Artist Biographies

Escher String Quartet

Taking its name from the Dutch graphic artist, M C Escher, the Escher Quartet was formed in 2005 and was immediately invited to perform at the summer festivals of both Pinchas Zukerman and Itzhak Perlman. They regularly give concerts at major chamber music venues from coast to coast in the USA. The Quartet opened the 2011-2012 season of The Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center. They were selected as BBC’s ‘New Generation Artists’’ for 2010-2012 and will play at Wigmore Hall the day after their concert at Holkham. Recording plans include two discs for BBC and the complete Zemlinksy Quartets for Naxos. Three cornerstones of the string quartet repertoire make up their strong programme.

Simon Rowland-Jones

Simon Rowland-Jones is a violist and is well known as a performer, editor, composer and teacher. He was founder violist of the Chilingirian Quartet and, together with Barry Cheeseman,, they founded the North Norfolk Music Festival in 2005. Simon will be giving an illustrated talk before the Escher Quartet's concert which he entitles: Bartók’s String Quartet No.5, the greatest string quartet of the 20th century? Simon remarks "Even today the mere mention of Bartók can be intimidating, so I am giving an illustrated talk before the Escher Quartet’s concert explaining just why I rate Bartók’s string quartets so highly. According to Bartók himself, he discovered his unique ‘voice’ by looking back into folk music traditions from the region of his birth. The 5th string quartet was composed nearly 80 years ago and demonstrates this, as well as a deep understanding of classical traditions, with astounding originality and invention. Now is surely time for us to listen with fresh minds to this magnificent work and enjoy its powerful rhetoric, its evocative ‘night-music’, its swirling dance rhythms and the very ‘modern’ way that Bartók re-presents his beloved Magyar folk music."

Dame Felicity Palmer

Dame Felicity Palmer is known to audiences the world over. During the last four decades she has sung at every major opera house. Her distinctive timbre, versatility and great acting skills have all combined to keep her at the forefront of her profession. She has had a particularly close relationship with the Metropolitan Opera New York City, the Royal Opera Covent Garden and with Glyndebourne. She has worked with every major conductor and orchestra both at home and abroad. Dame Felicity’s repertoire is astonishingly wide as she has taken on new roles each season. Most recently she sang the role of Klytemnestra in Elektra at the Met, at the Barbican with Gergiev and at the Teatro dell'Opera, Rome. In the spring of 2012 she will appear in Peter Grimes at La Scala, Milan. Dame Felicity and Simon Lepper will be repeating their recital at the Opéra Comique, Paris a few days after performing at Holkham on 18th March.

Simon Lepper

Simon Lepper is one of the leading accompanists of his generation, working with the world's top singers. He appeared at Holkham in September 2011 in recital with Nelly Miricioiu given as part of the North Norfolk Music Festival.

Elizabeth Watts

Elizabeth Watts was born in Norwich and was a chorister at Norwich Cathedral. After winning several major competitions including the Kathleen Ferrier Award in 2006 and the Song Prize at BBC Cardiff Singer of the World 2007, she quickly established herself as the country’s leading young soprano. She divides her career between the concert platform, song recitals and opera. Career highlights include Marzelline and Zerlina at the Royal Opera House Covent Garden, Almirena in Handel’s Rinaldo for Glyndebourne Touring Opera in the autumn of 2011 and Susannna and Pamina for Welsh National Opera. She has performed twice at the North Norfolk Music Festival.

Julius Drake

Julius Drake needs no introduction to Holkham audiences, having been Artistic Director and regular performer here between 2005/10. He works with the leading singers of the day including Mark Padmore, Angelika Kirschlager, Ian Bostridge, Joyce DiDonato, Christoph Prégardien and Alice Coote. He appears frequently at Wigmore Hall and is a regular at the Schubertiade in Schwarzenberg each summer.

Kungsbacka Piano Trio

Formed in 1997 and named after the Swedish town where the trio gave its first performance, the Kungsbacka Piano Trio won first prize in the prestigious Melbourne International Chamber Music Competition in 1999. They perform regularly at major concert venues around the world and this season will play at Wigmore Hall and at the Mecklenburg-Vorpommern Festival. The trio's first recording was of Schubert on the NAXOS label and was released in 2006 to critical acclaim. Since then the trio has recorded Mozart's complete works for piano trio and piano trios by Haydn. Each member of the trio also teaches at The School of Music at Gothenburg University. The Kungsbacka’s programme begins with two piano trios of Ludwig van Beethoven. First we are to hear the early “Kakadu” Variations and then Op.1 No.1, the dynamic trio in E flat. The Beethoven trios are well contrasted by Tchaikovsky’s chamber music masterpiece, the majestic yet deeply personal Piano Trio in A minor.

Andrei Bondarenko

The Ukrainian baritone Andrei Bondarenko sprang to international prominence in the 2011 BBC Cardiff Singer of the World competition where he won the first prize in the song competition and was a sensational finalist in the main competition. Born in 1987 he studied at the Kiev Conservatoire and since 2007 has been a member of the Mariinsky Vocal Academy in St Petersburg. He took part in the Young Artists’ Programme at the 2009 Salzburg Festival, sung the role of Malatesta in Donizetti’s Don Pasquale for Glyndebourne Touring Opera and will sing Marcello in La Bohème at the 2012 Glyndebourne Festival.

Gary Matthewman

One of the best known accompanists of his generation. Gary's recent and future recital partners include Sir Thomas Allen, Thomas Quasthoff, Elizabeth Watts, Simon Keenlyside, Kate Royal, Dame Josephine Barstow, and Sumi Jo. He recently joined BBC Cardiff Singer of the World as official accompanist, and performed together with Andrei Bondarenko at his début Carnegie Hall recital in October 2011.

Brodowski Quartet

The Brodowski String Quartet burst on to the London musical scene in 2008 winning a clutch of major prizes including first prize winner of the Royal Overseas League Competition for the best chamber ensemble. They have a busy career and play regularly at Bristol University and Warwick School where they are Quartet in Residence. They are also Associate Artists at The Anvil Concert Hall in Basingstoke. They will perform at King’s Place in London in May 2012. The Brodowski appeared at the 2009 North Norfolk Music Festival, where, together with the Carducci Quartet, they gave the world première of Simon Rowland-Jones’s Octet. Three of the most celebrated of all string quartets make up the Brodowski’s programme, from Haydn’s last complete work for the genre to Smetana’s revolutionary “tone picture of my life”. Schubert was beginning to face serious illness and his own mortality when the great D minor quartet sprang from his pen.

Leon McCawley

Since winning major prizes in both the Beethoven Piano Competition in Vienna and the Leeds International Piano Competition in 1993 when he was just 19, Leon McCawley has been at the forefront of musical life in both this country and around the world. In April 2011 he played all the Mozart piano sonatas over a single weekend at King’s Place to rapturous audiences and reviews. To celebrate the 150th anniversary of Debussy’s birth in 2012, Leon McCawley presents a wide-ranging and illuminating programme that charts the influences on Debussy’s pianistic style. Debussy’s early work, Pour le Piano, with its neo-Baroque leanings and Rococo decorousness harks back to the flamboyant and virtuosic Italian concerto of Bach. His atmospheric depiction Cloches à Travers les Feuilles (bells through the leaves) sits beside two other bell-inspired works of Liszt and Rachmaninov. Other works featured are by the great romantic poet and colourist of the keyboard Chopin, whose evocative Nocturnes were surely an inspiration to Debussy, and finally, Schumann’s celebratory and inventive Carnaval, a collection of short pieces representing masked revellers where Schumann gives musical expression to himself, his friends and colleagues, and characters from La Commedia dell’Arte, a work full of fantasy and vivid imagination.