Perpetuo

BiographIES

Emma Abbate (piano)

https://emmaabbate.com/

(This text is copyrighted.)

The Neapolitan pianist Emma Abbate enjoys a demanding career as a piano accompanist and chamber musician. Described as “an amazingly talented pianist” by the leading Italian magazine Musica, she has performed in duo recitals for international festivals and concert societies in Austria, Portugal, Italy, Poland and USA, and at many prestigious UK venues such as the Wigmore Hall, Southbank Centre, Royal Opera House, St John’s Smith Square, St George’s, Bristol and at the Aldeburgh Festival. She also regularly broadcasts on BBC Radio 3 and has recently presented an episode of Inside Music.

Emma has made a series of acclaimed recordings devoted to Italian vocal chamber music, the latest of which is the world-première Franco Alfano: Songs with the leading Italian soprano Anna Pirozzi. Previously, Emma has recorded Sera d’inverno: Songs by Ildebrando Pizzetti with mezzo-soprano Hanna Hipp, and Mario Castelnuovo-Tedesco: Shakespeare Sonnets with bass-baritone Ashley Riches, all on Resonus Classics.

A keen advocate of contemporary music, Emma has released two discs devoted to works by Stephen Dodgson that include his piano quintets with the Tippett Quartet. Other world-première recordings include works for cello and piano by Algernon Ashton and Krzysztof Meyer with Evva Mizerska. Emma also cultivates an active interest in historical keyboards and has performed and recorded on a range of original instruments for the Finchcocks Charity, at Hatchlands Park and the Russell Collection. Together with Julian Perkins, she has recorded the complete keyboard duets by Mozart and Weber on original Viennese fortepianos. Julian and Emma’s latest duet release, entitled Summer Dreams, brings together the complete works for piano duet by three major American composers: Edward MacDowell, Amy Beach and Samuel Barber. Previously, they had released Tournament for Twenty Fingers, featuring piano duets by British composers from the twentieth century: the disc has received  5 star reviews on BBC Music Magazine and has been chosen by Scala Radio as Album of the Weekend.

Based in London, Emma is a professor at the Guildhall School of Music & Drama, a staff coach at the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden, and is regularly invited to teach at the Verbier Festival Academy. Following her graduation from the S. Pietro a Majella Conservatoire in Naples and an Advanced Diploma from the S. Cecilia Conservatoire in Rome, Emma studied in London with Yonty Solomon. She completed her studies with Geoffrey Pratley as a scholar at the Royal Academy of Music, from where she graduated with distinction. She was also awarded an Italian Literature and Culture degree cum laude from the Federico II University in Naples and has been elected an Associate of the Royal Academy of Music in recognition of her ‘significant contribution’ thus far to the music profession.

Fenella Humphrys (violin)

https://www.fenellahumphreys.com/

(Her website indicates this biography was last updated in October 2024.  I expect there to be a more up-to-date version before your February deadline, and if and when I see it, I will forward it to you.)

Fenella Humphreys, winner of the 2023 BBC Music Magazine Premiere Recording Award, has attracted critical admiration and audience acclaim with the grace and intensity of her remarkable performances.

With her playing described in the press as “alluring”, “unforgettable” and “a wonder”, Fenella is one of the UK’s most established and versatile violinists, having also won the 2018 BBC Music Magazine Instrumental Award. She enjoys a busy career combining chamber music with solo work, performing in the most prestigious venues around the world and is frequently broadcast on the BBC, Classic FM, Scala Radio and international radio stations.

Fenella performs widely as a soloist. Her recent album of Sibelius’ solo works with BBC National Orchestra of Wales and George Vass has been featured in BBC Radio 3’s Building a Library, Gramophone Magazine’s Guide to the Concerto, and was Album of the Week on Scala Radio. BBC Music Magazine has written of the recording: “it takes an unusually fine artist to be able to bridge the two extremes. Fenella Humphreys’s playing is a genuine revelation in the way it brings out the music’s dark and introspective qualities, with no shortage of technical panache meanwhile.”

Most recently her recording of Adrian Sutton’s Violin Concerto has been released on Chandos with Michael Seal and BBC Phil. The work was written for Fenella in 2023, and premiered with the RPO at London’s Southbank Centre. “Humphreys, Seal and the BBC Philharmonic have its [Violin Concerto] linguistic number. Humphreys brings her endlessly unfurling violin lines taut, silvery weightlessness. The recording beautifully captures her duets with woodwind, and a tremendous dynamic range…” (The Strad)

Over the past decade, Fenella has captured international attention by applying spellbinding virtuosity to a strikingly broad range of compositions. Her Bach 2 the Future albums – the second of which won the coveted BBC Music Magazine Instrumental Award – combined newly commissioned works with two of Bach’s solo sonatas and partitas and other repertoire landmarks. In 2022, Fenella returned to unaccompanied music with ‘Caprices’- the 2023 BBC Music Magazine Award winner – released on Rubicon Classics. The album explores Études and Caprices from Paganini to the present day, including new works by Freya Waley-Cohen, Laurence Osborn and Oliver Leith, and a new set of variations on Paganini’s 24th Caprice with composers including Héloïse Werner, Emily Howard and Robin Haigh. “Really, very impressive” (Gramophone Magazine), “technically and musically superb” (The Strad).

Fenella’s recent recording on Rubicon, Prism, focuses again on unaccompanied violin works – from new works written by young British composers to iconic recent works by Caroline Shaw, Jessie Montgomery and George Walker, with Fenella’s new arrangement of Bach’s Toccata and Fugue BWV565 at its heart. Widely critically acclaimed, it was BBC Music Magazine’s Monthly Instrumental Choice CD for June 2024 in a five star review – “There’s simply no hiding place with solo violin repertoire. Every vulnerability is exposed to scrutiny, and so much the more when the repertoire itself is largely unfamiliar. Fenella Humphreys is masterful, however, bringing playing of constant allure and vitality to this album… This is a hugely accomplished release, fearlessly and vibrantly performed.”

Fenella has given the first performances of scores by a vast range of composers, most notably Sir Peter Maxwell Davies, Sally Beamish, Gordon Crosse, Cheryl Frances-Hoad and Freya Waley-Cohen. In June 2023, Fenella premiered a new violin concerto, dedicated to her by Adrian Sutton, at the Queen Elizabeth Hall, London, with the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra.

Her first concerto recording – Christopher Wright’s Violin Concerto with the Royal Scottish National Orchestra and Martin Yates (Dutton Epoch) – was released in 2012 to great critical acclaim (“Fenella Humphreys’ performance is a wonder” – International Record Review) and was selected as Orchestral CD of the Month in a 5 star review in BBC Music Magazine.

Four Seasons Recomposed with Covent Garden Sinfonia and Ben Palmer (Rubicon) was released in June 2019. The album unites Max Richter’s iconic Recomposed: The Four Seasons with Pēteris Vasks’ Lonely Angel and Arvo Pärt’s Fratres to produce a compelling meditation on the profound power of melody. It was chosen as one of BBC Radio 3’s pick of new releases on Essential Classics; chosen for Apple Music’s Classical A-List; was Scala Radio’s Album of the Week, and was described by Radio 3’s Record Review as “…a delight. The whole thing is gently expressive, meditative, touching and very effective.” In 2023 the Vasks performance was included in The Times’ list of “The 100 Best Pieces of Classical Music – as chosen by the critics”.

Fenella’s previous disc, So Many Stars with acclaimed pianist Nicola Eimer, was released on Stone Records in February 2019. It was described as “hugely rewarding” by The Observer; “an absolutely exquisite album” by BBC Radio 3’s Record Review, and was The Strad’s Recommended Recording that month. Her 2022 album of Sibelius’ duo works with Joseph Tong was chosen as BBC Music Magazine’s Chamber Music Choice recording – “From start to finish Humphreys’s playing is a feast of flawless tuning, beautifully focused and coloured tone and rich characterisation.”

Concertmaster of the Deutsche Kammerakademie, Fenella also enjoys guest leading and directing various ensembles in Europe.

As an avid and passionate chamber musician, Fenella enjoys performances with the Roscoe Piano Trio, Perpetuo and Counterpoise, as well as collaborations with artists including Nicholas Daniel, Martin Roscoe, Sir John Tomlinson and Peter Donohoe, and is regularly invited by Steven Isserlis to take part in the International Musicians’ Seminar, Prussia Cove. A new collaboration with the writer and broadcaster Leah Broad, and pianist Nicola Eimer, has seen the creation of a new project ‘Lost Voices’ which explores one of Fenella’s greatest passions: unknown and under-performed repertoire by female composers, something that Fenella seeks to champion in all areas of her programming.

For the launch of Apple Music Classical in April 2023, Fenella was one of a handful of artists invited to record a ‘Classical Session’ at home, alongside Daniel Barenboim, Beatrice Rana and Gautier Capuçon.

Fenella is grateful for the support of the Royal Philharmonic Society, Harriet’s Trust and Arts Council England for their support to keep making music during the Covid Pandemic.

Fenella’s teachers have included Sidney Griller CBE, Itzhak Rashkovsky, Ida Bieler and David Takeno at the Purcell School, Guildhall School of Music and Drama, and the Robert-Schumann-Hochschule in Düsseldorf where she was awarded the highest attainable marks both for the ‘Diplom’ exam and the ‘Konzertexamen’ soloists’ diploma.

Fenella plays on a G.B. Guadagnini violin kindly on loan from Jonathan Sparey.
(October 2024. Please do not use this biography if it is more than three months old.)

Gary Pomeroy (viola)

https://www.gsmd.ac.uk/staff/gary-pomeroy

Born and raised in South Africa, Gary started violin lessons aged five. He took to the viola as a teenager and was lucky enough to become an ABRSM International Scholar at the Royal Northern College of Music in Manchester, UK. There he enjoyed guidance in solo and chamber music by Mark Knight, Chris Rowland and Thomas Riebl, and went on to study at the Escuela Superior de Música Reina Sofía in Madrid.

Gary is one quarter of the Heath Quartet, who have recently been awarded the Royal Philharmonic Society Young Artist Award, recorded the complete string quartets of Michael Tippett, Bela Bartok and Tchaikovsky String Quartets 1 + 3 to critical acclaim. A Berg and Schoenberg disc is in production.

Gary now lives in London and enjoys a range of education work, including coaching the Kuumba Youth Orchestra, chamber music mentoring and viola teaching. When he is not rehearsing, performing or teaching, he is a keen runner and can be found underwater as a PADI Divemaster.

Cara Berridge (cello)

https://www.caraberridge.com/

Cara is a founder member of the Sacconi Quartet who have won prizes at many International competitions and have performed at all the major London venues including Wigmore Hall, Kings Place, Cadogan Hall, Queen Elizabeth Hall, Purcell Room and Conway Hall. They have travelled extensively throughout the rest of the UK and Europe to venues including Bridgewater Hall , Musikverein, Muziekgebouw, L’Auditori in Barcelona and Auditorio Nacional de Música in Madrid as well as many venues in Germany, Switzerland, Belgium, France, Finland, Norway and the Czech Republic.

In addition to playing with the Sacconi Quartet, Cara enjoys playing with various chamber orchestras, Ensemble Perpetuo and recording music for films and TV programmes. Cara graduated from the Royal College of Music in 2002 with First Class Honours and continued her studies as the Amaryllis Fleming Scholar, receiving her Postgraduate Diploma and Advanced Diploma with Distinction in 2003 and 2004. Cara plays a Nicolaus Gagliano cello from 1781, generously on loan to her from the Royal Society of Musicians, a charity which helps musicians in need.

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