Class Notes
MUSIC Mariko Brown (Piano/Composition 2000) and Leo Patsalides (Junior Guildhall 1999)
Pianists Mariko Brown and Leo Patsalides studied at Junior Guildhall at the same time just over 20 years ago. Yet they never met, never heard each other play, and have never worked together. Until now. They recently crossed paths at the 2013 Memorial concert for the late and much missed conductor Frederick Applewhite. In 1992, as a result of winning the Lutine Prize, Mariko made concerto appearances with Mr Applewhite and the Junior Guildhall Symphony Orchestra. Just a few years later, Leo became a conducting protégé of Mr Applewhite. In the years in between, Mariko has become a highly respected pianist and teacher. As a composer her piece for the duo, Travels Through a Mist of Chinese Mountains, has been performed to great acclaim. Leo closed the lid on his piano for the final time in 2004, became a professional conductor and founded the Amati Orchestra, which is today one of the country’s finest amateur orchestras. All three joined forces in a performance of the Grieg Piano Concerto in March 2016, a short tube ride away from the Guildhall, where it all began 20 years ago.
walk-in structure of colour and light, Alexander was commissioned to create a cross-media performance that filled the entire structure and brought to life the many journeys that could be taken through it. Alexander has also been appointed Composer-in-Residence with London chamber choir The Cantus Ensemble. Ariadna Castellanos Pliego (Piano 2005)
Latin Grammy-nominated pianist Ariadna Castellanos was singled out in Vanity Fair’s piece, Jazz on the Loose, which featured a group of musicians described as “The Jazz Youth-Quake”. Stella Jean Compton Dickinson (Music Therapy 1995)
Stella Compton Dickinson was awarded the Doctor of Philosophy in October 2015 in a ceremony at the Cambridge Corn Exchange, for her ten year NHS based research in music therapy: A Feasibility Trial of Group Cognitive Analytic Music Therapy in Secure Hospital Settings. Stella’s project was the first randomised controlled manualised Music Therapy Patient Preference Trial to be implemented in a national high security hospital. The results demonstrated statistically significant improvement in favour of the treatment arm in how patients related to others, with improvements in relating sustained at follow-up. A higher percentage of treatment participants moved to conditions of lower security over a shorter period of time than those in control. Alexandra Dariescu (Piano Fellow 2011)
Alexandra has been named Special Ambassador to Romania. “This is a tremendous honour and I will do my best to live up to the trust that has been invested in me. I’m quite pleased to have been issued with a diplomatic passport also, which will make my travels a lot easier!” Sameeta Gahir (Flute 2013) Alexander Campkin (Junior Guildhall 2001)
Alexander Campkin’s composition Imagined Cities was the finale of the 2015 Colourscape Music Festival on Clapham Common. In the world’s largest 32
Sameeta Gahir has been appointed principal piccolo of Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra, where she joins fellow alumni Cormac Henry and Fiona Fulton (née Paterson) to form an all-Guildhall flute section.