Stratford upon Avon
Chamber Music Society
President: Sir William Lawrence, Bt.
Registered Charity No. 508874

Jong-Gyung was born in Korea in1976 and started learning the piano at the age of three. At the age of thirteen, she performed a concerto with the Boston Symphony Orchestra, and graduated from the New England Conservatoire in Boston, winning several prizes. She recently won a bronze medal in the Richter competition in Russia, as well as last year’s Haverhill Sinfonia Soloist’s competition.

Founded in 1994 by artistic director and pianist Kathron Sturrock, the Fibonacci Sequence is well established as one of the foremost chamber ensembles in the country.‘dazzlingly good....exuberantly expressive, intimate style..... ’ The Times

Jonathan Dormand played in Stratford in the last Denne Gilkes award concert. He was born in Yorkshire, graduated from the RNCM in 2010 with first-class honours, and is engaged in post-graduate study in the USA at Boston.

Marisa Gupta was recently to be seen in the BBC’s programme on Delius, playing with the violinist Philippe Grafin. She completed her studies in Geneva with Pascal Devoyon, and has already appeared in many of the best-known concert venues internationally.

Four highly-accomplished and experienced musicians come together to share their love of chamber music.

The Danish string quartet formed in 2002, and in 2004 they were the youngest ever winners of the Danish Radio Orchestra’s competition for small ensembles. In 2009, they won the 11th London International String Quartet competition, along with four other prizes. They have received coaching in master-classes from both the Tokyo and Emerson string quartets amongst others, and are in great demand all over Europe.

I first heard Daniel Barenboim in Liverpool in the Sixties, probably on his first visit, deputising for Claudio Arrau in a Beethoven piano concerto and the Choral Fantasia. As I write this, later than usual, he is about to conduct his East-West Divan orchestra, with its mixture of Israelis and Arabs, in a cycle of all Beethoven’s symphonies at the Proms, and he will be seventy in November. In an article in The Times he justifies his concentration on Beethoven by saying that his music is everything that we human beings are, except superficial, and quotes the great pianist Artur Schnabel who said that Beethoven always takes the line of most resistance. For musicians, Barenboim says, this is very educational.

Once again, works by Beethoven feature regularly in our season, but as well as acknowledging anniversaries of Debussy and John Ireland, we also have works by Schubert and Mendelssohn, Frank Bridge, Nielsen and Prokofiev, just selecting some of the possible highlights. We look forward to the visit by the Danish String Quartet, described by a local critic as the nearest to a boy band chamber music has to offer, as well as more seasoned performers and the wonderful Emma Johnson, one of music’s great ambassadors, and a supreme executant.

We have kept the price of tickets unchanged, and the cost of a subscription very nearly unchanged, so please come and support us if you can.

Countess of Munster Musical Trust