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As a teenager Jane studied with Lionel Bentley, and went on to study with him and Clarence Myerscough at the Royal Academy of Music. She works as a freelance violin/ viola player and teaches both instruments. She is also a successful illustrator of children’s books. She has played with the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, the London Concert Orchestra, in the West End in Sweeney Todd, on international tours of Les Misérables and locally with The Becker String Quartet.
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Ruth was born in Kent and attended Kent Junior Music School where she studied with Lionel Bentley . She then studied with Eli Goren and Clarence Myerscough at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama completing her studies at the National Centre for Orchestral Studies. She has been a member of the English National Ballet Philharmonic since 1987 and has performed with the Royal Opera House and various freelance groups. She now lives in Sandwich and her hobbies include gardening and her BMW Z3.
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Adrian studied music at Royal Holloway University and Trinity College of Music. He is now much in demand as a freelance viola player. He has worked with the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra and the BBC and Concert Orchestras, touring with them all over the world. In the West End he has played for many shows, most recently for The King and I at the London Palladium. In 2018 he toured the country with Nigel Kennedy. He is a busy session player and has recorded much for film and television including Downton Abbey, The League of Gentlemen and Vanity Fair.
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Keren started piano lessons at the age of 3, and cello at 6. She became one of the youngest members of the National Youth Orchestra when she was 12 and played with them until she left school at 16 to study at the Royal College of Music. There she won, among other accolades, the Martin Cooper Chamber Music award, for which the prize was to broadcast the first performance of a trio by Philip Cannon on BBC radio. On leaving music college, she took up a place at medical school, but continued to work as a freelance chamber musician, soloist and cello teacher. After 29 years as an NHS doctor, she retired and completed a Master’s degree in Medical Humanities, specialising in medical law, ethics and philosophy. A chance meeting with her old pal Helen after 40 years, led to Keren to return to her first love, her cello
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At the age of eight Helen started studying trumpet and piano at the junior department of the Guildhall School of Music. She subsequently gained an MA (MUS) from Cambridge and then joined the award winning, first all female brass quintet, the Gallina, with whom she played at the opening of the Covent Garden Piazza. When the group disbanded, Helen developed her work as a freelance pianist working in opera, ensembles and as an accompanist. Most recently she has been performing with the Philharmonia Orchestra and the newly formed Kentish Piano Trio. Her one-woman show Rags to Riches has been greeted with great enthusiasm from London’s South Bank to the Edinburgh Jazz Festival.
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Steve studied Double Bass at the Melbourne Conservatory of Music before holding a position with the Adelaide Symphony Orchestra for two years. On moving to the UK, Steve furthered his studies at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama and has enjoyed a busy freelance career in London both in classical and jazz genres.
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Owen Dennis read Mathematics at Corpus Christi College, Cambridge and graduated with a first class honours degree in 1995. He then studied at the Royal Academy of Music with Douglas Boyd and at the Rotterdam Conservatoire with Emanuel Abbuhl, winning the Leila Bull prize for oboe as well as the 1999 Royal Overseas League Wind Final. With the Galliard Ensemble, Owen has released many CD’s including the first recording of Birtwistle’s ‘An Interrupted Endless Melody’ for oboe and piano. As a BBC Radio 3 New Generation artist,
Owen has performed the Mozart Sinfonia Concertante with the BBC Symphony Orchestra and numerous live broadcasts, in particular Britten’s ‘Metamorphoses after Ovid’ for solo oboe in the BBC Proms. In addition to his chamber music, he freelances with the City of London Sinfonia, the London Mozart Players and the London Sinfonietta. Owen continues to develop his mathematics and completed an MSc in Intelligent and Adaptive Systems at Sussex University in 2017, leading to research projects into gender bias and predictive analytics within education.
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While at school, Ben studied with Clarence Myerscough and toured America and Italy with the Kent County Youth Orchestra – one memorable experience was playing under Claudio Abbado. Music then became more a passion than a profession… His main job is as a Japanese interpreter, with a sideline in book publishing, but he has led many local orchestras and plays ‘impromptu’ chamber music online twice a week, with friends across Europe.
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Martin studied at The Royal Academy of Music in London where he became a founding member of The Coull Quartet. After 11 years playing with the quartet he left to pursue a career performing with orchestras in London. He is principal cello of The Oxford Philharmonic, and plays with The National Ballet Philharmonic. He enjoys a busy life playing with orchestras, teaching and performing chamber music.
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Julius Bannister was born on a foggy morning in London town and some 18 years later won coveted Bowring Scholarship to study Viola at The Guildhall School of Music & Drama in the City of London. His fledgling career took him to Max Jaffa’s orchestra and The D’Oyly Carte Opera Company and then he was guest principal viola with the orchestra in Florence, Italy. Upon returning to the UK worked extensively with the London Symphony Orchestra and BBC Symphony Orchestra and managed to find the time to fit in more than 10,000 recordings in London’s busy studios, for Radio, TV, and Movie soundtracks, occasionally finding an evening to play for hit West End Shows, which he enjoyed immensely. Today he lives in Deal, where he manages and conducts The Astor Palm Court Orchestra.
