Biographies
Paul Barritt - violin
A musician whose career comprises the roles of concertmaster, concerto soloist, chamber musician and recital soloist, Paul Barritt is Permanent Guest Leader of the Halle Orchestra, having previously held the posts of leader of the English Chamber Orchestra and the Northern Sinfonia. As a concerto soloist Paul, has regularly appeared with the ECO and the Northern Sinfonia. He directed Isaac Stern's 75th Birthday Concert at the Barbican and played the Bach Double Violin Concerto with Maxim Vengerov at the London Proms, and in Germany, Spain and Switzerland with the English Chamber Orchestra. In 1999 he formed a violin piano duo with pianist James Lisney. The Duo's 4-disc set of all of Beethoven's music for violin and piano has received very favourable reviews, ("Sunny and warm as Fritz Kreisler, thoughtful as Joseph Szigeti")- Fanfare USA) and was Classic FM Magazine's Instrumental Disc of the Month, March 2007. His discography includes CDs of the violin works of Herbert Howells, John Ireland, Stanford, Rheinberger, Albert Sammons "The English Kreisler"(Hyperion), Rozsa (Cloud 9), Schoeck (Guild). Paul runs a burgeoning series of chamber music concerts in his home town of Tring in Hertfordshire, dedicated to taking the stuffiness out of the concert going experience.
Bradley Creswick – violin
Bradley Creswick has a long association with Northern Sinfonia going back to 1984 when he was first appointed leader. The musical life then, as now, was amazingly rich and varied, providing some personal highlights such as the EMI recording of Vaughan Williams’ Lark Ascending and Concerto Accademico with Richard Hickox, performing Prokofiev’s Concerto no.2 for Radio 3 and recording all the Handel op.6 Concerti grossi with George Malcolm. More recent recordings include: Handel Concerti grossi op.3 for Naxos and the Sinfonia Concertante for Violin and Viola by Mozart with the Zurich Chamber Orchestra. In 1987 Bradley moved to London to lead the Philharmonia, still maintaining his relationship with the Sinfonia, making guest appearances, notably as soloist with them in the 1989 BBC Proms playing the Lark Ascending. The London years continued as leader of the Orchestra of the Royal Opera House before taking the opportunity, in 1994, to return to the Sinfonia and the Northeast for a second time. Working at The Sage Gateshead now provides the chance to play with an even greater variety of musicians, such as James Crabb and Bruce Molsky. Recently, Bradley has been invited twice to Marlboro Music Festival in America and is asked regularly to guest lead a wide range of orchestras. Playing with friends is a vibrant part of life and he relishes the chance to play with the pianist Margaret Fingerhut, giving recitals around the country; and has occasionally been heard playing western swing fiddle ‘back home’.
Ronald Birks – violin
A highly regarded veteran of the global chamber music community, Ronald Birks began taking violin lessons at the age of ten. He progressed rapidly, becoming a member of the National Youth Orchestra of Great Britain in 1959. Between 1966-69 he was a student at the Royal Manchester College of Music, during which time he studied the quartet repertoire with Alexandre Moskovsky, formerly of the Hungarian String Quartet. Ronald became a member of the Northern Sinfonia Orchestra in 1969, and spent two years with them. In 1971 he was invited to become second violin of the Lindsay String Quartet, with whom he remained until the quartet’s retirement in 2005. Highlights of Ronald’s career with the LSQ included performance of complete Beethoven cycles in many major cities of the world, recording two complete Beethoven cycles and all six Bartok quartets, and working intensively with Sir Michael Tippett on the interpretation, performance, and recording of his five string quartets. In late 2009, Ronald was invited to become a member of the Chilingirian String Quartet, with a public debut at the Quartet’s appearances in Venezuela in January 2010.
Catherine Yates – violin
Catherine began her musical studies with Marion Hillier before courses at Chetham’s School of Music, the Royal Northern College of Music and Yale University. Having spent nearly twenty years as 2nd violinist of the Sorrel Quartet and enjoying all that quartet life has to offer, she is currently Principal 2nd Violin in a rather larger body of people, the Halle Orchestra. Between furious bouts of rehearsals and concerts, she loves walking in the Peak District, cooking, theatre, opera, books, ceramics (buying rather than making!), wine and The Great Kathmandu Restaurant, West Didsbury.
James Dickenson – violin
James Dickenson studied both in the UK and the USA and lists Lydia Mordkovitch, Danny Phillips, Jerry Horner, Wen Zhou and Chris Rowland amongst his many teachers and mentors. After graduation from the Royal Northern College of Music James left the UK to lead the Degas Quartet in the USA. With this quartet James gave concerts across the USA including at the Carnegie Hall and the Aspen Festival whilst the quartet held residencies in more than ten universities. Since leaving the quartet in 2007 James has returned to the UK to continue his teaching, performing and chamber music career. Passionate about new music James has worked closely with many US composers including Jeffrey Mumford and Andrew Wagonner. He is currently commissioning a new piece from Shafer Mahoney.
Tamaki Dickenson - violin
Japanese-born violinist and violist Tamaki Dickenson was invited to study with Lewis Kaplan in New York city and received both bachelors and masters degree from Mannes College of Music. She formed the award winning Degas Quartet in 2002 and the quartet appeared in US’s prestigious venues such as Carnegie Hall, Aspen Music Festival and Library of Congress as well as the broadcast on NPR.
Tamaki moved to UK in 2007 and since then she has been enjoying being involved in many aspects of music such as teaching, soloist, chamber music and orchestral playing. Being passionate to education and bringing music to the community, Tamaki organized the outreach project in North Carolina, USA and Kagoshima, Japan.
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David Aspin - viola
David Aspin studied at the Royal College of Music on an Exhibition Scholarship with Roger Best and as a post-graduate Wall Scholar with Simon Rowland-Jones. Whilst at the college David won prizes for solo and chamber music including the diploma recital prize and the Bernard Shore Memorial Award. David is a member of Psappha; the North-West’s leading contemporary group which is resident at the University of Manchester. The group have performed at the BBC Proms, toured internationally, including performances in Buenos Aires and Lisbon, as well as regularly recording for CD, radio and webcasts. As a soloist, David has performed in the UK and overseas including the RNCM’s Turnage Festival, Three Choirs Festival and a recital/masterclass for the New Zealand National Music Teacher’s Association. In March 2006, David performed and recorded the Telemann viola concerto with the Lancashire Sinfonietta. Other concerto appearances include works by Bartok, Berlioz, Britten, Bruch, Mozart, Turnage and Vaughan Williams. David is principal violist of the Orchestra of Opera North and the Lancashire Sinfonietta. David has also appeared as guest principal of the Manchester Camerata, BBC Philharmonic,Halle, Royal Liverpool Philharmonic, BBC Scottish Symphony and the Oslo Philharmonic Orchestras. David is a regular sectional coach at the RNCM and this year has taught on the Halle/RNCM Strings Leadership course. Recently David joined the viola faculty at the RNCM.
Louise Williams - viola
Chamber music has dominated Louise Williams’ career. After studying violin in London and New York, she joined the Endellion quartet as a founding member in 1979. In 1987, returning from travels in India and a year as a gardener, she joined the Chilingirian quartet as violist. In 1995, after a gap of several years having children, she returned to music part-time, playing as a guest with the Takacs quartet and others, and began a long and fruitful relationship with the Lindsays with whom she played up to their final concerts. She was also a member of the Raphael Ensemble (sextet), has played and recorded with the pianist David Owen Norris and is currently a member of the Frith piano quartet and the group Arpège, (flute viola harp horn). In addition to chamber music, she has also recently enjoyed playing with Britten Sinfonia and Andras Schiff’s orchestra, Cappella Andrea Barca. Louise plays a Brothers Amati viola made in Cremona in 1616. She has recorded the complete Bartok and Dvorak Quartets with the Chilingirian Quartet, Mozart and Beethoven quintets with the Lindsays, and a CD of Bridge viola pieces. This season includes a cycle of the Beethoven violin sonatas with Kathron Sturrock, and two more recordings of British music from the early 20th century.
Helen Thatcher - cello
Helen chose to start playing the cello at the age of 7 because it was bigger than anything her brother or sister played. In 1987 she formed the Sorrel Quartet whilst at college at the Royal Northern College of Music. However most of her student days were spent at the University of Manchester. Having graduated from both institutions she concentrated on the flourishing career of the quartet for two decades: residencies at various universities, recordings including the complete quartets of Shostakovich and Britten and concerts all over the world. Concert tours broadened her horizons chasing wild horses in South America , flying in a helicopter over the Seychelles and so on. Helen performs as a soloist and recitalist. Claims to fame include playing at Stephen Spender's memorial concert and appearing on stage with Jimmy Page and Robert Plant. She was also principal cello of the Northern Chamber Orchestra for several years. She has recently created the Erringden ensemble: a versatile ensemble made-up of experienced chamber players. Helen teaches at the University of Huddersfield and gives regular masterclasses at the Royal Academy of Music.
Hannah Roberts - cello
Hannah Roberts is one of the outstanding ‘cellists of her generation, having distinguished herself in numerous competitions and having performed as soloist and chamber musician widely in BBC broadcasts and in many prestigious venues in the UK and internationally. She performs in recital regularly with husband pianist and composer Simon Parkin and has appeared on numerous occasions in prestigious festivals such as the RNCM International Cello Festival. Hannah plays as principal ‘cellist with Manchester Camerata and is also a dedicated and sought after teacher, giving masterclasses and on the RNCM faculty, whose previous students now include prominent soloists, chamber musicians and orchestral players.