THE PRIMROSE PIANO QUARTET
Susanne Stanzeleit, violin – Dorothea Vogel, viola – Andrew Fuller, cello – John Thwaites, piano
The Primrose Piano Quartet was formed in 2004 by four renowned chamber musicians and is named after the great Scottish violist, William Primrose, who himself played in the Festival Piano Quartet.
The group’s acclaimed discography includes favourites such as works by Fauré, Brahms, Elgar, Strauss and Schubert as well British repertoire featuring neglected masterpieces of the 19th and 20th century and major commissions from Sir Peter Maxwell Davies and Anthony Payne (premièred at the Cheltenham Festival and at King’s Place London).
The Quartet enjoy a busy performing schedule throughout the UK and abroad with recent tours taking them to Denmark, Germany, Romania, Portugal and Bulgaria in addition to regular appearances at London’s Kings Place, Wigmore and Conway Halls.
In 2019 the Primrose released their latest recording, this time of the complete Brahms piano quartets. This was the culmination of years of research into Historically Informed Performance Practice and involved the musicians and recording team travelling to Vienna to record in the historic “Ehrbahrsaal”, where Brahms himself frequently performed, using three different pianos of the period from the famous Gert Hechner collection. The result has been hailed by critics as “revelatory”. Their next project will focus on the French Romantics, and they will record a disc of Fauré, Saint-Saëns and Chausson piano quartets in early 2023.
Their own festival here in West Meon is now in its twelfth year, and they were appointed ensemble-in-residence at the Battle Festival in 2016.
Susanne Stanzeleit
Renowned as a soloist and chamber musician world-wide, Susanne is well known for her unusually challenging and extensive repertoire, featuring many commissions and UK premières of works by composers such as Sir Peter Maxwell Davies, Anthony Payne, John Adams, Lou Harrison, Gyorgy Kurtág, Dmitri Smirnov, John Casken, Piers Hellawell, Jacques Cohen, Peter Fribbins, Sally Beamish and many more.
From 2008-2013 Susanne was leader of the Maggini Quartet. She also led the Werethina String Quartet for many years and the Edinburgh String Quartet between 1999-2002.
Susanne has received rave reviews and a Gramophone Award nomination for her long list of commercial recordings, which feature the complete works of Bartók, Enescu, Delius and Dvoràk as well as Beethoven violin sonatas, works by Charles Camilleri and a series of English sonata recordings. Chamber discs include six discs with the Edinburgh Quartet, chamber music by Kenneth Leighton and Mendelssohn Quartets with the Maggini Quartet. A disc of Elgar, Ireland and Bridge Sonatas was released on the Meridian label in 2017.
Susanne Stanzeleit is regularly invited to teach and give masterclasses and has been visiting teacher of violin and chamber music at Royal Birmingham Conservatoire since 2007.
Dorothea Vogel
Dorothea was born in Switzerland and studied with Rudolf Weber in Winterthur. After winning first prize in the Swiss Youth Competition, Dorothea won scholarships to study with Paul Coletti at the Peabody Institute, USA, and with David Takeno and Micaela Comberti at the Guildhall School in London, where she graduated with the coveted Concert Recital Diploma.
She was a founder member of the Amar Quartet. Dorothea has played the baroque viola in the Kings Consort and Florilegium and has been both principal viola in the Gustav Mahler Orchestra and the World Youth Orchestra in Israel.
In 2001 she joined the Allegri String Quartet, one of the UK’s longest-standing chamber groups, with whom she enjoys a busy performing, touring and recording schedule.
She teaches viola and chamber music at the Royal Welsh College as well as chamber music at Pro Corda and festivals throughout the UK.
Andrew FUller
Andrew Fuller has a busy and varied career as a soloist, chamber musician, guest principal, session musician and teacher. His duo partnership with Pianist Michael Dussek has had great success with concerts and recordings, their CDs of Cello works on the Dutton Vocalion label receiving critical acclaim, several being selected as Editor’s Choice in Gramophone Magazine.
He was Associate Principal with the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra for seven years, leaving in 1997 to concentrate on solo and chamber music. Since then he has regularly worked as guest principal for the RPO as well as many other orchestras including the Philharmonia, BBC Concert Orchestra, the City of London Sinfonia, the Hallé Orchestra, the City of London Sinfonia and the Orchestra of St Johns.
As chamber musician he is also a member of Primavera. He has made many appearances at The Wigmore Hall and at festivals and music clubs around the world. He was a member of the York Piano Trio, the Fibonacci sequence and Aquarius. He has also been a regular guest player with other Groups including the Sorrel, Brindisi and Coull String Quartets, Endymion and the Schubert Ensemble.
He was a visiting teacher at the Birmingham Conservatoire from 1997 to 2003 and regularly coaches at the Royal Academy of Music and for UK youth orchestras.
John Thwaites
Professor John Thwaites is best known for his collaborative work with strings. He has worked over decades with cellists Alexander Baillie and Johannes Goritzki, and appeared with Pierre Doumenge, Adrian Brendel, Natalie Clein, Li Wei, Jian Wang and others. A string of recordings with Alexander Baillie for the SOMM label include a Five Star Chamber Music Choice of the Month for BBC Music Magazine.
He has played quintets with the Martinu, Maggini, Dante Schidlof, Emperor and Aurea String Quartets. Theatrical collaborations have included work with Simon Callow, Tony Britton and Tim Piggott-Smith.
His research focus is on Historically Informed Performance Practice in Brahms and British Chamber Music. He has appeared in many major British and International Festivals, the major London concert halls, and many broadcast channels including BBC Radio Three.
John’s teaching career is extensive and he is currently Course Director of the Cadenza International Summer Music School and Head of the Department of Keyboard Studies at Royal Birmingham Conservatoire, where he has directed major festivals of Ireland, Delius, Bax, Skryabin and Brahms as well as a celebrity-Gala at Birmingham Town Hall.
This Year's guests
Tom Aldren
Tom Aldren is a violinist with a wide range of musical interests. He is a frequent guest principal player with many of the UK’s leading orchestras, including the CBSO, Philharmonia and BBC Symphony Orchestra, and chamber orchestras such as the English Chamber Orchestra, London Sinfonietta and Royal Northern Sinfonia. He is also a passionate chamber musician, and is the leader of the Gildas String Quartet and the Lipatti Piano Quartet. Over the past few years he has performed with many of today’s best-known musical artists, from Martha Argerich, Maxim Vengerov and Stephen Hough to Burt Bacharach and Dizzee Rascal.
In 2023 Tom was appointed as Principal 1st Violin No. 3 of Manchester Camerata, with highlights of last year including tours of Romania and the Baltics and a chamber music tour of Mendelssohn Octet and Mozart Clarinet Quintet across the UK.
He plays a violin by Antonio Gragnani made in Livorno, 1779.
Will Duerden
Will Duerden started playing the double bass at the age of 7 and was awarded a full scholarship to the Yehudi Menuhin School two years later. Whilst there he won a number of competitions including the Haslemere String Competition, RCM Bass Competition two years running and the Peter Morrison Concerto Competition, which led to his being a soloist with the RCM JD Symphony Orchestra. Other appearances as soloist included with the Horsham Symphony Orchestra, the European Youth Summer Music Symphony Orchestra and the Waverley Ensemble.
Red Priest
RED PRIEST
Piers Adams – recorders
Julia Bishop – violin
Angela East – cello
David Wright – harpsichord
Red Priest – recently described in the New York Times as ‘the wildly virtuosic little band’ – has been at the cutting edge of baroque music performance for over a quarter of a century. Formed in 1997 by recorder virtuoso Piers Adams, together with violinist Julia Bishop, cellist Angela East and the late Julian Rhodes, harpsichord (a role now filled by David Wright) – and named after the original ‘red priest’ Antonio Vivaldi – the quartet has developed a truly unique style, combining high-energy performance, boundary crossing arrangements and theatrical presentation, delighting audiences across the globe.
Although based in the UK, where they are long established favourites amongst promoters and public alike, Red Priest has crossed the Atlantic for over 50 coast-to-coast tours of America, Mexico, Cuba and Canada, as well as performing in prestigious festivals in almost every European country, Russia, Ukraine, Israel, Lebanon, Japan, China, Malaysia, Australia and New Zealand. The group has given numerous radio and TV broadcasts, including a fly-on-the-wall documentary for The South Bank Show in 2005, which attracted a million viewers.
Red Priest’s discography – released on their own label – includes an iconic take on Vivaldi’s Four Seasons, hailed by Gramophone Magazine as one of the all-time best recordings of the work, alongside titles such as Handel in the Wind, Johann I’m Only Dancing, Pirates of the Baroque, Nightmare in Venice and Priest on the Run – all of which have received the highest critical acclaim. Their most recent release, The Baroque Bohemians, surprised the major labels by reaching No.1 in the UK classical charts.
“For sheer technical wizardry, charismatic showmanship and expressive devilment, Red Priest is in an exhilarating class of its own.”
BBC Music Magazine
“The wildly virtuosic little band”
New York Time
Gabrielė Sutkutė
Lithuanian pianist Gabrielė Sutkutė has already established herself as a musician of strong temperament and “excellent precision and musicality” (Rasa Murauskaitė from “7 days of Art”). She has given many concerts and performed in numerous festivals throughout Europe and appeared in prestigious halls such as the Wigmore Hall, Cadogan Hall, the Steinway Hall UK, the Stoller Hall, the Musikhuset Aarhus and Lithuanian National Philharmonic Hall.
In addition to being a soloist, Gabrielė frequently performs with chamber ensembles and symphony orchestras. In 2023, she performed Grieg’s Piano Concerto with the YMSO at the Cadogan Hall, conducted by James Blair. In 2020, she performed Rachmaninov’s 2nd Piano Concerto with the Grammy-nominated Kaunas Symphony Orchestra, conducted by Markus Huber, and was also invited to play with the renowned Kaunas String Quartet in Lithuania twice.
Gabrielė is a winner of twenty international piano competitions where she also received numerous special awards. She was awarded the 1st Prize at the Chappell Medal Piano Competition 2023 and won the 2nd Prize and the Audience Prize at the Birmingham International Piano Competition 2022. She was also the recipient of the prestigious Mills Williams Junior Fellowship 2022/23 and is currently an artist at Talent Unlimited. For her musical achievements, Gabrielė received Lithuanian Republic Presidents’ certificates of appreciation six times.
From 2016-22, she had been studying with Professor Christopher Elton and received her Bachelor of Music Degree (First Class Honours) and Master of Arts Degree with Distinction from the Royal Academy of Music. Gabrielė graduated from the Artist Diploma course at the Royal College of Music in July 2023, where she had been studying with Professor Vanessa Latarche and Professor Sofya Gulyak.
East of Meon
East of Meon is a versatile jazz/ latin quartet, playing cool and postbop jazz and fusion standards as well as sensual Latin vibes and toe-tapping funk.
Bandleader Kati Whitaker was classically trained as a pianist but came to the saxophone relatively late in life when she decided to switch careers from documentary making and TV/radio reporting /presenting to the world of jazz. The saxophone was always her secret love which came to fruition when , inspired by her daughters mastery of the alto sax, she decided to try herself. With jazz musicians already in the family, she felt it was a sign not to be ignored when a fellow radio producer mentioned he had an old tenor sax in his attic. That was the start and very quickly , Kati became hooked on Jazz sax.
She played for several years with the renowned “Soul Funks” band and the Cuban band Los Domingos where she met conga player Nigel Hosking who now plays for East of Meon.
East of Meon came about when , hearing Kati play her sax at various private events in East Meon, someone asked her to form a band to play at the East Meon Village fete. And so, “East of Meon was born. These days the band is in constant demand from jazz clubs and other venues in London to numerous ;areg and small venues across Hampshire including the Hambledon Vineyard jazz and fizz and the Wylds farm Jazz and Gin festivals.
As well as East of Meon Kat also currently plays with Flavio Lignini’s “Morley Big band” through whom she worked with Bill Laurence of Snarky Puppy and London jazz Orchestras’ Alcyona Mick.
Her inspirations come from the post-bop era of Art Blakey, Wayne Shorter and Herbie Hancock as well as more contemporary influences . The band are currently working on an EP.
Andy Coe is an experienced South London based jazz double bassist with a background in classical music. He has been gigging for over a few decades -primarily with orchestras and big bands as well as smaller combos such as the Pete Downes Trio (www.PD3.org), incorporating various styles including jazz fusion, jump-jive and rockabilly.
Andy has performed with some recognised artists including Dick Pearce and Mark Lockheart and at top venues including Pizza Express Dean St, the 100 Club, The Marquee Club, The Hideaway and twice at Glastonbury Festival. He also plays a range of other musical instruments including bass guitar, harmonica and oud.
Born into a music loving family in Eastbourne, Sussex, Marcus Hills was encouraged to learn the piano by his mother who was a music teacher and pianist at a local school. After studying classical piano for many years, he became interested in learning classical guitar and eventually aspired to playing guitar and bass in local folk and rock bands.
Eventually returning to play keyboards in various groups, he later became inspired by the Miles Davis influenced fusion music of John McLaughlin’s Mahavishnu Orchestra and Jo Zawniul & Wayne Shorter’s Weather Report, before broadened his musical tastes even further to finally embrace most other elements of contemporary jazz. Fuelled by these influences, he formed a successful London based jazz quartet with alto saxophonist Mike Parlett, Asian drummer Tonna Punn and Italian bass player Lorenzo Borgini and gigged in and around London. Together with Mike Parlett on alto sax and himself on organ and synthesizer he later helped form the London based Funk Ambassadors with Ex. James Brown trumpet player Haji Akbar, legendary Afro-American jazz drummer Clifford Jarvis, bassist Mike Mondesir, and pianist Tom Morgan. Other up and coming London based jazz musicians at that time featured in this band included drummer Winston Clifford, flautist Phillip Bent, bassist Gary Crosby, guitarist Alan Weekes and Loose Tubes and Freak Power trombonist Ashley Slater. After eventually leaving the Funk Ambassadors Marcus joined jazz fusion outfit Red Out Loud who featured tenor saxophonist Red Brookes and played widely in London including the Jazz Café in Camden.
Marcus is still active on the London Jazz scene playing in duos trios and quartets: His quartets often playing his own compositions. He is currently pianist with the jazz quartet East of Meon