MUSICIANS IN RESIDENCE
St John’s offers the Musicians-in-Residence scheme to encourage and develop talented young musicians, who offer their services free to the liturgical music programme of the church. In return for this, the church offers the use of its space for teaching and occasional concert work. Now in its sixth year, this scheme provides mutual benefits to the church and the musicians. It is administered by the Director of Music, and the Parochial Church Council.
Devoted to promoting women in classical music, the Tailleferre Ensemble is a UK- based chamber collective founded by oboists Nicola Hands and Penelope Smith. Since its inception in 2019 the group has gone from strength to strength. The ensemble’s work encompasses diverse instrumentation, time periods, and genres, with a particular onus on promoting underrepresented and underappreciated works and composers, both historical and contemporary. Their playing has been praised for its ‘extensive palette of timbres’.
In February 2023 the ensemble released their debut album There are Things to be Said, which reviewers praised for their ‘superb musicianship’ and ‘effortless’ performance. Textura magazine celebrated it as an ‘exceptional debut’ on account of ‘the beauty and precision of the musicians’ playing and their sensitivity to dynamics.’ The ensemble has enjoyed airtime on radio stations across Europe and Canada, and is developing an ongoing relationship with BBC Radio 3. They are especially proud to have ongoing collaborations with numerous contemporary composers, many of whom have dedicated new works to them, including Ingrid Stölzel, Rhian Samuel, Sally Wave, Jonathan Heeley, and Dana Joras.
Recently the ensemble has performed at London’s Conway Hall and St. John’s Smith Square, and are repeat artists for the Nottingham Chamber Music Festival and Leatherhead Concert & Arts Society. They regularly perform in recital series around the UK, including at St. James Piccadilly, Aylesbury Lunchtime Concerts, Music-at-Hill, St. John’s ARC, and Brighton’s Chapel Royal. The ensemble has also collaborated with Façade Ensemble and the South Florida Chamber Ensemble.
Individual members’ own playing experience includes with orchestras such as Philharmonia Orchestra, BBC Symphony Orchestra, BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra, English National Opera, BBC National Orchestra of Wales, Aurora Orchestra, RTÉ Concert Orchestra, Royal Scottish National Orchestra, Scottish Chamber Orchestra, Ulster Orchestra, Wexford Festival Opera orchestra and the Orchestra of the Royal Opera House, as well as venues such as the National Theatre, Royal Opera House, London Coliseum, Wilderness Festival, Edinburgh Festival Fringe, National Portrait Gallery, and Wigmore Hall, and recording at Abbey Road Studios.
The Cat’s Cradle has performed in the Royal Academy of Arts, Amaryllis Fleming concert hall, in the Britten Theatre and the Portuguese Embassy in London. With Foreign Body Productions, they created the filmed concert “Das Tripas Coração - Em Carne e Osso” for the celebration of the world day of Portuguese Language, and have been featured in the past years in international radio shows, such as Das Tripas Coração, a programme of new music inspired by traditional music, broadcast by the Portuguese national radio Antena 2.
Most recently, the Cat’s Cradle came back to the live stage with “Songs my mother taught me”, a performance with poetry, in collaboration with the actress Marta Carvalho, that included music inspired by folk tunes, with works by Holst, Ives, Brahms, Bartók and many living composers, performed in the Union Chapel Bar.
The members of the Cat’s Cradle Collective look forward to performing in the beautiful space of St John’s Church!
The Cat’s Cradle Collective is a London based chamber orchestra that takes its name from one of the oldest games in recorded human history - the cat’s cradle. Using simply one string - alone, in pairs, or in groups - across times and cultures, humans have created figures, invented stories, and let their imagination soar.
As a collective, created in 2018 by António Sá-Dantas and Maren Bosma, we aim to create musical performances based on that sense of intimacy, timelessness,
playfulness and freedom of imagination. Curated by the chamber orchestra’s artistic director António, the Cat’s Cradle Collective brings together music from different styles, written and arranged for chamber orchestra, into unique performances in collaboration with other art forms and go beyond the typical concert.
Cat’s Cradle Collective
Orfeas String Quartet.
The Orfeas String Quartet was formed in 2004 by graduates of the Royal Academy and Trinity College of Music. In its initial stages the quartet worked intensively with Michael Bochmann and George Hadjinikos developing its own sounds and ethos. Always aspiring for beauty of line and unity, their sound is unique and has been highly praised. They have given numerous acclaimed performances of lesser known and new repertoire. They were formerly known as the Brunelleschi String Quartet.
Contact: Orpheus Papafilippou
Email: orpheusviolinist@googlemail.com
Phone: 07791 804 764