra, Newcastle Baroque and chamber ensemble Arioso and leads The Early Baroque Band.
Edwina Smith - FLUTE
Edwina Smith’s performance repertoire ranges from baroque and classical music played on period instruments, to contemporary music theatre. She plays principal flute with Yorkshire Baroque Soloists, Newcastle Baroque and the Manchester-based Orchestra of the Golden Age, featuring on their recording of Telemann’s complete ‘Tafelmusik’ (Naxos). She also performs, on period instruments, with the Eighteenth Century Sinfonia and Café Mozart, whilst on the modern instrument Edwina is a freelance solo, chamber and orchestral flautist. She has recorded for BBC radio and television on baroque, nineteenth-century and modern flutes, and has commissioned and performed several contemporary works for baroque flute.
Edwina teaches modern and baroque flute at the Universities of York and York St. John, also providing specialist baroque tuition and advice for occasional students from Huddersfield and Newcastle Universities. In addition to performing and teaching, she is the flute consultant for the Edinburgh University Collection of Historic Musical Instruments and has contributed performances to a website demonstrating and describing a number of these instruments (www.music.ed.ac.uk/euchmi). Her catalogue of nearly 300 flutes held by this collection is now in its third edition, and she is currently preparing a second edition of the catalogue of recorders and flageolets in the same collection.
Together with Dr Derek McCulloch, Edwina has prepared a new edition for Corda Music of Haydn’s trios for two flutes and cello (Hob. IV: 1-4), incorporating variants found in early nineteenth century editions. She contributed an article on this edition to the Haydn Society Journal, and has recorded two of the trios with Café Mozart as part of a CD of works by Haydn and the Earl of Abingdon (Naxos).
Ruth Spargo - CELLO Support
Ruth studied at the RNCM where she won prizes for chamber music.
She graduated in 2008, completing her Masters degree the following year and is currently a recipient of a North Nibley Bursary.
Charlotte Wilson - HARPSICHORD
Although Charlotte initially entered the RNCM to study piano. She later completed a Masters in harpsichord and is funded by the Musicians Benevolent Fund and the Countess of Munster Trust to continue harpsichord performance studies.
In May 2007, Charlotte made her London debut with a warmly received recital for the British Harpsichord Society at the Handel House Museum.