Lunchtime Recital - Rachel Howie (flute), Helena Thomas (violin), others

Programme:

Rachel Howie (flute), Helena Thomas (violin), Charlie Potts (viola) and Caleb Curtis (cello).

Roussel – Trio for Flute, Viola and Cello

Liza Lim – Bioluminescence

Mozart – Quartet no. 1 in D for Flute, Violin, Viola and Cello

Biographies:

Rachel Howie- Flute

Tasmanian flautist Rachel Howie is a current student at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama, studying with Sarah Newbold, Christopher Green, Ian Clarke and Philippa Davies. An avid orchestral musician, Rachel was Flute Fellow with the Sydney Symphony Orchestra in 2018. She is a regular casual musician with the Tasmanian Symphony Orchestra, and has appeared as guest principal flute with the Opera Australia and Victorian Opera orchestras. Rachel completed a Masters of Music Studies (Flute Performance) at Sydney Conservatorium with Emma Sholl, where she was recipient of the Patricia Bell prize. From 2012-13, Rachel studied intensively at Trevor Wye’s flute studio in the UK. She completed a Bachelor of Music (Flute Performance) with First Class Honours at the Australian National University with Vernon Hill and Virginia Taylor, where she received the Leonard and Margaret Doman Scholarship for flute (2008), 1st prize in the ANU chamber music competition (2009), and 2nd prize in the ANU chamber music competition (2011). She has performed in masterclasses including the Ticino Music Festival, Oxford Flute Summer School, Nederlandse Fluit Akademie, Banff masterclasses for Strings and Winds and the International Sommerkademie der MDW. Rachel participated in numerous Australian Youth Orchestra programmes. Highlights included playing as principal flute in 2015, and performing as a concerto soloist with the AYO Momentum ensemble in 2017. She was also a member of the Sydney Sinfonia (Sydney Symphony training orchestra) in 2014.

Helena Thomas - Violin

Helena Thomas is a British violinist, who, having completed her undergraduate degree at the Royal College of Music, taught by Michał Cwizewicz, is now undertaking her masters degree in orchestra artistry at the Guildhall School of Music, under Bartosz Woroch and Krzysztof Smietana. She has played in both chamber and orchestral ensembles for most of her life, starting out with the Northamptonshire Music and Performing Arts Trust at the age of 8. It is thanks to the huge support she received there that Helena’s love of music and performing has flourished and allowed her to continue her studies with confidence. Ensemble music making is her passion - with orchestral music at the forefront, closely followed by a love of chamber music. She has performed alongside the LSO at Trafalgar Square, at the BBC Proms with the RCM Symphony and Sibelius Academy and at the Royal Festival Hall. The phenomenon of emotion in music and its impact on the individual has always intrigued and guided Helena, and she hopes that the joy with which she performs is felt both by those she collaborates with and by the audience! She plays on a 2022 Philip Ihle ‘Lord Wilton’ violin

Charlie Potts - Viola

Charlie Potts is a violist originally from Cheshire in Northwest England. Charlie began studying the violin from the age of 4, and switched to playing viola at 15, discovering a true passion for music. Their love of chamber music began to sprout from the age of 16 on numerous visits to Yorkshire studying with Xenophon Kelsey MBE in the Vacation Chamber Orchestra and has been regularly performing with friends in chamber groups ever since. After studying at the RNCM’s Junior Department and leading the young violists of the Hallé Youth Orchestra, Charlie continued their study with their Bachelor’s degree at St Peter’s College, University of Oxford. There, they were celebrated for their contributions to the musical life of the university, running the college’s music society and upholding various musical scholarships. Alongside their academic studies of musicology, critical analysis, and history, Charlie studied the viola with Jon Thorne at the Royal Academy of Music and worked with the Oxford Philharmonic Orchestra as an Orchestral Apprentice. Charlie graduated in 2024 with a first-class degree in music, and are now following their lifelong dreams of founding a career in performance as a scholar at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama. There, they study with Matthew Jones. Charlie performs on a 1962 Tertis model viola, made by L. E. Carroll in Harrogate, Yorkshire.

Caleb Curtis- Cello

Caleb Curtis is a Swiss-American cellist based in London. He is currently studying for a Master of Performance degree with Jonathan Aasgaard at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama, having previously earned a First-Class Bachelor of Music degree with Robert Cohen at the Royal Academy of Music. At the Academy he received the Moir Carnegie Cello Prize, the Norma Simpson Lower Strings Prize and the Sir John Barbirolli Memorial Prize, and was ‘Very Highly Commended’ in the May Mukle/Douglas Cameron Prize. Caleb has appeared as a soloist with the Baden-Baden Philharmonic and the Southern Pro Musica, among others, and has participated in masterclasses with Wolfgang Emmanuel Schmidt, Benedict Kloeckner, Joel Krosnick, Leonid Gorakhov and Alexander Baillie. He has spent summers studying chamber music at Kneisel Hall, the Carl Flesch Academy, the British Isles Music Festival, and Greenwood Music Camp, where he worked closely with members of the Juilliard, Doric, Chiara and Fine Arts string quartets. Orchestrally, he has worked with many leading conductors in the Royal Academy of Music and Guildhall Symphony Orchestras, and in his final undergraduate year performed in the Academy’s Sainsbury Soloists Ensemble. Caleb is grateful for the generous support of Help Musicians UK. He plays a Fernando Lima cello made in 2021

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