Programme:

Finzi - Prelude for String Orchestra
Purcell - Abdelazer Suite for strings
Monn - Concerto for cello and strings*

-- interval --

Couperin - Pieces en Concert for cello and strings*
Ireland - A Downland Suite
Elgar - Serenade for Strings

Northern Camerata conducted by Andy Jackson
Corinne Morris, cello
* directed from the cello by Corinne Morris

Northern Camerata

Website: northerncamerata.co.uk

Northern Camerata is a String Orchestra based in North East England, formed in 2015.

Although we're a new orchestra, our musicians are all very experienced players who have decided to get together and fill the void for this specific type of orchestra in our area.

We are looking forward to exploring the string orchestra repertoire and hope to see you at our concerts along our journey.

Corinne Morris, cellist

Website: www.corinnemorris.com

“My warmest wishes are for Corinne and her art, as I have unlimited confidence in her”

Paul Tortelier

Described as ‘a triumphant assertion’ by Classical Music Magazine, Corinne Morris’s relaunch album ‘Macedonian Sessions’ recorded with the Macedonian Radio Symphony Orchestra, marks the British/French cellist’s return to the platform after a debilitating shoulder injury brought her career to a halt for over 5 years.

Corinne has a long list of professional accomplishments, including being a prizewinner of the Maria Canals International Cello Competition in Spain, and the International French Music Competition in France. Corinne was chosen by Rostropovich to perform at his festival in Evian (where he affectionately nicknamed her Corinotchka). She was also invited to perform and take part in the world-famous Verbier Academy in Switzerland, as well as the international Cello festival in Kronberg in Germany. Corinne has performed throughout Europe and beyond, including chamber music performances with Schlomo Mintz at the Jerusalem Conservatory. She has made several recordings for France Musique, Bayerischer Rundfunk (Germany) and ORF (Austria). Her BBC debut recital was broadcast on Radio 3, and she is on the list of solo artists for Radio 3 programmes.

“Macedonian Sessions, album of wide-ranging repertoire is a triumphant assertion that she (Corinne Morris) is back in business”

Classical Music Magazine

Corinne started the cello at the age of 8 and was a student of Raphael Sommer, a major disciple of Paul Tortelier. At age 16, she obtained an ARCM with honours (Royal College of Music, London) and continued her training at the prestigious Conservatoire in Paris where she graduated with a first prize in both cello and chamber music. She then completed a post-graduate solo cello performing degree at the University of Music in Vienna, Austria. During her studies, Corinne had the privilege to work with Paul Tortelier, Mtislav Rostropovich, André Navarra, Bernard Greenhouse, Ralph Kirshbaum and Franz Helmerson.

"Morris drew every ounce of expression from the slow movement, and built up a fine head of steam in the finale, combining momentum and agility"

The Strad Magazine

Corinne’s story has inspired many in the music industry and beyond. She has given several interviews for publications including International Arts Manager, Classical Music Magazine, Gramophone and Australia’s Limelight Magazine. Most recently Corinne has been featured on BBC radio 3’s ‘In Tune’ programme and she was invited to Classic FM’s weekly Webchat. She is currently discussing the possibility of a documentary about her extraordinary story of courage and determination and the implications of re-launching a performing career in the 21st Century.
Further afield Corinne has been invited to China to give a series of concerts and masterclasses and she will also be appearing in recitals and concerto appearances in the UK, Germany, France and South-Africa.

"full of ebullience and unabashed technical high jinks”

The Strad Magazine

Corinne plays a cello by C.A. Miremont dated 1876 on loan to her by a private investor.

Andy Jackson, composer and conductor

Website: http://www.andrewandandrew.com/

This is not a conventional biography, but Andy Jackson has not really had a conventional musical career. It started in a fairly standard way with classical training (piano lessons, choirboy, youth orchestras, music degree from York University), but then he became interested in world music and travelled to India on a Commonwealth Scholarship to study Hindusthani music.

Back in England he became a folk musician, farmer and village postman before postgraduate study in Ethnomusicology which led to the publication of a school textbook by Cambridge University Press "Instruments around the World" which has sold over 10,000 copies. Further studies into the music of other cultures took him to Portugal with Arts Council and Gulbenkian Foundation funding to learn to play the guitarra portuguesa. He also worked with African choir directors and scratched a living as a performer with ceilidh and jazz bands and as a composer of guitar music under the pseudonym of Gabriel Coorf.

His knowledge of musical systems outside the European tradition has influenced many of his compositions: "Oriental Guitar" (pub. Ricordi) and the extended improvisation for guitar and sitar "The Goose and the Blackbird " reflect these influences directly whilst other pieces such as the brass quintet "For Africa" , the wind quintet "Five Concertinettos" and the "Amber Symphony" for folk instruments and orchestra show passing references to techniques, structures and sometimes even tunes picked up on his travels.

More recently he has survived as a jobbing composer and organiser of extravagant exercises in community music-making like the Cobweb Orchestra and Durham People's Opera Group who performed his opera "Sell By" at Covent Garden's Linbury Theatre in 2001. He considers himself as something of a specialist in writing for amateur performers, seeing no conflict between music being playable by people of a range of abilities and having a social purpose whilst being challenging, serious, fun, meaningful and both player- and listener- friendly.

Audiences are often encouraged to participate in Andy's compositions: in "The Travels of the Little Count" - An Interactive Musical Journey, they were invited to vote on the order of the episodes in the piece and in "Playing with Silence" users of a public library were asked to write their responses to some unexpected musical activities taking place there. Another piece, "Unbearable Beauty Surrounded by Silence" , (more like an art installation than a conventional concert), gave listeners the opportunity of experiencing tiny pieces of live and recorded music projected into a room designed to resemble a temple.

For several years, Andy has been making short films about music with digital artist Anton Hecht. " Spennyopolis - a Symphony for a city", "Orchestrate", "Oz is Us" and "Contraband" all explore the relationship between high art and low life. Their "Undercover Orchestra" - the original flashmob performance for Ravel's "Bolero" - has been watched over half a million times on youtube and won a trip to the House of Lords to pick up a Voluntary Arts England EPIC award. "Kickflick" (a film about football) was created for BBC Radio Cleveland's "Voices" project in 2003 with Manchester-based filmmaker Rowan May.

He also undertakes educational projects and has twice been composer-in-residence for the education programme at the Warwick Festival and has taken up two Performing Rights Society Composer-in-Education awards. His " Listening Courses" in "Classical Music" , "Folk and Ethnic Music" and "Popular Music" for Sussex Publications have proved a valuable resource for secondary music teachers. With his wife, writer Sue Kane, he has written numerous songs, musicals and cantatas for performance by children. The following titles give a flavour of their work: "What a load of rubbish", "Firedance", "Rainbow down our Street", "A Year in a Day" .

For many years the family business Junk Arts Co. instigated countless events creating music out of things that other people throw away and the publication of the book " Junk Instruments" by Random House in 1991 led to a flurry of television appearances making clarinets out of drinking straws and conducting rubbish orchestras.

The random nature of a career as a composer throws up several commissions which do not fit into any neat categories, so here are a few extras to tidy up the back list: The music theatre piece A Dance to the Music of Time was premiered by actor Toby Jones and Northern Sinfonia conducted by Ilan Volkov in 1996. Andy's five extensive works for clarinet and saxophone choir "Calls and Responses", "Songs and Dances", "Stand up Now" "A Meditation on Breath" and "Ear to the Ground" have been performed world-wide by many groups, including the British Clarinet Ensemble. There are several stage works including the Youth Opera " Wyrd Sisters" based on Terry Pratchet's eponymous novel, a Ballad opera with writer Jeremy Warr "The Allotmenteers (love, urban regeneration and vegetables)" and "Goddesses - a musical play about eternity, the lessons of history and the colour of toenail varnish". The cantata " Whispering Stones" was written to celebrate the 900th anniversary of Durham Cathedral in 1994. " Concerto Grosso" for natural horn, lute, recorder and strings was created for Bishop Auckland Early Music Festival in 1998. The "Cocktail Suite" is a series of 12 short pieces inspired by dance music of the early 20th century and originally scored for the unusual ensemble of violin, 'cello, flute, clarinet and horn was later revised for the normal wind quintet line up. Other projects have included collaborating with linguists at Newcastle University to write a piece about language development in young children and "The Gingery Boy" - a narrated story with musical accompaniment. 2012 brought two commissions related to the music of Handel: The "Fireworks Music" inspired "Paraflame", performed to welcome the Paralympic torch to the North East and the "Water Music" inevitably worked its way into "White Water Music", which was played for the Queen at the Tees Barrage as part of her Jubilee tour.

Andy currently lives quietly in County Durham with his wife and when not busy engaged in musical activities can usually be found in the allotment with his wellies, in the kitchen with his pinnie or in the countryside with binoculars. He has given up travelling abroad in search of exotic music and now goes there as often as possible to sit in cafes.