at the Washington University of Seattle. On his return to France he entered the Paris Conservatory in the class of Pierre Doukan. He left with a First Prize for violin and chamber music. He subsequently started on the 3rd cycle but in 1991 decided to take advanced classes in London with David Takeno at the Guildhall School. Laurent Quénelle leads a richly varied career: a member of the London Symphony Orchestra since 1996, he is regularly invited as solo violin with the London Sinfonietta as well as the Orchestre d’Auvergne and the Royal Orchestra of Flanders. He gives chamber music concerts alongside artists such as François Leleux, Gordan Nikolic and Vladimir Ashkenazy, with whom he has recorded Stravinsky’s chamber music for Decca. He has also played with groups such as the Nash Ensemble, Oxalys, and was a member of the Mullova Ensemble. In recital Laurent Quenelle is frequently accompanied by the pianist Tom Blach and he has performed as a soloist with the Seattle Philharmonic Orchestra, the London Chamber Orchestra and the Orchestre d’Avignon. Laurent Quénelle is a laureate of the Seattle Young Artist Competition, of the Mayor of London Prize and of the Cziffra and Sasakawa foundations. He is the artistic director of European Camerata, an ensemble he founded and has directed from the violin since 1995. Laurent has been teaching at the Guildhall School of Music & Drama since 2014.
Dr David Ramael (session 7c) Artistic Director, BoHo Players david@davidramael.com The orchestral musician in the 21st century: a creative approach to the audition process In recent years, conservatories and schools of music have started placing much greater emphasis on providing students with a well-rounded education. Having taught for almost ten years in the United States I have witnessed the tension between on the one hand the rigor of the musical training toward excellence as performer, and on the other hand the workload burden of a wider scope on the academic side. The ultimate dilemma poses itself for those students who are drawn towards a career as orchestral musician, where initial professional success is measured through the perfect performance of two concerto movements and a number of orchestral excerpts. Entrance into the narrow world of orchestral music fundamentally does not call for the academic reforms of the conservatory curriculum. However, while the musical demands on the current crop of orchestral musicians have greatly increased (in terms of workload, perfection of playing, stylistic flexibility, etc.), personal creativity is still underemphasized to non-existent in the job description, contrary to the curricular developments in higher musical education. When I set out to create my own ensemble, BoHo Players, one of the goals of the ensemble was to push the boundaries of the traditional chamber string orchestra, in terms of stylistic diversity and performance traditions, repertoire and the societal role of a “classical” ensemble in the 21st century. I recognized the need to attract musicians who not only are first-rate musicians, but who also are willing to think creatively about music’s role in social, demographic, cultural and ecological issues. This presentation will present the outcomes of a detailed survey, which was completed by prospective participants upon completing the audition.
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