World class musicians will visit Queen Anne's School once again as part of QAS Fest 2022.
Composer and pianist Graham Fitkin will be joined by Ruth Wall, Clare Hammond and Kathy Stott in a programme celebrating music built from minimal materials. The concert will focus on Graham Fitkin’s piano compositions of the 1990s and keyboard compositions by Reich, Adams, Unsuk Chin, Feldman and Meredith.
Graham Fitkin
"I compose for live performance, for recordings, dance, media and installations. I work with acoustic instruments, electronic instruments and audio recordings."
Fitkin's work includes:
Orchestral – previously Composer-in-Residence with Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orch, Composer-in-Residence with London Chamber Orch. Commissions from the Halle, BBC Philharmonic, Tokyo Symphony Orch, RSNO, Athens Camerata, BBC Symphony Orch, BBC Concert Orch.
Chamber – collaborations include those with Yo-Yo Ma, The Sacconi Quartet, Kathryn Stott, Nederlands Blazersensemble, Powerplant, Will Gregory, Ensemble Bash, Piano Circus, Simon Haram
Cross-Art – projects include those with Tate St Ives, Minack Theatre, a VR collaboration with Shezad Dawood, the Geography music app for HFC and the tree-planting Birch 2020 project.
Dance – collaborations with Shobana Jeyasingh, Wayne McGregor’s Random Dance, Pacific Northwest Ballet, New York City Ballet, San Francisco Ballet, Bi-Ma, Sidonie Rochon, Munich Ballet, Portugal National Ballet
Education/Community – includes 3 UK PRS Composer residencies, 9 regional community projects, university seminars, masterclasses and directed workshops in UK, Japan, Italy and Soweto
Performer – directs Fitkin Band 9-piece group and works with harpist Ruth Wall as FitkinWall.
Ruth Wall
Scottish harpist Ruth Wall performs on concert and lever harps, buzzing Renaissance bray harp and Gaelic wire strung harp. She is passionate about new music and performs with groups such as BBC Concert Orchestra, Goldfrapp, Kathryn Tickell, Sacconi Quartet and London Chamber Orchestra. Ruth has performed at venues including Berlin Philharmonic, Eden Project, Sydney Opera House, Spiral Hall Tokyo, Tate Gallery and Glastonbury.
Clare Hammond
Acclaimed as a “pianist of extraordinary gifts” (Gramophone) and “immense power” (The Times), Clare Hammond is recognised for the virtuosity and authority of her performances. In 2016, she won the Royal Philharmonic Society's 'Young Artist Award' in recognition of outstanding achievement and in 2020 she was engaged to perform at the International Piano Series (Southbank Centre). Performances during the pandemic included recitals for the Wigmore Hall and Aldeburgh Music, a live recital broadcast for BBC Radio 3 Lunchtime Concerts from St David’s Cardiff, and broadcast recordings of Moussa and Carwithen with the BBC Symphony Orchestra (Geoffrey Paterson) and BBC Concert Orchestra (Gavin Sutherland).
Kathy Stott
"At the age of five, I made friends with the upright piano in our living room. That was the beginning of my musical journey, one which continues as you read this. It would appear that my initial progress was rapid and by the age of eight, I found myself at a boarding school for young musicians, the Yehudi Menuhin School. During my studies there, it is now clear to me that I was heavily influenced by two occasional visitors to the school; Nadia Boulanger and Vlado Perlmuter. From them, my great passion for French music was ignited and Fauré in particular has remained the musical love of my life."