News and Reviews

News: A Summer of Festivals for sinfonia ViVA
May 2007

sinfonia ViVA is gearing up for an exciting summer of festivals with the highlights being a debut at Ulverston International Music Festival and return appearances at the celebrated festivals in Buxton and Oundle.

ViVA's festival season starts with a concert of music by Mozart, Schumann and Beethoven at the Coronation Hall in Ulverston, the Lake District's festival town. The concert sees the conducting debut with the Orchestra of celebrated young cellist Thomas Carroll who has, over the past five years, worked closely with ViVA's Principal Guest Conductor Nicholas Kok to develop his conducting skills.

Thomas Carroll studied with Melissa Phelps at the Yehudi Menuhin School, then with Heinrich Schiff in Austria before being selected for representation by YCAT in 2000 and the Young Concert Artists, Inc in New York. He also won the String section of the BBC Young Musicians' Competition in 1992 and has worked with ViVA for several years as a soloist.

The soloist in the Ulverston concert is Anthony Hewitt who won the top prize in the William Kapell International Piano Competition in Washington D.C. and has been described by the New York Times as 'an excellent pianist, showing impressive clarity fleet technique and a wide range of tonal colours'. The concert will start with Mozart's Symphony No.29 - a work composed in 1774, which subsequently became his firm favourite on his tours. Schumann's Piano Concerto was premiered in 1846 with the composer's wife Clara as soloist and the German composer Ferdinand Hiller conducting. And Beethoven's Symphony No.7 is regarded as one of the composer's 'greatest hits' of the period with its exceptional vitality losing none of its impact over time.

Thomas Carroll said: "I have been very fortunate to have enjoyed a close collaboration with ViVA and Nicholas over the past few years firstly as a soloist finding his way in the world and now as a conductor. Each time, one has courage to be more free, knowing that the Orchestra is giving its full support and the concerts become like a wonderful chamber music experience. As a string player, I find it naturally most easy when reading a score to understand the language of the strings. The challenge as conductor is to gain a whole picture of the work, bring out its character shape and dimensions and hopefully convey the spirit and its meaning to the audience. I have no doubt whatsoever thought that, with ViVA, I will have the best chance I could wish for to achieve this."

The festival season continues with a ViVA octet performing a programme of sumptuous classics, firstly at the Palace Hotel on Friday July 20 as part of the Buxton Festival and then on Saturday July 21 at St Peter's Parish Church as part of the Oundle Festival. The programme starts with Richard Strauss's musical account of the adventures of the eponymous practical joker Till with Till Eulenspiegel Einmal Anders (in arrangement for quintent); then onto Mahler's Lieder eines fahrenden Gesellen, arranged by Andreas Tarkmann, which follows the traveller of the title through four episodic movements. The programme finishes with Schubert's Octet - modelled on the work of Beethoven and one of a group of chamber compositions from 1824.

The ViVA octet will be directed from the violin by Orchestra Leader and Artistic Advisor Benedict Holland and features internationally renowned mezzo-soprano Ann Murray.

Ann Murray was born in Dublin and studied with Frederick Cox at the Royal Manchester College of Music. She has established close links with both the English National Opera and with the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden. Much sought after as a concert singer, she has sung with the Orchestre de Paris, the Philadelphia Orchestra, the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra and the Chicago Symphony Orchestra. She sings in Great Britain with the leading orchestras, at the BBC Promenade Concerts (where she has sung at both the First and Last Nights of the Proms) and at the major festivals. In 1997 Ann Murray was made an Honorary Doctor of Music by the National University of Ireland, in 1998 she was made a Kammersängerin of the Bavarian State Opera and in 1999 an Honorary Fellow of the Royal Academy of Music. In the 2002 Golden Jubilee Queen's Birthday Honours she was appointed an honorary Dame Commander of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire. In 2004 she was awarded the Bavarian Order of Merit.

Media enquiries: Sarah Jenkin-Jones, JJPR, Tel: 01332 515102/07951 945 665 or email sarah@jjpublicrelations.co.uk