Sinfonia Cymru, formerly known as the Cardiff Bay Orchestra, was formed in April 1996 by its Musical Director, Gareth Jones, formerly Chorus Master of Welsh National Opera. Although it began with the principal aim of providing a training ground for players entering the music profession, the Orchestra has developed to include the most outstanding talent in South Wales, and meets to give five or six series of concerts a year, including two concerts at St David’s Hall, Cardiff. Sinfonia Cymru has also established itself in several other venues, including Wyastone Concert Hall in Monmouth and the Memorial Hall in Pontyberem.

While Sinfonia Cymru is primarily a chamber orchestra, playing normally with about forty-two players, it has over two hundred players "on its books" and at least once a year most of the players come together for a larger orchestral concert at St David’s Hall, Cardiff. One such concert was the Gala Concert in April 2000 with Bryn Terfel, which drew huge acclaim both from the capacity audience and from Bryn Terfel himself. In fact, so impressed was he with the Orchestra that he invited them to join him for his performance of Brahms German Requiem at the National Eisteddfod in Denbigh. Bryn Terfel has also described Sinfonia Cymru as ‘the most important and significant orchestral development in Wales in recent years’.

In addition Sinfonia Cymru has worked with such distinguished artists as Carlo Rizzi, Peter Donohoe, Gwyn Hughes Jones, Rebecca Evans, Patricia Bardon and David Pyatt. They have also forged strong relationships with outstanding younger artists such as Chloe Hanslip, Liwei Qin, David Childs and Natsuko Yoshimoto. Soloists appearing with Sinfonia Cymru in the 2003-04 season include Jean-Philippe Collard, Guy Johnson and Michael Collins.

Born in South Wales, Gareth Jones joined the Music Staff of Welsh National Opera in 1990 and to date he has conducted performances of Un Ballo in Maschera, Il Barbiere di Siviglia, Nabucco, La Traviata, Ernani, Die Fledermaus, Eugene Onegin, The Yeomen of the Guard, Faust, La Boheme, Fidelio, Billy Budd, The Carmelites, Carmen, Katya Kabanova and The Cunning Little Vixen for WNO and The Mikado for the Vancouver Opera. He was Associate Music Director of the New D’Oyly Carte Opera Company from 1988-1990 where he conducted over 200 performances of The Yeomen of the Guard, Iolanthe, The Mikado and The Pirates of Penzance.

His concert appearances in the United Kingdom have included the Fireworks Concert with the Scottish Chamber Orchestra at the Edinburgh International Festival, a gala concert at Caernarfon Castle with Bryn Terfel and the Orchestra of Welsh National Opera, and concerts with the Royal Scottish National Orchestra, BBC National Orchestra of Wales, the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra and the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra. He conducted the Opera Gala at the first two Bryn Terfel Faenol Festivals in North Wales (with Marcello Alvarez and Richard Margison respectively); and subsequent appearances have also included an Operatic Gala with Bryn Terfel and Denyce Graves at the Hampton Court Festival.

Between 1992 and 1994, Gareth Jones worked closely with the American choreographer, Mark Morris, conducting performances of Purcell’s Dido and Aeneas, Handel’s L’Allegro and Ibert’s Divertissement with the Scottish Chamber Orchestra at the Edinburgh International Festival and with the Australian Chamber Orchestra at the Adelaide Festival.

Gareth Jones made his BBC Prom debut at the Royal Albert Hall with Bryn Terfel, Renée Fleming and the Orchestra of Welsh National Opera in 2002. Other engagements include the Opera Gala at Bryn Terfel’s 2002 Faenol Festival with Bryn Terfel and Renée Fleming, a 2003 British concert tour with Bryn Terfel and Sinfonia Cymru, including Henley Festival and a recording of The Messiah with Bryn Terfel at St. Asaph Cathedral, to be televised on Channel 4 Wales next Christmas. Recent operatic engagements include Die Fledermaus, and Jenufa for WNO, whilst forthcoming plans include Le nozze di Figaro and La Traviata for WNO.

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With its line-up of outstanding players, the London-based ensemble, Chamber Domaine has established an international name through passionate, insightful performances and fascinating programme building.

The ensemble integrates chamber music and song from our time with music from the 18^th and 19^th centuries. It takes an innovatory approach to programming in its recitals, recordings and educational activities and is constantly exploring ways of developing audiences and broadening understanding and interest in the genre. The Times recently commented: "Chamber Domaine brilliantly demonstrated the thrill of young players successfully climbing Mount Everest…with exhilarating bravery and expressive force."

The ensemble has a London Season of Fifteen concerts with a series of concerts at Wigmore Hall, Imperial War Museum, Blackheath Halls and St.Martin-in the-Fields. 2002-2003 includes residencies at the Arnold Schoenberg Centre, Vienna; Bargemusic, New York; Cheltenham International, Leamington, and City of London Festivals. 2003-2004 involves a series of projects in Austria and concerts in the USA, Italy, New Germany and Holland.

Chamber Domaine are recording artists for Sanctuary Classics. Forthcoming releases include a disc of music by Arvo Pärt, Ned Rorem – with Jean Rigby and Toby Spence - and Judith Bingham.

www.chamberdomaine.com

In September 1998 by a unanimous verdict Andrew Zolinsky won first prize in The San Francisco International Piano Concerto Competition confirming his emergence in recent years as one of the most imaginative and exciting pianists of his generation.
At home in both traditional and contemporary repertoire, he often designs programmes which show the links between past and present, a style of programming that has proved hugely popular.

Frequently broadcast on BBC Radio 3, Andrew Zolinsky has also given solo recitals on Classic FM, German Radio, Czech Radio and two recitals of contemporary Irish music for BBC Radio Ulster. In 2001 he devised and performed a series of three recitals entitled Old, New, Borrowed and Blue. These concerts provided a link between the past and the present and included several British premieres of works by some of the major figures in Dutch, American and British music of today. In the same year he took aspects of this series to the ‘Sonorities’ festival in Belfast.

In the field of contemporary music he is much in demand and has worked with Composers' Ensemble, Capricorn, Icebreaker and Eos, as well as with leading composers of today including Louis Andriessen, Poul Ruders, Michael Finnissy, Martin Butler. He has a particularly strong association with the music of David Lang, and this year he gives the World premiere of David Lang’s major new work for solo piano, Psalms without Words in New York. Lasting an hour, this exciting new work is based on the Hebrew text of the book of Psalms. Continuing their fruitful association, David Lang has been commissioned by the BBC National Orchestra of Wales to write Andrew Zolinsky a Concerto for performance in 2004 [scheduled for the Festival that year]. Other highlights in 2003 include a performance of Rachmaninoff’s Piano Concerto No 2 at the Barbican Hall with the London Concert Orchestra conducted by Robin Stapleton.

Recordings in 2003 include Andrew Zolinsky’s sixth CD on the Guild Music label of early twentieth century Swiss piano music. Over the next two years he will record, on the Metier label, the complete solo piano music of Martin Butler, Folklore by Michael Finnissy and the piano music of Michael Zev Gordon.

www.margaretmurphy.com

Austrian born Isabel Ettenauer is an outstanding young performer who frequently develops unusual projects. Both as a virtuoso pianist dedicated to contemporary music and with her most recent project The Joy of Toy (new music for toy piano) she has performed at a number of major festivals and concert series in Europe and the USA, including the International Gaudeamus Music Days (Amsterdam), Jeunesse Festival (Vienna), Making New Waves (Budapest), Crosslinx Festival (Utrecht, Enschede).

Following her London toy piano debut at the Warehouse in December 2002 Isabel Ettenauer toured England as part of the BMIC Cutting Edge Tour giving concerts at the Leamington Festival, in Cambridge at Kettle's Yard and at The Museum of Modern Art, Oxford. She frequently collaborates with composers from all over the world. In September/October she will be a performer in residence at the Voix Nouvelles composition course in Royaumont, France and will also work on a radio piece with composer David Sawer to be broadcast on BBC3 in December. Since the beginning of her project The Joy of Toy there has been immense interest by all media, and her toy piano performances have been broadcast by radio and TV stations in Austria (ORF), Britain (BBC 3 and BBC Scotland), Hungary (Duna TV and RTL Klub) and the Netherlands (VPRO and NCRV).

Isabel Ettenauer appears in association with BMIC Cutting Edge Tour 2003

Australian guitarist Craig Ogden is one of the most exciting artists of his generation. He has released six CDs for Chandos Records and has performed concertos with numerous symphony orchestras, including the Royal Philharmonic, Accademia di Santa Cecilia (Rome), the Hallé, BBC National Orchestra of Wales, and Melbourne Symphony Orchestras.

His Nimbus Records debut solo recording of contemporary British works received wide acclaim and a Grammy nomination, while his latest Chandos release of concertos by Walton, Arnold, and Berkeley with Richard Hickox and the Northern Sinfonia was released to critical acclaim. The Daily Telegraph wrote, "All the works were inspired by…Julian Bream, to whom Craig Ogden is a distinguished successor. Allied to his superb, agile technique, the range of tonal shading he brings to his playing is of rare richness and subtlety" while The Guardian hailed Ogden as "brilliant and persuasive".

Craig Ogden regularly appears as soloist and chamber musician at the major London venues and has also performed at most of the main UK festivals. He is probably the most sought after guitarist for chamber music in the UK performing with the Nash Ensemble, London Sinfonietta, counter-tenor David Daniels, tenors Mark Padmore, John Mark Ainsley and Anthony Rolfe-Johnson, Claire Bradshaw (mezzo-soprano), Paul Barritt (violin), Sebastian Comberti (principal cello - London Mozart Players), Paul Tanner (percussion), Alison Stephens (mandolin) and Judith Hall (flute). Craig Ogden also frequently records for film and was featured on the British hit, Notting Hill.

In January 2003 Craig Ogden premiered a new concerto written for him by Gerard Brophy (Australia) with the BBC Philharmonic Orchestra with the Australian premiere to follow in 2004. He also recently completed a recital recording for Virgin/EMI with counter-tenor David Daniels, to be released in October 2003.

Craig Ogden is married to British opera star Claire Bradshaw with whom he frequently appears in concert. He also holds the position of Senior Lecturer in Guitar at the Royal Northern College of Music in Manchester.

Craig Ogden plays with Chamber Domaine on Sunday 7 September at Llansannor Court, and with Sinfonia Cymru on Tuesday 9 September at the Atrium, (British Airways).

O K E A N O S

Lucy Wakeford (harp)
Jinny Shaw (oboe)
Stuart King (clarinet)
Kate Musker (viola)

Okeanos was formed in 1998 with the aim of creating opportunities for young composers, and pioneering performance events, often collaborating with other art forms. Previous collaborations have involved the British sculptor Katharine Dowson and Myriad, a vast curtain structure of some 4000 lenses, and the acclaimed Japanese textile exhibition Textural Space, (curated by Lesley Millar) in celebration with the Japan 2001 Festival.

Okeanos was invited to participate in the BMIC Cutting Edge Series 2002, and subsequent Cutting Edge Tour. The ensemble will return to the Warehouse, London on 16^th October, for the 2003 Series to perform works by Elena Kats-Chernin, Howard Skempton, Gabriel Jackson and Sadie Harrison among others.

This year’s Cutting Edge Tour saw concerts in York and at the Vale of Glamorgan Festival, as well as education projects and residencies in Manchester, Bath and London. Radio broadcasts included Australia and the UK.

Nigel Osborne’s Dialogue is to tour with the Rudolf Steiner Blackboard Drawings Exhibition, including Edinburgh College of Art where Okeanos will include a premiere of a new work by Gabriel Jackson.

Future plans include concerts in Tokyo and at the Goetheanum, Switzerland.

Okeanos has recently recorded the music of Elizabeth Maconchy and Nicola LeFanu for METIER, due for release early next year. They have also recorded works for oboe & harp by Philip Grange, Lynne Plowman, Judith Bingham and Howard Skempton: Horizons (ASC CS CD 51).

Pierre-André Valade was born in Brive, France in 1959. After a successful international career as a flautist, he took up conducting full-time in 1990. He is Music Director of the Paris based Ensemble Court-Circuit, which he co-founded in 1991 with composer Philippe Hurel.

Pierre-André Valade is especially well-known for his performances of repertoire from the 20^th and 21^st centuries, having been inspired by Pierre Boulez with whom he has been in close contact for many years. He receives regular invitations from major festivals and orchestras in countries such as England, Germany, Italy, Austria, Norway, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland and Australia, as well as his native France. His recording of Grisey’s Les Espaces Acoustiques won both the Diapason d’or de l’année 1999 and the Grand Prix de l’Académie Charles Cros.

In the past few years he has conducted many different orchestras including the Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France, the London Sinfonietta, the Ensemble InterContemporain, Ensemble Modern, Birmingham Contemporary Music Group, Avanti Ensemble, and I Solisti di Milano-Musica. He is regularly invited to conduct the BBC Symphony Orchestra in London. Elsewhere in Europe he has conducted the orchestras of the Accademia Nationale di Santa Cecilia Rome, Teatro Carlo Felice Genova, Gulbenkian Orchestra and members of the Berlin Philharmonic at the Salzburg Easter Festival, performing music by Pierre Boulez. He made his BBC Proms debut in 2001 conducting the Nash Ensemble.

In 2002 he conducted the BBC Symphony Orchestra, Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France, Saarbrucken Radio Symphony Orchestra, BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra, Ensemble InterContemporain and Philharmonie de Lorraine, as well as concerts at the Lucerne, Dublin, Aldeburgh and Huddersfield Festivals and Les Espaces Acoustiques in Oslo.

Recent and future plans include concerts with the Philharmonia Orchestra, Montreal Symphony Orchestra, BBC National Orchestra of Wales, BBC Symphony Orchestra, RTE National Symphony Orchestra, Northern Sinfonia, Orchestre National de Lyon, Ensemble InterContemporain, and the London Sinfonietta. He will also jointly conduct the world premiere of Theseus Game by Sir Harrison Birtwistle with Ensemble Modern. In January 2001 he was awarded a Chevalier dans l’Ordre des Arts et des Lettres by the French Minister of Culture.

Gerard McChrystal comes from Derry, Northern Ireland. He took up the saxophone in 1982 and by 1989 had already performed concertos with The Philharmonia, London RTE Concert Orchestra, Dublin and the RNCM Wind Orchestra, Manchester. In 1987 he became the first person to graduate from the RNCM with three awards and followed this with a diploma from the GSM, London and an MA from Northwestern University, Chicago. Competition successes followed in The Royal Overseas League (Wind Prize), Lombard and Ulster Music Foundation (winner), RTE Musician of the Future (finalist in 1985 & 1987), Countess of Munster, NFMS Award, Park Lane Group, Ivan Sutton Award, Sir James Caird Travelling Fund, Martin Music Trust and he even won on the clappometer on Oppurtunity Knocks! in 1987.

Gerard McChrystal has performed in over twenty countries and in 1992 completed a world tour with the quartet Saxtet starting in Bombay and ending in Hawaii. He has premiered pieces by or worked with Sir Harrison Birtwhistle, Sir Malcolm Arnold, John Taverner, James MacMillan, Dave Heath, Michael Kamen, David Bedford, John Metcalf, Gary Carpenter, Michael McGlynn and Tommy Smith. In 1999 he premiered and broadcast a BBC commissioned concerto by Belfast born composer, Ian Wilson called Who’s Afraid of Red, Yellow and Blue.

Gerard McChrystal has written and presented for RTE’s Lyric FM and reviews saxophone music for Music Teacher magazine. He also runs annual courses for Dartington International Summer School, Aberystwyth Musicfest, The National Youth Wind Orchestra and Music at Little Benslow. In 1998 he was appointed as Professor of Saxophone at Trinity College of Music, London and tutor at The Royal Welsh College of Music & Drama, Cardiff.

In addition, in July 2003, he became the first person from UK/Ireland to be invited to give a concerto performance at the World Saxophone Congress in Minneapolis, USA. Future plans include the broadcast of a new concerto by John Metcalf with BBC NOW, a premiere by Edward Watson with the Karol Syzmanowski String Quartet, a concerto debut in Mexico and a tour of Ireland as soloist with The National Youth Wind Orchestra of Great Britain.

www.saxsaxsax.com

Philippa Davies has established an international reputation as one of the finest flautists currently performing. She has been praised for her gifted musicianship and warm personality. A ‘first-rate virtuoso,’ with ‘exceptional eloquence’ she has been noted for an ‘almost electrical response to technique’ and has given many world premières and numerous distinguished composers have dedicated works specifically to her. 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.

Born in 1980 Catrin Finch began her harp studies with Elinor Bennett at the age of eight, and at16 moved to the Purcell School in London, to study with Skaila Kanga, with whom she continued her studies at the Royal Academy of Music in London.

In 2000 she was appointed as Royal Harpist to HRH the Prince of Wales. This is the post – last filled by Queen Victoria in 1871 - that was revived by the Prince on hearing her play at his 50^th Birthday celebrations in Buckingham Palace.

Catrin Finch has given many solo performances including British and International radio and TV appearances. Her many prizes include 1st prize in the junior section of the World Harp Festival in 1991, and 2nd prize in the senior section in 1994, when aged only 14. More recently she won 1st prize at the Lily Laskine International Harp Competition in France, one of the premiere harp competitions in the world. Her orchestral experience includes six years as principal harp in the National Youth Orchestra of Great Britain. She was the youngest member of the orchestra to perform at a BBC Promenade Concert at the Royal Albert Hall, at the age of 10, and leaving the orchestra she was awarded the Arthur Bulgin Medal for her outstanding contribution.

In March 2000 Catrin Finch gave her London debut recital at the Wigmore Hall. Winner of the 2000 Young Concert Artists International Auditions, the Young Concert Artists Series presented Catrin Finch’s recital debuts in New York and Boston.

In addition to two US tours, recent engagements have included recitals in Latvia, Germany, France, Spain, Amsterdam, Thailand and the UK. A major event in 2002 was the premiere of a new concerto by Karl Jenkins for two harps, commissioned by HRH The Prince of Wales, specifically for Catrin Finch and her former teacher, Elinor Bennett.

"With the BBC NOW musicians playing as if these were their own lives on the line, the passion and commitment was total … it could hardly have been more alive and compelling." The Guardian (9 June 2003)

BBC NOW’s repertoire is extensive and the Orchestra is committed to the performance of contemporary music, highlighted by Michael Berkeley’s joint appointment as Composer in Association with BBC NOW and the Royal Welsh College of Music and Drama. In 2003/04 the Orchestra will also be premiering new works by Alun Hoddinott as part of a series of concerts celebrating the composer’s 75th birthday.

BBC NOW’s performing home is St David’s Hall, Cardiff, at which it gives over 20 performances each year. The Orchestra also presents a concert series at the Brangwyn Hall, Swansea, and tours throughout Wales tri-annually. BBC NOW appears four times each summer at London’s Royal Albert Hall, as part of the BBC Proms, and performs overseas, touring to Germany in April 2002 and Amsterdam in November 2003. The Orchestra’s concerts are broadcast chiefly on BBC Radio 3 but BBC NOW can also be heard regularly on BBC Radio Cymru, BBC Wales radio and television, BBC4 and S4C. The Orchestra has recorded a diverse range of works for CD, including Bridge and Rubbra cycles with Richard Hickox and Takemitsu with Tadaaki Otaka. Future recordings planned with Hickox, on the Chandos label, include Vaughan Williams' opera The Poisoned Kiss as well as continuing a cycle of works by father and son, Sir Lennox and Michael Berkeley.

Resound|Atsain, BBC NOW’s dynamic Education and Community Department, extends the work of the Orchestra beyond the confines of the concert hall into schools, workplaces and communities. Highlights of 2003 include the first Making Tracks Live concert for 7 to 11 year-olds and, in November, Indian Exchange, a special project combining Western and Eastern classical music traditions, culminating in a concert featuring Indian master musicians Hariprasad Chaurasia and Shivkumar Sharma.

www.bbc.co.uk/wales/now

BBC Call NOW Line: 0800 052 1812