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Park Theatre and Ostara Chamber Players present
Coffee, Croissant and a Concert
ANN CRISCUOLO
HANNAH SHAW
SARAH BUTCHER
SIJIE CHEN
JUDITH BUSBRIDGE
LUCY WATERHOUSE
MAGDALENA LOTH-HILL
PENNY DRIVER
CLARE FINNIMORE
GABY LESTER
BEN DANIEL-GREEP
Ann Criscuolo
Ann is a member of the London Mozart Players and has also played regularly with the Philharmonia Orchestra, the Orchestra of the Royal Opera House Covent Garden as well as playing chamber music.
When not performing, Ann enjoys teaching violin and coaching music groups.
Originally from Dorset, Ann likes kayaking around Poole Harbour.
Hannah Shaw
Hannah Shaw is a member of the Eusebius Quartet, enjoys playing baroque and classical viola with Arcangelo, the Irish Baroque Orchestra, the Mozartists, Le Foyer des Artistes, and Anima Eterna Brugge; and she also regularly performs as a guest in a various chamber orchestras, including O/Modernt, 12 Ensemble, Scottish Chamber Orchestra, Chamber Orchestra of Europe, London Mozart Players, and the Netherlands Chamber Orchestra. An avid knitter, you can often spot Hannah sporting a pair of self-made socks. An equally avid but less experienced amateur instrument maker, she is also currently making her first instrument, a baroque viola.
Sarah Butcher
During her varied freelance career Sarah has played for the BBCSO, OAE, Hanover Band, South London Inclusive Dance Experience and Peter Gabriel’s New Blood Orchestra. A long-time member of the London Mozart Players and Glyndebourne Touring Orchestra, she also edits audiobooks in her spare time. An active member of Greenpeace she has also stood twice for the Green Party in local elections.
Sijie ‘Susie’ Chen
Sijie enjoys a varied career playing modern and period violins. Her love of chamber music has led to collaborations with Nicola Benedetti, Roderick Williams, Christoph Richter and Huw Watkins; at the Edinburgh International Festival, Prussia Cove Open Chamber Music and other festivals worldwide.
Sijie was a string finalist in the BBC Young Musician of the Year Competition 2004. She is the co-leader of the London Mozart Players, tours with the Academy of St. Martin in the Fields and was previously a member of the Scottish Chamber Orchestra. On period instruments she plays with the Academy of Ancient Music and the English Concert.
Since 2020 she has been moonlighting as a ukulele chanteuse, and loves taking photographs of trees.
Judith Busbridge
Judith is principal viola in the Orchestra of the Royal Opera House and leader of the violas in the London Mozart Players. For over 20 years she has been principal viola for Sir John Eliot Gardiner, playing late classical and romantic repertoire on gut strings. Her house is filled with her own hand-made pottery, some of which is quite remarkable…
Lucy Waterhouse
Lucy is a freelance violinist who has always worked in orchestras & bands large & small, ancient & modern, classical & funky (London Mozart Players, Philharmonia Orchestra, Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment, Tango Volcano, Almagro Ensemble to name a few); she teaches at Junior Trinity, leads workshops for Apollo Music Projects, coaches on chamber music courses for teens (NCMC). Since 2020 she's started a new venture as a narrator of audiobooks and also began cold swimming in our local open water haven, The West Reservoir.
Magdalena Loth-Hill
British-Polish violinist Magdalena Loth-Hill is a founding member of the Consone Quartet and plays with Ensemble Hesperi. She is a regular player with the Academy of Ancient Music and has recorded for the British Library ‘Georgians Revealed’ exhibition and the ABRSM syllabus. In 2016, Magdalena travelled to Bolivia, where her two recitals as 'Artist of the Festival' officially opened the Misiones de Chiquitos Festival. During the pandemic, Magdalena took up highland dancing to keep warm in rural Cumbria.
Penny Driver
Penny was co-principal cellist with the Amsterdam Baroque Orchestra and currently performs with the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment and the LSO. She teaches some of the UK’s top young cellists at Wells Cathedral School and loves introducing young people to chamber music, co-directing con spirito chamber music Sundays at her N4 home. Her favourite thing is hiking in the French Alps - so easily reached by train from Finsbury Park.
Clare Finnimore
Clare is principal viola of Britten Sinfonia and Head of Strings at The Perse Upper School where she teaches violin, viola and coaches chamber music. She is also grandmother to Phoebe Mae.
Gaby Lester
Gaby studied in Salzburg with Sandor Vegh.
She played principal 2nd in the COE for eight years followed by a ten year voyage into the symphonic repertoire where she was principal 2nd violin in the CBSO for the last years of Simon Rattles tenure followed by being assistant leader of The Royal Philharmonic Orchestra. For 10 years Gaby was a member of The Barbican Trio and The Michael Nyman Band and regularly takes part in IMS Prussia Cove. She is professor of violin and assistant head of strings, orchestral strings at The Royal College of Music.
This year Gaby recorded all the Beethoven Piano and Violin Sonatas with Caroline Palmer,she enjoys yoga and is obsessed with knitting!
Ben Daniel-Greep
Ben started double bass at the age of 12, and within a year he was accepted into the Yehudi Menuhin School on a scholarship. He went on to study at both the Royal College of Music and Royal Academy of Music in London, graduating in 2016. Since then he has enjoyed a busy career, working with the London Symphony Orchestra, Royal Philharmonic Orchestra and Aurora Orchestra to name a few, in London's West End, on shows like Phantom of the Opera, Les Miserables, Mary Poppins and many others. He also frequently finds himself at Abbey Road and Air Studios, recording music for film and TV. Ben enjoys working in all sizes and varieties of music, from avant-garde chamber works to classical symphonies and pop albums. Ben learned computer programming in 2021 and now builds websites when he's not playing double bass.
Orland Jopling
Orlando studied with Alexander Baillie, William Pleeth and Raphael Wallfisch, and took masterclasses with David Takeno, Paul Tortelier, Stephen Isserlis and Ralph Kirschbaum.
Chamber music has always been a central part of his life, collaborating with Anthony Marwood, Elena Urioste, Ben Goldscheider, Sijie Chen, Mark Padmore, Tim Ridout, Felicity Lott, Tom Poster, Simon Blendis, the London Sinfonietta, Rebecca Gilliver, Ben Gilmore, Endymion Ensemble, Lawrence Power, Piers Lane, Nika Goriç, Tim Hugh, Boris Giltburg, James Gilchrist and Benjamin Grosvenor. In his spare time he runs a chamber opera company that tours to 30 venues each summer wildarts.org.uk
Sijie ‘Susie’ Chen - Violin
Chinese-born violinist Sijie ‘Susie’ Chen moved to the UK when she was five years old. While studying in the UK, US and Germany, she was a string finalist in the BBC Young Musician of the Year Competition. She now enjoys a varied career playing modern and period violins.
Sijie’s chamber collaborations have included performances with Nicola Benedetti, Roderick Williams, Iestyn Davies, Alasdair Beatson and Huw Watkins; at the Edinburgh International Festival, Prussia Cove Open Chamber Music and other festivals worldwide. She co-founded the Bloomsbury Players to explore chamber repertoire on gut strings.
Sijie is the co-leader of the London Mozart Players, tours with the Academy of St. Martin in the Fields and was previously a member of the Scottish Chamber Orchestra. On period instruments she plays with the Academy of Ancient Music, the English Concert and the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment.
During lockdown, Sijie moonlighted as a ukulele chanteuse!
Will McGahon - Violin
Will McGahon is an energetic violinist enjoying a varied musical career as a historical performer, chamber-musician and orchestral player performing in the UK and across Europe.
Will enjoys playing regularly with some of the UK’s leading historical orchestras including Orchestrè Révolutionnaire et Romantique, Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment, Solomon’s Knot and The Hanover Band. He is also a freelancer in some of the UK’s finest ensembles such as Scottish Chamber Orchestra, United Strings of Europe and Manchester Collective.
Will’s great grandfather invented prawn cocktail flavouring for ‘Skips’ crisps!
As a child Will memorised the entirety of the Revolting Rhymes my Roald Dahl and would recite them at family events
Christine Anderson - Viola
Christine Anderson grew up in Glasgow, where she studied at both the junior and senior departments of the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland, before completing her Masters at the Royal College of Music with Simon Rowland Jones.
Christine joined the Hallé in 2016, and enjoyed several years with the orchestra; highlights included Wagner’s Siegfried at the Edinburgh Festival, playing with Bjork at Bluedot Festival, and premiering chamber music by Dobrinka Tabakova. Last year, she left Manchester and joined the London Mozart Players as No. 4 Viola. She enjoys a busy freelance career, touring with orchestras such as Aurora and the RPO, and playing guest co-principal with the Philharmonia and the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra.
Christine often performs with ground-breaking chamber collectives, such as the United Strings of Europe, Manchester Collective, and Her Ensemble. She is passionate about the importance of the classical music world being a place where everybody can feel included and represented. Christine was recently asked to write an article by the MU for Women’s History Month, with some thoughts on the experience of women in classical music - she called it “Campaign for Female Mediocrity” and it is published on the MU website.
When she’s not playing the viola, Christine enjoys running. She ran the Hackney Half Marathon yesterday, so if it looks like she’s struggling to walk today, you’ll know why!
Tom Isaac - Cello
Following his studies with Christoph Richter at the Royal Academy of Music, Thomas was appointed co-principal cellist of the Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra, a position he combines with regular chamber music and solo performances.
Recent performances include Schumann’s Cello Concerto at the Musique en Re Festival, Haydn’s Concerto No. 2 in D major with the Academy of St Thomas, the Dvorak and Elgar concertos, unaccompanied Bach at The Grange Festival, Penderecki’s ‘Per Slava’ at the Shanghai International Cello Festival, concerts at London’s Wigmore Hall and the Tivoli Festival Copenhagen with Rachel Podger, and chamber music by Colin Matthews at the Proms, broadcast on BBC Radio 3.
Outside of his work with BSO, Thomas is much in demand as a principal cellist, most recently with the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra, London Mozart Players, BBC Symphony orchestra, Ulster Orchestra, RTE Concert Orchestra and appears regularly in the LSO. His chamber ensemble, ‘Pocket Sinfonia’ release their debut CD recorded on period instruments, “The Symphony Reimagined”, in the new year.
Thomas plays on a fine modern cello built in 2019 by Frank Ravatin, kindly provided by Lewis and Hilary Jarrett.
Tom never wears paired socks
Tom is an enthusiast yachtsman but has been rescued by the RNLI three times!
Orlando Jopling - Cello
Orlando studied with Alexander Baillie, William Pleeth and Raphael Wallfisch, and took masterclasses with David Takeno, Paul Tortelier, Stephen Isserlis and Ralph Kirschbaum.
Chamber music has always been a central part of his life, collaborating with Anthony Marwood, Elena Urioste, Ben Goldscheider, Sijie Chen, Mark Padmore, Tim Ridout, Felicity Lott, Tom Poster, Simon Blendis, the London Sinfonietta, Rebecca Gilliver, Ben Gilmore, Endymion Ensemble, Lawrence Power, Piers Lane, Nika Goriç, Tim Hugh, Boris Giltburg, James Gilchrist and Benjamin Grosvenor.
In his spare time he runs a chamber opera company that tours to 30 venues each summer wildarts.org.uk