Aisling Manning Associate Leader
Aisling is currently undertaking a Masters degree in performance at the Royal Academy of Music studying with Mayumi Fujikawa, generously supported by the Bank of Ireland Millennium Scholarship Trust. In 2003 she joined the class of Detlef Hahn at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama where she completed her Bachelor Degree. As a performer, Aisling attempts to maintain a balance between her solo, chamber and orchestral engagements. She has performed at masterclasses and festivals in Europe, most recently Festival International Music Navarra, Spain, Kuenstlerhaus Boswil festival, Switzerland, and Festival Classique au Vert, Paris Parc Floral. Aisling is a member of the European Union Youth Orchestra and has recently toured Europe this spring and summer with the Orchestra. In 2008, she toured America, France and Ireland with Camerata Ireland under the baton of Barry Douglas. Aisling is a keen chamber musician and was invited to participate in master classes and perform with her string quartet at the West Cork Chamber Music Festival founded by the RTE Vanbrugh Quartet and the Volger Festival in Sligo. She has attended violin classes with Diana Cummings, Mateja Marinkovic, Igor Petrushevski, Eugenia Polatschek, Jacqueline Ross, Krzysztof Smietana, Tomotada Soh, Sylvia Rosenberg and David Takeno.
Amelia Jones Associate Leader
Amelia is co-leader of the Orchestra of the Swan, with whom she records for Somm Recordings and has appeared on the Southbank Show. She currently juggles a busy life as a freelance musician with studying for a Masters at the Royal Academy of Music with Erich Gruenberg. Whilst an Undergraduate at the Royal College of Music and as a member of the European Union Youth Orchestra she has played under the baton of such eminent conductors as Haitink, Norrington, Ashkenazy and Mackerras. She has recorded soundtracks for films such as State of Play and Everybody's Fine for Buick Productions at Abbey Road and Air Lyndhurst Studios and has performed with the likes of Victoria Beckham, Ocean Colour Scene and Leo Sayer. Amelia is passionate and eduation and outreach work has recently been accepted, with duo partner Kate Denton, onto the Music in Hospitals Scheme.
Amy Carruthers
Amy Carruthers is a violinist, teacher and academic. Originally from Montréal, Canada, she moved to England as a teenager, and then to London in 1999 to take her degree in Music and then her Master’s in Historical Musicology at King’s College London; research interests centre on recordings, music in performance, and changes in playing styles over the 20th century. Her practical courses were based at the Royal Academy of Music, where she studied with Clarence Myerscough, Jean Harvey and Nicholas Miller. Throughout her studies has also been busily pursuing her performing and teaching careers. She performs as a freelance musician in London and around the UK, independently and with her string quartet, and in addition to this has played with several orchestras including Orion Symphony Orchestra, Situation Opera, YMSO, and Jersey Symphony Orchestra (and has done a small recording project with members of the London Symphony Orchestra). She has performed to audiences which have included the Emperor of Japan, Gordon Brown, Sarah Ferguson Duchess of York, Camilla Duchess of Cornwall, the Duke of Edinburgh, and HRH Queen Elizabeth II, and at such venues as St John’s Smith Square, Cadogan Hall, Royal Albert Hall, House of Lords (Palace of Westminster), the Barbican and the Royal Festival Hall. She has also led the Commonwealth Chamber Orchestra, which performed at the Finance Ministers’ Conference (2003), in the presence of the queen. Amy’s playing has taken her across the globe, a privilege that she enjoys immensely. Apart from her work around the UK, she has performed in Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Czech Republic, Spain, Japan and Egypt. Amy has recently completed a PhD in music at King’s (funded by the Arts and Humanities Research Council). Her research is focused on 20th-century performance practices, and based on the career of the conductor Sir Charles Mackerras. She compares live performances and studio recordings, exploring the differences between them and examining musicians’ attitudes to these two modes of performance. This topic brings together her skills and interests in both the academic and practical aspects of music. She is a part-time lecturer at King’s College London, has taught at the Junior Royal Academy of Music, works for Oxford University Press as editorial manager for the journal Music & Letters, and has done research work and organised conferences for the RMA, the British Library Sound Archive, King’s College London and the BBC.
Michael Trainor
Michael Trainor was born in Belfast in 1987 and started playing the violin at the age of 8. At just 15 he was awarded a scholarship to study at the Apple Hill chamber music course in the USA for a month. On leaving he was awarded the Stephen Parker Memorial Award for his outstanding services to the Belfast Youth Orchestra. Michael has just graduated from the Royal College of Music in London, where he has studied under Yuri Zhislin, Dona Lee Croft and David Juritz whilst there. At College, he is an enthusiastic solo musician, giving regular recitals in venues around central London and back in Belfast. In May 2008 he performed Bach concertos with the Amadeus Orchestra in LSO St.Lukes. This year he was also guest soloist with the City of Belfast Youth Orchestra, performing Ralph Vaughan Williams 'The Lark Ascending' in Ireland, Italy and Slovenia to rave reviews. In addition to this, Michael has also had solo performances broadcast on RTE and BBC Radio. Michael is also a very busy and keen chamber musician. He has performed in quartets for H.M. the Queen, Prince Charles and Bono from U2. Michael is currently co-leader of the RTE Concert Orchestra and in April this year he led the orchestra for a performance of Haydn's 'Creation'. This has come after he has sat in leader or principal positions of several orchestras such as the Ulster Youth Orchestra, Orchestral Musicians of Northern Ireland, RCM Symphony Orchestra, RCM Sinfonietta, London Irish Symphony Orchestra, Young Musicians Symphony Orchestra, the Young Janacek Philharmonic and the London Irish Camerata. He was the first ever violinist from Northern Ireland to lead the National Youth Orchestra of Ireland, staying with them for two seasons, the highlight of which was performing the demanding works of Strauss' Ein Heldenleben and Alpine Symphony. Michael recently won the Milton Violin Award from the Arts Council of Northern Ireland, which awards him the loan of a fine Gagliano violin.
Mariko North
Mariko is originally from Aberdeenshire, Scotland, and started piano lessons at the age of 7. From the age of 15 she received supplementary scholarship lessons from Nigel Clayton at the North East of Scotland Music School. During this time she won such prizes as the Sheila Mossman and Gina Dallas Harper Awards (ABRSM), Alex Waters Memorial Trust Award and first prize at the Moray International Piano Competition. She has since studied with John Thwaites (professor at the Royal Scottish Academy of Music and Drama), John Blakely (Royal College of Music) and Roger Vignoles (Royal College of Music) and has a BA, BMus (hons) and a PG Dip (the latter specialising in piano accompaniment supported by an award from Pro Musica Ltd.). During her studies, Mariko took part in masterclases with such distinguished pianists as Stephen Kovacevich, Boris Berman, Martino Tirimo, Dominique Merlet and Malcom Martineau. She currently freelances as an accompanist and chamber musician, as well as teaching piano. She also performs as a violinist with Situation Opera.
Joanna Hort
Joanna Hort was born in Guildford, Surrey, and is currently in her first year of the MMus course at the Royal Academy of Music, where she studies with Nicholas Miller. Joanna has performed with the English National Ballet Orchestra, the Young Janacek Philharmonic Orchestra, the Capital Philharmonic Orchestra, and the London European Orchestra. She has worked with conductors such as James Judd, Barry Wordsworth, Simon Wright, Jan Latham-Koenig, Peter Stark and David Angus. From the age of fifteen, Joanna attended Junior Trinity where she won the Vivien Joseph Prizes for both String Quartet and Piano Trio. She also previously attended Trinity College of Music, where she led both the Symphony Orchestra and Sinfonia, and won the John Thompson Prize for String Quartet in 2008. As a soloist, Joanna has performed concertos with the Torbay Symphony Orchestra, the Guildford Youth Orchestra and the Sussex Baroque Ensemble. In 2009 she performed J.S. Bach's Brandenburg Concerto No. 4 with Gareth Davies; the principal flautist of the London Symphony Orchestra. Joanna has participated in masterclasses with artists such as Tasmin Little, Pieter Schoeman, Walter Reiter, Luciano Iorio, and with members form the Alberni, Allegri, Chilingirian and Wihan quartets, the Gould Piano Trio and the Schubert Ensemble. Joanna has recorded for Gabriel Prokofiev's record label, Nonclassical Records. She has also recorded with the Metropolitan Sinfonia for the soundtrack of "Britz"; a Bafta award-winning programme on Channel Four.
Willemijn Steenbakkers
Willemijn Steenbakkers was born in Groningen, The Netherlands, in 1987 and started playing the violin at the age of four. She also started learning the viola aged ten. From a young age, Willemijn was a prize winner at the Haydn Music Festival and the Princess Christina Competition in Groningen. In 2002, Willemijn was offered a place at the junior department of the North Netherlands Conservatoire where she studied violin with Liesbeth Ackermans and viola with Gisella Bergman. She moved to the UK aged 16, and in September 2005 she began her studies at the Royal College of Music with Professor Ani Schnarch, where she has just completed her Bachelor of Music degree. Willemijn is a keen chamber musician and orchestral player - she has been a member of the North Sea String Quartet since 2008, and recently led the RCM Opera Orchestra in a production of Benjamin Britten's ' A Midsummer Night's Dream'. Other recent highlights include performances under conductors such as Bernard Haitink, Vladimir Ashkenazy, Sir Roger Norrington, Sir Charles Mackerras and John Adams, and solo masterclasses with Isabelle van Keulen and Lewis Kaplan. Willemijn is currently in her first year of the Masters degree at the RCM.
Edward Walton
Edward Walton started playing violin at the age of 6, and very quickly developed under the tuition of Martin Bainbridge. From 8, he entered and won several local music festivals and competitions with solo playing and chamber music, taking his piano trio to the finals of the National Chamber Music Competition of Great Britain aged 10. Having won music scholarships, he attended Aysgarth School, Bedale and Ampleforth College, York, furthering his playing and completing grade 8 aged 12. He later studied at the Royal College of Music, London, under Done Lee Croft and Rosemary Furniss. Edward continues to play now with the London Irish Symphony Orchestra, and freelance with orchestras and opera companies throughout the UK and Northern Ireland. Further to his musical interests, he is studying Joinery and Fine Furniture, and hopes to become a leading bespoke furniture maker and Luthier soon in the future.
Anna Michel
Inspired after hearing a quartet playing in a local church hall, Anna Michel started learning the violin in school at the age of eight. She soon realized this was something she enjoyed doing and went on to play in various ensembles including both Dorset and Hampshire county youth orchestras; since then her orchestral playing has taken her on tour to locations as diverse as the Czech Republic and China. From 2002- 2004 she studied on the Hampshire Specialist Music Course with Judith Young, taking an active role in chamber music. For the past four years Anna has been a guest soloist on the accompanist's course at Canford School of Music. She has recently graduated from Trinity College of Music where she studied the with John Crawford and Michael Bochmann. At Trinity she had the opportunity to participate in masterclasses with musicians such as Mataja Marinkovic, Walter Reiter and members of the Wihan quartet. Anna also has a keen interest in composition, having studied this with Edward Jessen and Paul Newland.
Aisling is currently undertaking a Masters degree in performance at the Royal Academy of Music studying with Mayumi Fujikawa, generously supported by the Bank of Ireland Millennium Scholarship Trust. In 2003 she joined the class of Detlef Hahn at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama where she completed her Bachelor Degree. As a performer, Aisling attempts to maintain a balance between her solo, chamber and orchestral engagements. She has performed at masterclasses and festivals in Europe, most recently Festival International Music Navarra, Spain, Kuenstlerhaus Boswil festival, Switzerland, and Festival Classique au Vert, Paris Parc Floral. Aisling is a member of the European Union Youth Orchestra and has recently toured Europe this spring and summer with the Orchestra. In 2008, she toured America, France and Ireland with Camerata Ireland under the baton of Barry Douglas. Aisling is a keen chamber musician and was invited to participate in master classes and perform with her string quartet at the West Cork Chamber Music Festival founded by the RTE Vanbrugh Quartet and the Volger Festival in Sligo. She has attended violin classes with Diana Cummings, Mateja Marinkovic, Igor Petrushevski, Eugenia Polatschek, Jacqueline Ross, Krzysztof Smietana, Tomotada Soh, Sylvia Rosenberg and David Takeno.
Amelia Jones Associate Leader
Amelia is co-leader of the Orchestra of the Swan, with whom she records for Somm Recordings and has appeared on the Southbank Show. She currently juggles a busy life as a freelance musician with studying for a Masters at the Royal Academy of Music with Erich Gruenberg. Whilst an Undergraduate at the Royal College of Music and as a member of the European Union Youth Orchestra she has played under the baton of such eminent conductors as Haitink, Norrington, Ashkenazy and Mackerras. She has recorded soundtracks for films such as State of Play and Everybody's Fine for Buick Productions at Abbey Road and Air Lyndhurst Studios and has performed with the likes of Victoria Beckham, Ocean Colour Scene and Leo Sayer. Amelia is passionate and eduation and outreach work has recently been accepted, with duo partner Kate Denton, onto the Music in Hospitals Scheme.
Amy Carruthers
Amy Carruthers is a violinist, teacher and academic. Originally from Montréal, Canada, she moved to England as a teenager, and then to London in 1999 to take her degree in Music and then her Master’s in Historical Musicology at King’s College London; research interests centre on recordings, music in performance, and changes in playing styles over the 20th century. Her practical courses were based at the Royal Academy of Music, where she studied with Clarence Myerscough, Jean Harvey and Nicholas Miller. Throughout her studies has also been busily pursuing her performing and teaching careers. She performs as a freelance musician in London and around the UK, independently and with her string quartet, and in addition to this has played with several orchestras including Orion Symphony Orchestra, Situation Opera, YMSO, and Jersey Symphony Orchestra (and has done a small recording project with members of the London Symphony Orchestra). She has performed to audiences which have included the Emperor of Japan, Gordon Brown, Sarah Ferguson Duchess of York, Camilla Duchess of Cornwall, the Duke of Edinburgh, and HRH Queen Elizabeth II, and at such venues as St John’s Smith Square, Cadogan Hall, Royal Albert Hall, House of Lords (Palace of Westminster), the Barbican and the Royal Festival Hall. She has also led the Commonwealth Chamber Orchestra, which performed at the Finance Ministers’ Conference (2003), in the presence of the queen. Amy’s playing has taken her across the globe, a privilege that she enjoys immensely. Apart from her work around the UK, she has performed in Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Czech Republic, Spain, Japan and Egypt. Amy has recently completed a PhD in music at King’s (funded by the Arts and Humanities Research Council). Her research is focused on 20th-century performance practices, and based on the career of the conductor Sir Charles Mackerras. She compares live performances and studio recordings, exploring the differences between them and examining musicians’ attitudes to these two modes of performance. This topic brings together her skills and interests in both the academic and practical aspects of music. She is a part-time lecturer at King’s College London, has taught at the Junior Royal Academy of Music, works for Oxford University Press as editorial manager for the journal Music & Letters, and has done research work and organised conferences for the RMA, the British Library Sound Archive, King’s College London and the BBC.
Michael Trainor
Michael Trainor was born in Belfast in 1987 and started playing the violin at the age of 8. At just 15 he was awarded a scholarship to study at the Apple Hill chamber music course in the USA for a month. On leaving he was awarded the Stephen Parker Memorial Award for his outstanding services to the Belfast Youth Orchestra. Michael has just graduated from the Royal College of Music in London, where he has studied under Yuri Zhislin, Dona Lee Croft and David Juritz whilst there. At College, he is an enthusiastic solo musician, giving regular recitals in venues around central London and back in Belfast. In May 2008 he performed Bach concertos with the Amadeus Orchestra in LSO St.Lukes. This year he was also guest soloist with the City of Belfast Youth Orchestra, performing Ralph Vaughan Williams 'The Lark Ascending' in Ireland, Italy and Slovenia to rave reviews. In addition to this, Michael has also had solo performances broadcast on RTE and BBC Radio. Michael is also a very busy and keen chamber musician. He has performed in quartets for H.M. the Queen, Prince Charles and Bono from U2. Michael is currently co-leader of the RTE Concert Orchestra and in April this year he led the orchestra for a performance of Haydn's 'Creation'. This has come after he has sat in leader or principal positions of several orchestras such as the Ulster Youth Orchestra, Orchestral Musicians of Northern Ireland, RCM Symphony Orchestra, RCM Sinfonietta, London Irish Symphony Orchestra, Young Musicians Symphony Orchestra, the Young Janacek Philharmonic and the London Irish Camerata. He was the first ever violinist from Northern Ireland to lead the National Youth Orchestra of Ireland, staying with them for two seasons, the highlight of which was performing the demanding works of Strauss' Ein Heldenleben and Alpine Symphony. Michael recently won the Milton Violin Award from the Arts Council of Northern Ireland, which awards him the loan of a fine Gagliano violin.
Mariko North
Mariko is originally from Aberdeenshire, Scotland, and started piano lessons at the age of 7. From the age of 15 she received supplementary scholarship lessons from Nigel Clayton at the North East of Scotland Music School. During this time she won such prizes as the Sheila Mossman and Gina Dallas Harper Awards (ABRSM), Alex Waters Memorial Trust Award and first prize at the Moray International Piano Competition. She has since studied with John Thwaites (professor at the Royal Scottish Academy of Music and Drama), John Blakely (Royal College of Music) and Roger Vignoles (Royal College of Music) and has a BA, BMus (hons) and a PG Dip (the latter specialising in piano accompaniment supported by an award from Pro Musica Ltd.). During her studies, Mariko took part in masterclases with such distinguished pianists as Stephen Kovacevich, Boris Berman, Martino Tirimo, Dominique Merlet and Malcom Martineau. She currently freelances as an accompanist and chamber musician, as well as teaching piano. She also performs as a violinist with Situation Opera.
Joanna Hort
Joanna Hort was born in Guildford, Surrey, and is currently in her first year of the MMus course at the Royal Academy of Music, where she studies with Nicholas Miller. Joanna has performed with the English National Ballet Orchestra, the Young Janacek Philharmonic Orchestra, the Capital Philharmonic Orchestra, and the London European Orchestra. She has worked with conductors such as James Judd, Barry Wordsworth, Simon Wright, Jan Latham-Koenig, Peter Stark and David Angus. From the age of fifteen, Joanna attended Junior Trinity where she won the Vivien Joseph Prizes for both String Quartet and Piano Trio. She also previously attended Trinity College of Music, where she led both the Symphony Orchestra and Sinfonia, and won the John Thompson Prize for String Quartet in 2008. As a soloist, Joanna has performed concertos with the Torbay Symphony Orchestra, the Guildford Youth Orchestra and the Sussex Baroque Ensemble. In 2009 she performed J.S. Bach's Brandenburg Concerto No. 4 with Gareth Davies; the principal flautist of the London Symphony Orchestra. Joanna has participated in masterclasses with artists such as Tasmin Little, Pieter Schoeman, Walter Reiter, Luciano Iorio, and with members form the Alberni, Allegri, Chilingirian and Wihan quartets, the Gould Piano Trio and the Schubert Ensemble. Joanna has recorded for Gabriel Prokofiev's record label, Nonclassical Records. She has also recorded with the Metropolitan Sinfonia for the soundtrack of "Britz"; a Bafta award-winning programme on Channel Four.
Willemijn Steenbakkers
Willemijn Steenbakkers was born in Groningen, The Netherlands, in 1987 and started playing the violin at the age of four. She also started learning the viola aged ten. From a young age, Willemijn was a prize winner at the Haydn Music Festival and the Princess Christina Competition in Groningen. In 2002, Willemijn was offered a place at the junior department of the North Netherlands Conservatoire where she studied violin with Liesbeth Ackermans and viola with Gisella Bergman. She moved to the UK aged 16, and in September 2005 she began her studies at the Royal College of Music with Professor Ani Schnarch, where she has just completed her Bachelor of Music degree. Willemijn is a keen chamber musician and orchestral player - she has been a member of the North Sea String Quartet since 2008, and recently led the RCM Opera Orchestra in a production of Benjamin Britten's ' A Midsummer Night's Dream'. Other recent highlights include performances under conductors such as Bernard Haitink, Vladimir Ashkenazy, Sir Roger Norrington, Sir Charles Mackerras and John Adams, and solo masterclasses with Isabelle van Keulen and Lewis Kaplan. Willemijn is currently in her first year of the Masters degree at the RCM.
Edward Walton
Edward Walton started playing violin at the age of 6, and very quickly developed under the tuition of Martin Bainbridge. From 8, he entered and won several local music festivals and competitions with solo playing and chamber music, taking his piano trio to the finals of the National Chamber Music Competition of Great Britain aged 10. Having won music scholarships, he attended Aysgarth School, Bedale and Ampleforth College, York, furthering his playing and completing grade 8 aged 12. He later studied at the Royal College of Music, London, under Done Lee Croft and Rosemary Furniss. Edward continues to play now with the London Irish Symphony Orchestra, and freelance with orchestras and opera companies throughout the UK and Northern Ireland. Further to his musical interests, he is studying Joinery and Fine Furniture, and hopes to become a leading bespoke furniture maker and Luthier soon in the future.
Anna Michel
Inspired after hearing a quartet playing in a local church hall, Anna Michel started learning the violin in school at the age of eight. She soon realized this was something she enjoyed doing and went on to play in various ensembles including both Dorset and Hampshire county youth orchestras; since then her orchestral playing has taken her on tour to locations as diverse as the Czech Republic and China. From 2002- 2004 she studied on the Hampshire Specialist Music Course with Judith Young, taking an active role in chamber music. For the past four years Anna has been a guest soloist on the accompanist's course at Canford School of Music. She has recently graduated from Trinity College of Music where she studied the with John Crawford and Michael Bochmann. At Trinity she had the opportunity to participate in masterclasses with musicians such as Mataja Marinkovic, Walter Reiter and members of the Wihan quartet. Anna also has a keen interest in composition, having studied this with Edward Jessen and Paul Newland.