Phillip began playing music at school in Winchester. He was principal percussionist with the Hampshire Youth Concert Band for several years, and since then has played freelance with orchestras, both amateur and professional, in London, Cardiff, Bournemouth, Farnborough, Oxford, Wakefield and Shrewsbury. He has taken part in several recording sessions for records, radio and television broadcasts.

Phillip counts among his most memorable moments a day he spent as the guest of Sir Adrian Boult, in 1978. Points of conducting technique discussed then have influenced him ever since.

He formed the Market Drayton Orchestra in 1990, and conducted it until its last concert in 1998. He has also conducted groups in Southampton, Wolverhampton and Shrewsbury.

Phillip has composed music for many years. His Symphony for Brass was performed at Merton College, Oxford, in 1989. Other works have been played at the Royal College of Music and the London College of Music and Media.

Sophie is 21 years old and originally from Wigan, Lancashire. She was a student at the Junior RNCM for seven years, where she studied the violin with Richard Deakin. In her final year, she was awarded the concerto prize, resulting in a performance of the Mendelssohn Violin Concerto with the Junior RNCM Orchestra. She was also the recipient of the John Wray Prize for Outstanding Contribution to the Junior School.

Sophie was a member of the National Youth Orchestra of Great Britain for four years and was appointed to the position of sub-leader in her final year. Having graduated from the University of Manchester in June 2007 with First Class honours, Sophie is currently completing her GRNCM at the College, where she studies with Richard Deakin.

As a result of receiving an "A" grade for her concerto audition at the RNCM, Sophie was invited to perform Mozart’s "Sinfonia Concertante" with the RNCM Orchestra during the recent RNCM Chamber Music Festival. She has recently been offered a scholarship to study for an MA in performance at the Royal Academy of Music in London.

Paul started playing the French Horn at the age of 11. He began on a school instrument, when his parents moved to Hartlepool. He thoroughly enjoyed the experience of playing in weekly rehearsals for the town’s schools orchestra and the Saturday morning wind band. However, it was hard practice that brought a distinction at Grade 8, at the age of 14, and the prestige of playing in adult groups around the North East. One favourite diversion was a wind quintet, mostly comprising local peripatetic instrumental teachers, that gave frequent concerts in the vicinity of Hartlepool. Paul also played with the Northern Junior Philharmonic Orchestra, which comprised young players from all over the north of the country and met (and still meets) annually for a summer rehearsal week, with a final performance in the Newcastle-Upon-Tyne City Hall. In his final concert with the schools orchestra in Hartlepool, before heading off to Leeds University to study electrical engineering, Paul performed Mozart’s Horn Concerto No.3 in E flat, K.447.

Paul was a member of the Leeds University Orchestra for three years and then, on starting his first job in Reading, joined the Reading Symphony Orchestra, where he soon became principal horn. Four years later, in 1985, he moved to East Lothian to work in the commissioning team at Torness Nuclear Power Station. The highly cultural city of Edinburgh was only a short drive away, and Paul immediately auditioned for, and joined, the Scottish Sinfonia, which performs many concerts each year in the city. Whilst in Edinburgh, Paul also played regularly with the Meadows Chamber Orchestra and performed in Festival Fringe recitals such works as Mozart’s Horn Quintet in E flat, K.407, and Brahms’ Horn Trio, Op.40.

Having moved in 1989 with his job as a safety engineer in the nuclear-power industry from East Lothian to Congleton in Cheshire, Paul started playing regularly in the Stockport Symphony Orchestra. He also played with the North Staffordshire Symphony Orchestra and, in 2007, he performed the Strauss Horn Concerto No.1 in E flat, Op.11.

Over the years, Paul has appeared in the horn section of the Middlewich Concert Orchestra several times and is very much looking forward to performing as soloist this evening.

(Summer 2008)

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