Philippa Davies is a much admired flautist and teacher and we are delighted to welcome her, with pianist Jan Willem Nelleke, back to Cubertou in 2017. Philippa and Jan Willem have taken the Flute Holiday (Advanced Flutes with Philippa Davies) at Cubertou since 2012. A highlight of this course is the concert given by the tutors.
Concert
Thursday 17th August 2017 – 20:30
L’église de St Martin le Redon
Free Entry (donations appreciated)
The Players
Philippa Davies has established an international reputation as one of the finest flautists currently performing. A «first-rate virtuoso», with «exceptional eloquence» she has been noted for an «almost electrical response to technique». 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. She has performed concertos with the New Stockholm Chamber Orchestra, the BBC Symphony, the BBC Philharmonic and the BBC National Orchestra of Wales, the English Chamber Orchestra, City of London Sinfonia and the London Mozart Players.Philippa’s current schedule includes many performances with the Nash Ensemble and London Winds, Davies Cole Duo (with Maggie Cole) and her quartet Arpège. Earlier in her career she was the flute player with Sir Peter Maxwell Davies’s ensemble Fires of London (1977 -85) and also Capricorn and the Albion Ensemble. Originally Principal Flute of the National Youth Orchestra, Philippa went on to train at the Royal College of Music with Douglas Whittaker where she won many awards including the Tagore Gold Medal Prize, Eve Kitsch flute prize and the Worshipful Company of Musicians Award. She then studied with William Bennett and won the National Federation of Music Societies Award, the Mozart Memorial Prize and was a Park Lane Group Young Artist.
Since her much-admired performance of Mozart’s D major concerto with the BBC Symphony Orchestra at the BBC Proms in 1988 she has become a popular BBC Proms artist. As the solo flute in Havoc by Giles Swayne, she gave a thrilling performance at the World premiere (BBC Proms 2000). Since then she has appeared at the BBC Proms with The Nash Ensemble performing the Copland Duo, Pierrot lunaire and Façade as well as with London Winds this summer.
Mozart, Bach and Vivaldi feature prominently in her repertoire, memorable live performances and recordings include those of Mozart’s D major, G major and Flute & Harp concertos, Bach B minor suite, and Vivaldi concertos. Philippa is as well known for her interpretations of contemporary pieces as the classics. with composers including Peter Maxwell Davies, Johnathan Hervey, Giles Swayne and Robert Saxton having wtitten for her.
Philippa’s own group, Philippa Davies & Friends, is a flexible ensemble from a duo to six or more players, which has received plaudits from the press and public in the Caribbean, London and throughout the UK. The Davies Cole Duo (with Maggie Cole harpsichord) have recently recorded a CD of Bach Flute Sonatas, having given a highly successful Wigmore Hall Coffee Concert summer 2005.
She has recorded Mozart’s entire original concertos and quartets for Pickwick, ASV and Virgin. Her Debussy recording with the Nash (Hyperion) and Ligeti’s wind quintets together with several solo discs and her Romance of the Flute and Harp with Thelma Owen (Pickwick) are especially popular. Her recording of Poulenc’s Flute Sonata (Hyperion) was released (November 1999)to great acclaim. For EMI Classics she has just recorded Giles Swayne’s Winter Solstice Carol for the King’s College Choir and solo flute. She has recorded all Peter Maxwell Davies’s solo flute works for the internet as part of Max Opus. During the next season she plans to record Paul Reade’s Flute Concerto and her recording of all William Alwyn’s flute music has just been released (Dutton ).
Future performances include concertos, recitals and masterclasses in the USA, Sweden, Cuba, Brazil and Ecuador .. Philippa is a Professor at the Guildhall School of Music and runs her own highly regarded Flute Courses at Benslow and at Cubertou each summer.
Dutch pianist Jan Willem Nelleke‘s exceptional qualities as a duo partner have been widely recognised; he has established duo partnerships with Philippa Davies, Michael Collins, Nabuco Imai, Jacob Slagter and Bettina Smith and performs frequently with them throughout Europe. He has made extensive tours of Scandinavia, and is a popular performer at Delft Festival, Old Music Festival of Utrecht, and Dartington International Festival. His playing has been described as ‘sparkling raindrops, rich chords and beautiful interludes’ and an ‘ ever alert co-operation with the soloist.’
He has given many premières of new works, several of which have been dedicated to him. His wide-ranging interests in both composition and literature have resulted in a close collaboration with Jan Terlouw, former Prime Minister of the Netherlands and celebrated author, as well as chamber works for voice and piano, flute and piano and other small ensembles. Jan Willem’s performances with Jan Terlouw explore and chart the relationship between language and music. Recent recordings include chamber music by Poulenc and Schubert’s Winterreise, and a recording of the Gershwin Piano Concerto with the Metropole Orchestra. This recording was the consequence of a celebrated performance he gave with the MO at the Concertgebouw, Amsterdam.
Jan Willem studied with Else Krijgsman at the Royal Conservatory in The Hague and later with Thom Bollen at Utrecht. In addition to his performance schedule Jan Willem is in great demand as a coach, both at the Royal Conservatory and the Franz Schubert Institute, Baden Austria, where he has worked with Elly Ameling, Robert Tear and Hans Hotter.