Alice’s love of the stage began in the family living room, where she performed regularly for her parents alongside her two sisters as part of A.S.K (Alice, Sophie, Katie) Productions. Initially she was a pianist, singer and dancer, but at the age of seven took up her preferred instrument, the violin.

In the following years, Alice discovered that her love of performing was attracting a keen audience. At thirteen, she joined SBS (Special Broadcasting Service, Sydney) Youth Orchestra, and toured extensively with them to Japan, Estonia, Finland, Russia and Italy. At sixteen and seventeen respectively, she completed her Associate of Music and Licentiate of Music.

Alice entered the Conservatorium of Music, Sydney in 2003, having been awarded a scholarship. Whilst there she studied with Alex Todicescu and Wanda Wilkomirska, and completed her degree with First Class Honours in 2006. The following year she was broadcast live as a soloist on 2MBSfm and was a finalist in the Kendall National Violin Competition. As a result of this performance she was invited to perform with the Australian Opera and Ballet Orchestra.

In 2007, Alice began her Masters with Magdalena Rezler in Freiburg, Germany, where she was awarded the Baden Wuerttemburg and the Vasanta Scholarship. Whilst in Germany, Alice spent most of her time in windowless practice rooms perfecting her technique, alongside performing numerous concerts around South West Germany and the neighbouring Alsace region, both as a soloist, and as part of the Freiburg Hochschule Symphony and Chamber Orchestras.

In addition to her passion for performing, Alice is also a keen music educator, and whilst in Australia was an enthusiastic organiser of several school music programmes. On completion of her Masters degree, and having been awarded a place in Southbank Sinfonia, Alice was able to spend several months at home in Australia where she was thrilled to discover that her nieces and nephews were already creating their own version of the A.S.K series, of which Alice was most pleased to be the guest artistic director.

Ed Mills took up the Horn at the age of seven, having already spent a year learning the Piano. He first started playing with wind bands in the Greenwich area of south east London before moving to Sussex, and then continued his education just across the border in Tunbridge Wells, Kent. It was during his time here that his life as an orchestral musician began, by joining ensembles such as West Kent Youth Orchestra and Kent Youth Wind Orchestra. He, then aged 16, won an audition to become Principal Horn of The London Schools Symphony Orchestra.

In 2005 Ed took up a place at Trinity College of Music. During his studies at Trinity, Ed performed a huge range of repertoire. Highlights include recording The Rite of Spring as Principal Horn under the baton of Edward Gardner, performing the Obbligato Horn part to Bach’s Mass in B Minor, Mozart’s third and fourth Horn concerti (the latter on both modern and natural Horn) and recording the Notturni and Scherzandi of Haydn for the Haydn Society of Great Britain on period instruments (conducted by Denis McCaldin).
Whilst at Trinity, Ed studied with Martin Owen (Principal, BBCSO), Mike Murray (2nd Horn, BBCSO), Jeff Bryant, Stephen Stirling (Principal, CLS) and natural horn with Roger Montgomery (Principal, OAE and Co-Principal, ROH).

In September 2009, Ed attended the Guildhall School of Music and Drama where he studied with Hugh Seenan, Richard Bissill (Principal Horn, ROH), Jonathan Lipton (4th Horn, LSO) and natural horn with Andrew Clark (Principal, OAE). During his time at Guildhall, Ed was able to work with some of the finest musicians in the country and played with ensembles such as the English Classical Players and the New London Sinfonia. In August 2010 Ed performed Telemann’s Concerto in Eb for two horns with the Dartington Baroque Orchestra.

Welsh clarinettist Hannah Morgan began her studies at the RWCMD Junior Department at 14. She then went on to study both for a Bachelors and Masters degree at the Royal College of Music under a Leverhulme and Richard Carne scholarship where she was awarded Distinction in Advanced Performance. While at college, Hannah received tuition from Richard Hosford, Janet Hilton, Tim Lines and Bob Hill. In her third year Hannah took an ERASMUS exchange to Vienna where she studied with the world renowned Ernst Ottensammer.

Hannah has performed with several of the UK’s leading orchestras including a BBC 3 Broadcast with BBC Symphony Orchestra, the last night of the Proms with the BBC National Orchestra of Wales and whilst still in college she was on trial for a position with the Welsh National Opera.

Hannah works regularly throughout the UK and Europe with pianist Thomas Besnard as part of the Glendower Duo. Over the last four years this ensemble has achieved great success and has appeared in many festivals including Leeds, Monmouth, Penkhull and Cheltenham. In 2010 the Glendower Duo won the International Contemporary Chamber Music Competition duo section held in Krakow and have consequently been invited to play in the Warsaw Autumn Festival. In January the same year they gave a world premiere at Southbank Centre’s Purcell Room as part of the Park Lane Group Artist Series.

As a soloist, Hannah has performed concertos with the Milton Keynes City Orchestra and the RWCMD orchestra. Recently she won the 1st Wind Prize at the Tunbridge Wells International Concert Artist Competition. In 2009 she was awarded the prestigious Yamaha Music Foundation of Europe Scholarship and the RCM Selmer Clarinet Prize. She is a member of the Concordia Foundation Artist Scheme and regularly works with her duo for the outreach program, Live Music Now!

The Countess of Munster, Ian Fleming Award (MBF) and the Elisabeth Evans Trust have supported Hannah’s studies.

Emma studied at the Junior Guildhall School of Music for four years with Graham Hobbs, where she won the Barbican music shop prize and the John Myatt Bassoon scholarship. She went on to study on the BMus course with a scholarship entrance, and graduated in 2009 with first class honours. Whilst at the Guildhall she enjoyed the inspirational teaching of Meyrick Alexander, Daniel Jemison and Gordon Laing for contrabassoon. As part of her course, she took an ERASMUS exchange to the Geneva Conservatoire in 2008, studying with Afonso Venturieri. She has performed in masterclasses for Robin O’Neill, Helen Simons, Graham Sheen and Roger Birnstingl. In August 2010, she took part in a ten day masterclass in Sweden at the Aurora chamber festival with Ole Kristian Dahl.

During her studies Emma has been in sessions for BBC Radio 3 with Guildhall New Music Ensemble and for Dutch radio 4 with the Nationaal Jeugd Orkest of the Netherlands in the Concertgebouw, conducted by Oliver Knussen. She also played principal and contrabassoon with the Guildhall Symphony Orchestra in the Barbican Hall conducted by Vasily Petrenko, and principal bassoon in Guildhall Chamber Orchestra.

Since graduating, Emma has had a wide variety of freelance work, including a chamber recital for the Countess of Munster trust, concerts with Sinfonia Cymru, Orpheus Sinfonia, and a UK tour with the Heritage Orchestra and comedian Tim Minchin. She teaches bassoon and singing for the Da capo foundation, and enjoys giving educational workshops in primary schools and care homes with the Obassno Trio. In addition to being a member of Southbank Sinfonia 9, she is currently on trial for the position of 3rd bassoon doubling contrabassoon in Malmo Opera Orchestra, Sweden.

In her spare time Emma likes watching jazz, movies, travelling and drinking unhealthy amounts of coffee with friends.

BMus (Hons), LRAM, PGDip (Perf)

Born 1987 in Cheltenham, Edgar Bailey studied at Chetham’s School of Music, the Royal Academy of Music and the Royal College of Music. He has studied with Gillian Bradley, Wen Zhou Li, Mateja Marinkovic, Madeleine Mitchell and David Tekano.

In 2007 Edgar won the Chandos Symphony Orchestra and the Gloucestershire Young Musician Competitions and in 2010 was a prize winner at Haverhill Sinfonia Competition. Edgar has performed Bruch violin concerto no.1 with the Cheltenham Symphony Orchestra and Beethoven violin concerto with Chandos Symphony Orchestra. He has given recitals at Cheltenham Town Hall and Making Music venues in Gloucestershire and Worcestershire, as well as recitals at the Cheltenham International and Stratford-upon-Avon Music Festivals. Edgar has also had extensive orchestral experience with professional orchestras such as RLPO, Halle, CBSO and the RPO.

Éanna, 25, is an Irish bassoonist. Having begun lessons at St. Malachy’s College in his native Belfast, he studied with Janet Bloxwich and Alan Warhurst at RSAMD and graduated with a BMus (Hons) in 2007. He was awarded the Gill Culpin Award for postgraduate study at the Royal Academy of Music, where he studied with David Chatterton, Gareth Newman and John Orford, completing a Master of Arts in 2009.

Coming from a large musical family, he has known music from an early age and began playing traditional music at the age of 7. Through his early experience with the National Youth Orchestra of Ireland, he grew to love the potential music has to bring people together, and to that end enjoys solo, chamber and orchestral music in equal measure.

Éanna continues to build his career as an orchestral musician and has performed to date with Camerata Ireland, NI Opera, RTÉ Concert Orchestra, Royal Scottish National Orchestra, Scottish Opera and the Symphony Orchestra of India. He has worked with leading musicians including Barry Douglas, Yan Pascal Tortelier and Ilan Volkov, and as soloist and chamber musician he has performed regularly in Ireland, the UK and Europe.

He was awarded the Young Musicians Platform Award by the Arts Council of Northern Ireland in 2008, which led to a performance of Gordon Jacob’s Bassoon Concerto with the Ulster Orchestra the following year. Eanna continues to travel abroad for lessons with Valentino Zucchiatti and Laurent Lefevre.

Éanna gratefully acknowledges the support of the Arts Council of Northern Ireland, the Loan Fund for Musical Instruments, The Finzi Trust and Muintir Bhéal Féírste.

Away from music, Éanna loves most sports, unspoilt landscapes, tea and old cars.

Alba was born in Madrid and started playing cello at the age of eight with Jose Miguel Gomez Diaz at the Conservatorio Joaquin Turina. Whilst in Spain she was invited to perform for the Contemporary Music Academy, JONDE (National Youth Orchestra of Spain) and later on by the National Orchestra and Choir of Spain to take part in the International Contemporary Music Festival of Alicante. She won 1st prize in the Häzen Chamber Music Competition with her piano trio and was awarded the Gold Medal for Artistic Merit by the International Committee and Jury of the European Academy of Arts.

In 2004 Alba moved to London, where she began her BMus degree at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama with Stefan Popov and Leonid Gorokhov. During this time she was a member of the European Union Youth Orchestra (2007-8). After graduating she received a scholarship from the Royal Scottish Academy of music and Drama, where she obtained her Masters degree studying with Johannes Goritzki. During her time in Glasgow she won the 2010 Governors String Recital Prize and recorded for both BBC and Spanish Radios. She performed in concerts throughout Europe, as both soloist and chamber musician, including a performance of the Dvořák Cello Concerto with the RSAMD Symphony Orchestra, the Edinburgh Fringe Festival and the Wigmore Hall, London. She has regularly worked playing in musical theatre. Alba was selected to play with the Scottish Ensemble in their 40th Anniversary Tour, 2009, and for the RSNO (Royal Scottish National Orchestra) apprenticeship scheme, as well as performing as an extra.

Future projects include performances with the LPO and musicians from its Foyle Future First scheme.

In her spare time Alba can be found hanging out with friends, shopping or watching the football!

“No figure in British contemporary music is more respected than Oliver Knussen… every piece makes its point perfectly and shows Knussen’s mastery of his musical language and influences.”

– Andrew Clements, The Guardian

Born in Glasgow on 12 June 1952, Knussen grew up near London, where his father was principal double bass of the London Symphony Orchestra for many years. It was with this orchestra that he made his debut in April 1968, conducting his First Symphony in London and in Carnegie Hall, New York. Oliver Knussen attended the Purcell School and studied composition initially with John Lambert. In 1970 he was awarded the first of three fellowships to Tanglewood, where he studied with Gunther Schuller, and for the next few years divided his time between England and the USA. During this time he completed several works which were subsequently widely performed on both sides of the Atlantic and established his early reputation, notably Hums and Songs of Winnie-the-Pooh (1970), Second Symphony (Margaret Grant Prize, Tanglewood 1971), Océan de Terre (1972-3), and Ophelia Dances (Koussevitzky centennial commission, 1975).

In 1975, Knussen returned permanently to the UK and the appearance of subsequent works, notably Coursing (1979) and his Third Symphony (1973-9) placed him in the forefront of contemporary British music. This latter work enjoyed a striking international success in the wake of its 1979 BBC Proms premiere under dedicatee Michael Tilson Thomas, and after nearly 100 performances is now regarded as a classic work of its period.

The 1980s were largely devoted to the operatic double-bill written in collaboration with Maurice Sendak and produced by Glyndebourne Festival Opera, Where the Wild Things Are (l979-83) and Higglety Pigglety Pop! (1984-5, revised 1999). Wild Things, since its London premiere in the National Theatre by Glyndebourne and the London Sinfonietta, has regularly received productions in many parts of Europe and the United States as well as numerous concert presentations, and has been commercially recorded for video and twice on CD.

From 1983 to 1998, Knussen was an Artistic Director of the Aldeburgh Festival, and between 1986 and 1993 he headed contemporary music activities at the Tanglewood Music Center. From 1990 to 1992, he held the Elise L.Stoeger Composer’s Chair with the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center, and in 1992 (in collaboration with Colin Matthews) he established the Contemporary Composition and Performance courses at the Britten-Pears School in Snape.

During this period, Knussen also established a major reputation as a conductor, initially through appearances with the London Sinfonietta, BBC Symphony, City of Birmingham Symphony, Philharmonia and Scottish Chamber Orchestras. He has subsequently conducted in many parts of the world, including frequent visits to the USA with the Boston Symphony, Chicago Symphony, and Cleveland Orchestras; Los Angeles Philharmonic, The Philadelphia Orchestra; and Atlanta Symphony and New World Symphony Orchestras. In Canada he has conducted the Toronto Symphony and National Arts Centre Orchestras, and in Holland he has worked with the Asko|Schoenberg Ensemble, Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra and Residentie Orkest. He has also conducted the Ensemble Modern, Berliner Philharmoniker, Gewandhausorchester Leipzig and Gürzenich-Orchester Köln in Germany; the Finnish Radio Symphony Orchestra and Avanti! in Finland; and has had numerous appearances in Japan at Music Today, Suntory Hall and Tokyo Opera City. As a conductor he has recorded more than thirty CDs of contemporary music, several of which have won international awards.

Several of Oliver Knussen’s later works have quickly established themselves in the repertory: Flourish with Fireworks (1988), The Way to Castle Yonder (1988-90), Songs without Voices (1992), Two Organa (1994), the Horn Concerto (1994) and most recently his Violin Concerto (2002) which has already received more than 50 performances worldwide. Recent and forthcoming works include Cleveland Pictures for orchestra (2003-), Ophelia’s Last Dance for piano (2004-) and Requiem-Songs for Sue for soprano and chamber orchestra (2005-6).

After many years of close collaboration with the London Sinfonietta, Oliver Knussen became its Music Director in 1998, and in 2002 was made Conductor Laureate. In 2006, he was appointed both Artist-in-Association with BCMG and Associate Artist at Southbank Centre, London. He also curated the Stockhausen Memorial Festival “Klang” at the Centre in 2008, and in 2009 he was appointed Artist in Association with the BBC Symphony Orchestra, this three-year position consolidating his long relationship with them as composer and conductor. Among his many awards are Honorary Memberships of the American Academy of Arts and Letters and the Royal Philharmonic Society, an Honorary Doctorate from the Royal Scottish Academy of Music and Drama, the Association of British Orchestras Award, and most recently, a British Composer Award 2007 for his Requiem-Songs for Sue. In 2006 he was named the second recipient of the Michael Ludwig Nemmers Prize from Northwestern University, USA. He became a CBE in the 1994 Birthday Honours.

Oliver Knussen lives in Suffolk.

Crispian Steele-Perkins is a trumpet soloist who is world-renowned for the quality of his performances and wide-ranging musical experience. On graduating from the Guildhall School of Music, Crispian spent his early career playing with the English National Opera and Royal Philharmonic Orchestra. He then spent 15 years working in recording, TV and film studios, developing a body of work which is universally recognizable today, from Handel to James Bond themes and pop classics. His interest in collecting and restoring antique trumpets led him to begin performing on them – you may have heard Crispian’s playing introducing the BBC’s ‘The Antiques Roadshow’. His unique performances and recordings on genuine historic instruments led Continuo Magazine to describe him as ‘the world’s leading player of the Baroque trumpet’. Playing alongside some of the world’s greatest singers, Crispian’s purity of tone and artistic subtlety has received critical acclaim for more than three decades. Recordings of Handel’s ‘Let the Bright Seraphim’ with Dame Kiri te Kanawa and ‘Eternal source of Light Divine’ with James Bowman are familiar to many. More recently his performances with Emma Kirkby, Lynne Dawson, Carolyn Sampson, Bryn Terfel and Lesley Garrett have firmly established his reputation. His work in the studios has included more than 80 film, TV scores and commercials, appearing alongside Sir Cliff Richard, Sir Bob Geldof, Sir Harry Secombe, Kate Bush, Elaine Page, Chris Rea and Lulu. His many Solo recordings extend from Purcell to Gershwin and his largest “live” audience was 133,000 at the Edinburgh International Festival.

Ivor Bonnici completed a music degree at Oxford University (Worcester College) where he studied composition under Dr Robert Saxton. He won an orchestral competition which resulted in his piece Three Movements for Chamber Orchestra being performed by the Oxford Sinfonietta in 2007. He also conducted a performance of Mozart’s Requiem and trained the chorus for a performance of Purcell’s Dido and Aeneas.

Ivor was awarded an Arts and Humanities Research Council Award to study at the Royal Academy of Music where he is in his second year of the Masters programme in composition under Professor Simon Bainbridge. During the first year of the course he was commissioned by the chamber ensemble Azalea to write Flight of the Phoenix, in 2009 Ivor’s Musical Space & Synergy was performed by London Sinfonietta at the Purcell Room, and Eternity for soprano and cello was performed at the Royal Academy of Music.

In summer 2009 he was awarded a Ralph Vaughan Williams Award to attend an advanced composition course at Dartington International School of Music, led by the Japanese composer Somei Satoh.