Class Notes
Music Stella Jean Compton née Dickinson (Music Therapy 1994) I am now research lead in music therapy in Nottinghamshire Healthcare NHS Trust, implementing a major research trial, 15 years on since training at the Guildhall School. I am an approved BAPAM psychotherapy provider, and I treat many professional musicians and performing artists for performance anxiety and other stress related disorders. www.stellacompton.co.uk
Olwen Davies (Singing 1950)
Manu Delago (Jazz Drums 2008)
Wynne Evans (Opera 1995)
Since studying at Guildhall I’ve toured around the world with my own ensembles, mainly playing the Swiss instrument Hang. I also performed in various London venues such as LSO St. Luke’s, Southbank Centre, The Roundhouse, Barbican, Jazz Cafe etc. Since June I have been a featured musician in the new project of the Icelandic singer Björk. We have played seven shows at the Manchester International Festival and will be on world tour over the next two years. With my own quintet, Living Room in London, I am doing a CD-launch concert at King’s Place in London on 23 January 2012. Another exciting performance will be the UK premiere of my composition for Hang and string orchestra. As a soloist with the London Symphony Orchestra I’ll perform at LSO St Luke’s on 28 March 2012.
John Heley (Cello 1970)
Highlights of this year: 1 Singing in Anna Nicole, 2 Making more ads [Wynne plays ‘Gio Campario’ in the Go Compare TV commercials], 3 Classical number 1 [his debut album, A Song in My Heart, was released in April and went straight to the top of the Official Classical Album Charts], and 4 Getting the role of Piangi in the Phantom of the Opera 25th Anniversary production.
Keri Fuge (Soprano 2010)
Nicola Dixon-Brown (Junior Guildhall 2001)
Olwen Davies was supported by the Sam Heilbut Minor and Major scholarships while a student at the Guildhall School. On leaving Guildhall, Ms Davies went on to be a junior principal at Covent Garden, with Edgar Evans. Eric Kleiber suggested they visit Rome during the summer break and Ms Davies went on to spend 20 years in Italy, getting to know Beniamino Gigli and Tullio Serafin along the way. Later Ms Davies became involved in the international peace movement and is currently Vice Chair of the Coalition for Nuclear Disarmament for Mid Wales.
Gallery, St James’s Church Piccadilly, Wales Millennium Centre, National Museum of Wales, Ironmonger Hall, Winchester Festival and Llandeilo Festival.
I was a Junior Exhibitioner from 1960–66 and a full student from 1966–70 (John Carpenter Street vintage) studying cello with the great William Pleeth. As a member of the Orsini String Quartet during our time at Guildhall we represented the School giving concerts in the City and around the UK. We broke up due to lack of funding for our residency at York University and all got jobs: Jeremy Painter and I joined the RPO and Robert Clark and David Hume joined the LSO. After 10 years with RPO, I left to freelance and four years later joined the Academy of St Martin in the Fields as co-principal cello along with Stephen Orton – also a Guildhall student at the same time as me. We have been the first desk of the ASMF and played in the Chamber Ensemble together all that time – 26 years.
Albert Horne (Repetiteur 2007)
Congratulations to Nicola Dixon-Brown and Dr Alister Charles French. They met when studying at Oxford University and married five years later on Saturday 4th December 2010 at St Luke’s Church, Sydney Street, London, followed by a reception and dinner dance at the Oxford and Cambridge Club, Pall Mall.
Keri recently won 2nd prize in the London Handel Festival Competition 2011 and will be performing at the 2012 festival. She was a finalist in The Thelma King Competition 2011, Winner of Dame Anne Evans Most Promising Singer award in 2009, she also won the 2008 Hampshire Singer of the Year. Concert engagements have included recitals in National Portrait
Albert is currently Chorus Master & Music Assistant at Cape Town Opera, Cape Town, South Africa. In recent years Albert has conducted L’Incoronazione di Poppea and Gianni Schicchi and Suor Angelica in Cape Town, Show Boat in Malmö, Sweden, and Theâtre du Châtelet in Paris, and Porgy & Bess in Tel Aviv. 2011 will see him conducting Alessandro Talevi’s new production of La traviata with Colin Lee in Cape Town, as well as Lost in the Stars with Emmy-nominated director Tazewell Thompson.
GUILDHALL SCHOOL NEWS
• AUTUMN / WINTER 2011
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