Stevie Smith's 'A Turn Outside'

the composer and performers

Simon Rowland-Jones  (Festival Director, viola & composer) was born in 1950.  He studied viola and composition at the Yehudi Menuhin School, the Royal College of Music and at the Academia di Santa Cecilia in Rome, where his teacher was Bruno Giuranna.  Returning to England in 1972 he became the founder violist of the Chilingirian Quartet in which he played for a total of ten years touring worldwide and making numerous recordings.   He made his début solo recital at Carnegie Hall in 1979 but solo performances have played an important role in his musical life throughout his career.

 He transcribed Bach’s Cello Suites for viola in 1993 which he recorded for Meridian Records in 1994.  These transcriptions were subsequently published by Peters Edition in 1997.  Other Meridian recordings include works by Beethoven, Schubert and Schumann (with Niel Immelman, piano), Mozart & Haydn Duos for violin and viola (with Maureen Smith, violin), and the complete works for viola and piano of Ernest Bloch and Benjamin Dale, both on the Etcetera label.   

Simon Rowland-Jones is currently editing the new critical and performing edition of Haydn’s String Quartets, also for Peters Edition.  This massive project, comprising original research on 69 quartets, is already partly published and being used by string quartets around the world.  The complete edition will comprise 11 volumes.   

His highly successful teaching career began simultaneously at the Royal Northern College of Music and at the Yehudi Menuhin School.  He left those positions in 1994 to become a viola and chamber music professor at the Royal College of Music and Visiting Professor of Chamber Music at Malmö Musikhögskolan in Sweden.  His yearly summer courses at the Yorke Trust attract talented students from the top British conservatoires as well as further a field in Europe, the US and Australia.

 Simon Rowland-Jones has composed since he was eight years old.  While a student at the Yehudi Menuhin School he received composition lessons from Nadia Boulanger.  Both his chamber music and his works for viola have become an integral part of his performing career.  

Dame Josephine Barstow (soprano) was born is Yorkshire and is one of the world's most distinguished opera singers. She shot to fame in 'La Trasviata' at English National Opera in the early seventies, immediately hailed as a great 'singing actress'. She went on to score more trimphs at ENO, notably with her interpretation of Salome. Her career has taken her all over the world and she was the first foreign singer to appear at the Bolshoi Theatre for 25 years.

She has sing major roles in Amsterdam, San Diego, Glyndebourne, the Metropolitan Opera New York, the Lyric Opera Chicago, Houston, Munich, the Royal Flemish Opera and Barcelona together with many roles for each of our own major opera companies: her interpretation of Elisabeth I in Britten's 'Gloriana' (Phylida Lloyd's Opera North production), won international recognition and an Emmy in New York.

Dame Josephine went to Munich the day after her concert in South Creake to sing the Countess in Tchaikovsky's 'The Queen of Spades' and in September returns to ENO for a new performance of Poulenc's 'The Dialogue of the Carmelites'.
Dame Josephine sang at the the 1986 Salzburg Festival in Penderecki's opera 'The Black Mask' where Herbert von Karajan engaged her on the spot for the role of Amelia in Verdi's 'Un Ballo in Maschera' for the 1989 festival. Karajan died on 16th July, just before the opening night but the performance went ahead with Sir Georg Solti conducting. Dame Josephine appeared with Placido Domingo and Leo Nucci. The eyes of the world were on Salzburg following Karajan's death and the production was hailed as a triumph, one of the last 'conventional' opera productions to be seen at the festival, which later underwent great changes, not altogether well received, under the direction of Gerard Mortier.

The production was revived in 1990 with the same cast and conductor - 40,000 ticket application for the five performances overwhelmed the Box Office. The opera was broadcast live on television, simultaneously in Austria and Japan. A DVD has been released on TDK of that performance, described by the Vienna Kurier critic as 'an operatic feast for posterity', for everyone to enjoy.

Gary Matthewman (piano) is the current holder of the Legal and General Junior Fellowship at the Royal College of Music. As a student there he recieved several prizes and graduated with first class honours. He was awarded the Postgraduate Diploma (Accompaniment) with distinction. Gary studied with John Barstow, John Blakely and Roger Vignoles, and most recently in Berlin with Waltram Rieger. He developed his strong interest in song accompaniment and chamber music early on in his studies, and now works almost exclusively within these fields of repertoire. He is the winner of the accompaniment prizes at the 12005 Maggi Teyte Awards and the 2005 Royal Over-Seas League Competition.

Gary has performed as a song/chamber music recitalist in Germany, Belgium, Spain, Switzerland, South Korea, Canada and the USA. At home, recent performances include Schubert's Die Schone Mullierin with Jared Holt (baritone) and recitals with Cora Burggraaf (soprano), the Sacconi String Quartet, Susan Milan (flute) and Simon Rowland-Jones (viola).

In London Gary has performed at the Linbury Studio Theatre at the Royal Opera House and in St Martin in the Fields and St James', Piccadilly. He was recently invited t o take part in the fist Berlin 'Leidforum' with Sylvia Schwartz 9soprano); they then gave a Lied recital as part of the 2005 Barcelona Schubertiada.

Gary's broadcasts on BBC Radio 3 include appearances at the Aldeburgh and Bath Festival with Nicholas Daniel (oboe) and Cora Burggraaf, and studio performances with Tony Spence (tenor) and Wendy Dawn-Thompson (mezzo-soprano). He arrived in South Creake fresh from recitals with Elizabeth Watts (soprano) at the 2005 Aldeburgh Festival and Wigmore Hall.

Gary was supported throughout his studies by the Countess of Munster Musical Trust, a Foundation Scholarship from the Royal College of Music, and a Leverhulme Award. He recently received further support form the Geoffrey Parsons Memorial Trust

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