Next Perfomance in the Regency Ensemble Series:

Rachel Dyker (Viola) plays Bach: Suites 1, 2 & 3

All proceeds from this concert go towards funding Regency Chamber Music Courses

Friends Meeting House, Ship Street, Brighton.

 

The Regency Ensemble

The Regency Ensemble was created to complement the Regency Chamber Music courses. In addition to giving participants a chance to hear the tutors and their guests in a full performance they add a separate dimension and profile to the Regency series of events. The Regency Ensemble works as a flexible group presenting varied programmes with a wide mixture of instrumentation and composers. The ensemble performs regularly in Brighton and the South East of England with an annual series of three concerts at the Friends' Meeting House in Brighton.

The Regency Ensemble

Gabrielle Painter, Violin

Gabrielle Painter has performed throughout Europe, Canada and the United States as soloist, chamber musician and leader. Her concerto performances range from Beethoven to Szymanowski and Lou Harrison and she recently performed solos at venues including the Royal Albert Hall, Sadlers Wells and Herodus Atticus (Athens). A passionate chamber musician, Gabrielle has been Guest Artist at the Banff Centre for the Arts and in numerous concert series including the London Festival of Chamber Music, Crwth Concert Series (UK), Cathedral of Saint John the Divine (NY) and the Mostly Music Series (Chicago). Gabrielle is the violinist of the Szabo Piano Trio who have toured Hungary and Ireland, recorded for Lyric FM Radio as well as performing in their own concert series in London and Chichester. Dedicated to the performance of music of our time, Gabrielle was a founding member of the New York based furious band premiering many new works and recording for CRI and New World Records.

Equally dedicated to teaching, Gabrielle has held the position of adjunct violin professor at the State University of New York at Stony Brook working with undergraduate, masters and doctoral students. She has given master classes and performance workshops at universities throughout New York, Chicago and Canada and at the Royal Academy of Music. She is currently teaching at the Junior Department of the Guildhall School of Music and Drama.

Gabrielle holds a Bachelor of Music degree from the Royal Academy of Music in London, where she studied with Diana Cummings and a Master of Music degree from Stony Brook (NY) where she also received her Doctorate of Musical Arts Degree in May this year. Gabrielle was a scholarship student of and Teaching Assistant to Mitchell Stern.

Helena Wood, Violin

Helena Wood began playing the violin at the age of three and is now regarded as one of Britain’s leading young violinists. She began her studies at the Royal College of Music’s Junior Department where she won many prizes and competitions and continued there as a scholar, completing her studies in 2001 with a First Class honours degree. Helena’s teachers included, Pamela Spofforth MBE and for seven years Itzhak Rashkovsky. More recently, Helena spent an intensive three months studying in New York with Professor Joey Corpus and also travelled to Holland for tuition with Herman Krebbers. In 1996 she was a national finalist in the BBC Young Musician of the Year and has gone on to win many awards and prizes.

As a chamber musician and orchestral leader, Helena is in great demand. Having been a member of Pro Corda chamber courses for many years, she has carried on performing chamber music regularly with musicians such as John Lill and Freddy Kempf. She is a guest leader with numerous chamber orchestras in England and regularly works with some of Europe’s finest symphony and chamber orchestras.

International tours as a soloist include concerts in Israel, Romania, France and Switzerland, as well as tours of Italy and Spain. Having been performing concertos since the age of twelve, she has been invited to perform as a soloist with orchestras such as the European Sinfonietta and the London Mozart Players. These have taken place in many of London’s major concert venues including the Queen Elizabeth Hall and the Barbican Hall. Helena has been received with great acclaim in recitals at the Wigmore Hall, Purcell Room and Royal Festival Hall and continues to enjoy a busy recital and concerto schedule both in Europe and the UK.

Rachel Dyker, Viola

As a freelance musician, Rachel Dyker combines a busy schedule of orchestral work with playing chamber music and teaching. As an orchestral player, Rachel works regularly with the City of London Sinfonia, Southern Sinfonia, Sinfonia ViVA, the Apollo Chamber Orchestra and the Brighton Philharmonic Orchestra.

Solo engagements have included a performance Hindemith’s Trauermusik with the Southbank Sinfonia, an appearance at the Ludlow Festival in a recital ‘Genius and Passions’ celebrating the bicentenary of the birth of Berlioz and regular recitals of the Suites by Bach in and around the south east of England. Rachel also performs regularly as part of The Regency Ensemble and as the Dyker Duo with her brother, violinist Gabriel Dyker.

As well as teaching a class of private students, Rachel holds the post of Viola Teacher at Brighton College and is the Co-ordinator and Viola Tutor of Regency Chamber Music, running chamber music workshops for varying groups of people in the heart of Brighton. You can find out more about Regency Chamber Music by visiting www.regencychambermusic.org.

Rachel holds a Bachelor of Music degree from the Royal College of Music, where she studied with Christopher Wellington and Brian Hawkins. On completing her degree at the RCM, Rachel continued her studies privately with Simon Rowland-Jones.

Sarah Suckling , Cello

Sarah Suckling read music at Cambridge University where she was an Instrumental Scholar and continued her studies at the Royal College of Music. She was a beneficiary of the Countess of Munster Musical Fund and won the 1998 Muriel Taylor Cello Competition.

Sarah enjoys performing as a soloist and chamber musician and has given concerts around the UK and abroad including a tour of British Embassies in Australia and the Far East. Sarah’s special interest in playing contemporary music led to a solo recital in the Park Lane Group series at the Purcell Room in 2000.

She has had several works written for her, and as a member of Contemporary Consort has given concerts, workshops and broadcast live on Radio 3. As the cellist in Ensemble X, she toured with Errollyn Wallen’s multimedia theatre show ‘Jordan Town’. Sarah freelances with many orchestras including the Academy of St. Martins in the Fields, the City of London Sinfonia and Britten Sinfonia.

Alexandra Mackenzie, Cello

Alexandra Mackenzie enjoys a varied and exciting career as an in demand recitalist, chamber musician and orchestral player. The past year has seen her performing in Colombia, with the City of London Sinfonia, across Japan, with the London Symphony Orchestra, all around Ireland, with the Eblana Ensemble and has seen her travel to China and Malaysia as an examiner for the Associated Board of the Royal Schools of Music. Alexandra graduated from the Royal Academy of Music before travelling to New York where she was a scholarship student at the Manhattan School of Music. She was based in New York for eight years before returning to her native London where she now lives.

She has appeared as a soloist with numerous orchestras in New York and Europe with repertoire ranging from Wagenseil and Lutoslawski to Haydn and Beethoven. An avid chamber musician and passionate supporter of new music Alexandra Mackenzie has notably appeared at Carnegie Hall, Weill Hall, Alice Tully Hall, The Royal Albert Hall and the Southbank.

Alexandra plays on a Matthew Hardy cello, made in 1818, purchased with help from the Foundation for Sports and the Arts