Mae Heydorn, a Swedish-German mezzo-soprano, is a post-graduate scholarship student at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama studying with Susan Waters and Rudolf Piernay.
She recently completed her B.Mus (Hons) at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama, achieving a First Class Degree, generously supported by the GSMD and the Anglo-Swedish Society.
In November a Messiah performance marked Mae’s debut at Cadogan Hall with the English Chamber Orchestra. In February she won first prize at the British Schubert Society’s Lied Duo Competition and she was selected for the Making Music Philip & Dorothy Green Award 2010.
Mae currently sings in Verdi’s Macbeth in the Glyndebourne Festival Chorus and appears as a soloist with the Southbank Synfonia for a performance of Britten’s Phaedra in July.
Mae sings for Live Music Now! with her duo partner, pianist Diana Brekalo, working throughout the country to bring live music to the UK’s welfare, educational, justice and health sectors. The duo were awarded a scholarship to study with eminent tenor Christoph Prégardien and have performed at the Internationales Musikfest in Stuttgart. In Spring 2009 they were finalists at the International Lied Student Duo Competition in the Netherlands. The duo creates workshops and performances for children at the Wigmore Hall.
In January and February 2011 Mae is giving recitals with pianist Sholto Kynoch for Oxford Music and St. Martin in the Fields. In July 2011 she is recording songs by Finnish composer Yrvö Kilpinnen for French record label AR RE-SE.
Mae is supported by the Anglo-Swedish Society.
Butler’s works are widely performed and broadcast both in the UK and abroad. He has received commissions from, amongst others, the BBC (O Rio was first performed at the 1991 Proms), the London Sinfonietta (Concertino and Jazz Machines, the latter of which was played at the 1995 Venice Biennale), and the Cheltenham and Canterbury festivals. In June 1994 Mecklenburgh Opera premièred the operatic adventure story Craig’s Progress, with a libretto by Stephen Pruslin, which was adapted for radio broadcast by BBC Radio 3. Butler was Featured Composer at the 1995 Vale of Glamorgan Festival where his Clarinet Quintet was premièred, and of the Park Lane Group’s January 2002 concert series.
Peter Wiegold was born 1949 in Ilford, Essex. After leaving Durham University he became Composer-in-Residence at the Arnolfini Gallery, Bristol, and became one of the pioneers of creative workshop leading in Britain involving children, actors, dancers, professional musicians, and non-musicians in practical, creative music -making. Soon after this he was appointed lecturer in composition at Sussex University (1979).
Torbjörn Hultmark was born in Sweden in 1957 and came to live in the UK in 1985. He studied at the Gothenburg Conservatoire of Music and at the National Centre for Orchestral Studies, Goldsmith’s College, London. Torbjorn is a founder member of the Brass quintet Chaconne Brass whose repertoire spans from Praetorius to Steve Reich, from Gershwin to Miles Davis, from Acoustic to Electro-acoustic and from Brass to Beyond…
Born in Le Havre, Muriel Chemin pursued her diploma in piano, chamber music and history of music at the Ecole Normale Alfred Cortot in Paris, achieving the Licence de Concert. She later won the Premier Prix de Virtuosité in Italy and the International Hennessy-Mozart Competition in Paris.
Barry Wordsworth is Music Director of the Royal Ballet Covent Garden, having also previously held the position from 1990-95. In 2006 he became Conductor Laureate of the BBC Concert Orchestra, having served as its Principal Conductor since 1989. He is also Principal Conductor of the Brighton. From 2005-8 he was Music Director of the Birmingham Royal Ballet.
Winner of Remember Enescu International Competition, The Tillett Trust and a Finalist of Young Concert Artist Trust, Vlad has performed concerti and recitals that have included appearances at major venues in Europe (Wigmore Hall, South Bank Centre, The Sage Gateshead, Basilica Santa Cecilia in Rome, Salle Flagey in Bruxelles, Kulturhaus Helferei in Zurich) as well as Merkin Hall, Kaufman Center – New York and The Athenæum in his native Romania.
Mark Forkgen was Organ Scholar of Queens’ College, Cambridge, before winning a scholarship to study conducting at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama under Christopher Seaman and Michael Tilson Thomas. During this period he also worked as assistant conductor to Mstislav Rostropovich. From the Guildhall, Mark went on to become Assistant Conductor of the Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra for two highly productive years before deciding to further his career as a guest conductor.
Philippa Davies has established an international reputation as one of the finest flautists currently performing. A “first-rate virtuoso”, with “exceptional eloquence” she has been noted for an “almost electrical response to technique”. As a recitalist, she plays and broadcasts throughout the world at international festivals, whilst performing concertos and giving master classes from China to the USA. She has performed concertos with the New Stockholm Chamber Orchestra, the BBC Symphony, the BBC Philharmonic and the BBC National Orchestra of Wales, the English Chamber Orchestra, City of London Sinfonia and the London Mozart Players.