Class Notes Carlos Lopez-Real (Jazz Saxophone 1995)
The E17 Jazz Collective, founded by saxophonist and Guildhall School professor of contemporary jazz Carlos Lopez-Real, has won the Arts and Culture award in the third Waltham Forest ‘Love your Borough’ Awards, which draw attention to community groups doing good work in the borough. E17 Jazz, which has been going since 2007, was the pick of around 200 nominations. Vocal professor Brigitte Beraha is also a key member of the collective and was at the ceremony with Carlos to receive the award.
and the children were delighted to have secured the coveted title at last. Andrew said, “Last year the Choir were amazing. This year they are extraordinary! These children have all worked so hard. They have put their hearts and souls into this performance, and you can really hear it in the music.”
Lucy Parham (Piano 1989) and Dominic West (Acting 1995) I have created four words and music evenings about the complex love lives of these composers: Chopin and George Sand, Schumann and Brahms with Clara Schumann, Debussy – and Liszt (with his many women!).
www.e17jazz.com
Neville Mackinder (Bassoon/Double Bass/ Conducting 1958) Congratulations to Neville, who won the prize draw in the Spring/Summer 2012 edition of Guildhall School News, receiving a copy of Marian McPartland’s documentary In Good Time on DVD.
Andrew O’Brien (Tenor 2008) Andrew has led the Music Department at Heath Mount School in Hertfordshire for the past three years and this year, he led a choir from the school to win the Songs of Praise Junior School Choir of the Year Competition 2012. This was the fourth occasion that Heath Mount had made it through to the finals of the BBC show, and so Andrew
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GUILDHALL SCHOOL NEWS
Actors that have joined me in over 100 performances to date include Edward Fox, Alex Jennings, Juliet Stevenson, Martin Jarvis, Joanna David, Samuel West, Timothy West, Harriet Walter, Brendan Coyle, Gabrielle Drake, Charles Dance, Henry Goodman and, of course, Dominic West. I am performing Reverie – the life and loves of Claude Debussy with Dominic at the Wigmore Hall on 30 December (part of the London Piano Series) and at the Yvonne Arnaud in Guildford on 25 November, plus more dates in 2013. www.lucyparham.com
•AUTUMN / WINTER 2012
Kendra Preston Leonard (Cello 1996) Musicologist Kendra Preston Leonard’s recently published and forthcoming articles include ‘The Lady Vanishes: Vocality and Agency in Cinematic Ophelias,’ in The Afterlife of Ophelia, ed. Deanne Williams and Kaara L. Peterson; ‘A Great Desire: Autobiography in Louise Talma’s Early Vocal Works,’ Current Musicology, Issue 94/Fall 2012; and ‘Guides to Writing about Music,’ Journal of Music History Pedagogy, Vol. 2, No. 1. Kendra has recently presented research at the 2012 Society for American Music conference, the 2012 South Central Society for 18th Century Studies conference and the 2011 American Shakespeare Center’s Blackfriars conference. She has also recently been appointed to the Membership and Professional Development committee of the American Musicological Society and serves as the Managing Editor of the Journal of Music History Pedagogy. www.kendraprestonleonard.com
Toby Spence (Tenor 1995) Toby won the Singer category at this year’s prestigious Royal Philharmonic Society Music Awards for his ‘vocal beauty and dramatic maturity’ in a range of operatic and concert repertoire, including the role of Lensky in ENO’s Eugene Onegin.
PRIZE DRAW For a chance to win a copy of Benjamin Ellin’s debut album Three States at Play on CD, send your full name and address to alumni@gsmd. ac.uk by 31 October, quoting ‘Three States at Play’ in the subject line.
Drama Simon Baker (SMTT 1992)
Simon won Best Sound Design in the 2012 Laurence Olivier Awards for Matilda The Musical at the Cambridge Theatre. He is pictured centre celebrating with fellow alumna Jodie Whittaker.
Jemma Churchill, Elizabeth Heery and Sally Millest (Acting 1982) Three alumnae from the 1982 Acting course have won the Southend Short Film Festival Award for their debut film collaboration, Beached. The trio have since set up their own production company, Two Three Island Films. Jemma wrote: “Since leaving Guildhall, one of us [Sally Millest] became a director, one a script writer [Elizabeth Heery] and the other [Jemma Churchill] continued as an actor. It seemed obvious that we should pool our talents. Our children all work alongside us in the movie. Our partners appear in it, assisted with the edit and one composed the score.” http://beached. twotreeislandfilms.com