Date/Time
Sunday 21 May 2023
3:00 pm - 5:00 pm
Book here now: £15 full price • £11 or £7 if you prefer – please pay what you can*
Clarinet Quintet in B minor, Op. 115 by Johannes Brahms
Clarinet Quintet K 581 by W.A. Mozart
“These clarinet quintets by Mozart and Brahms represent two pinnacles, not only in the repertoire for the clarinet, but also in the genre of chamber music. Written late in the lives of both composers, they embody the maturity, depth, experience and possibly even a premonition of an other-worldliness soon to be experienced firsthand.” glossamusic.com
The Jopes Ensemble is a new flexible chamber music group which brings together some of the best musicians from Devon and Cornwall. It takes its name from Jopes Mill, a small music venue in South East Cornwall which puts on chamber music concerts through the year. Recent performances have included the Schubert Octet at Jopes Mill, and the Brahms and Mozart Quintets at Jopes Mill and St Buryan.
Audiences members have said:
“beautiful music played to a very high standard in a beautiful setting. What more could we want!”
“we enjoyed the high standard of musicianship and the informal approach of the performers”
“standard of the music was superb”
Victoria Cornet, clarinet, began her career when she qualified as a regional finalist in the BBC Young Musician of the Year and was then a finalist in the BBC Radio 2 Young Musician competition. After being a member of the National Youth Orchestra of Great Britain she went on to spend 4 years at the Royal Northern College of Music and the University of Manchester where she studied on the prestigious Joint Course. After graduating with an honours degree, she worked with the BBC National Orchestra of Wales, Glyndebourne Touring Opera and the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra among others. Victoria has been a member of several chamber groups. As a recitalist Victoria has played at Ryedale, Sevenoaks, Chichester and Canterbury Festivals etc. As a concerto soloist, Victoria has appeared in places as diverse as Montepulciano, Aix-en-Provence and Snape Maltings.
Philip Montgomery-Smith started learning the violin at the age of 6 with Ronald Colyer using the Suzuki method. At 16 he gained a place on the Hampshire Specialist Music Course in Winchester studying violin and viola with Judith Young and then went on to study for four years at the Royal Northern College of Music with Elizabeth Perry and Maciej Rakowski. He then studied for his PGCE teaching qualification at Exeter University and has since taught in Cornish primary schools for over twenty-five years. He now works for Cornwall Music Service Trust teaching the violin and whole class curriculum music. Philip has been at the heart of much of the professional music making in the County and beyond, leading several of the local orchestras including The Three Spires Orchestra and Truro Symphony Orchestra as well as playing with several chamber music ensembles.
Nick Beach, violin, grew up in Cornwall where he led the Cornwall Youth Orchestra. He studied at Dartington under Malcolm Latcham before undertaking postgraduate studies at the National Centre for Orchestral Studies. He has always been a busy chamber music player and played with the Lamorna String Quartet and Tamar Piano Trio for many years. He was leader of the West Forest Sinfonia, based in Berkshire, for 20 years. Nick was Academic Director at Trinity College London and has published on instrumental music teaching and learning. He now lives at Jopes Mill, near Liskeard, where he and Sally are setting up a range of music activities, including chamber music concerts and a summer music festival which takes place in July each year.
Ricarda Schmidt, viola, studied at the academies in Weimar, Leipzig and Trossingen where she won prizes for chamber music in several ensembles. Ricarda worked as a violist in various opera orchestras in Augsburg, Meiningen, Eisenach, Erfurt and Nuremberg, and as a substitute in the SWR Symphony Orchestra. In 2018 she moved to Cornwall, where at the same time she founded the “Duo Lamorniana” with Ute Weickenmeier in order to be able to devote more time to chamber music again.
Barbara Degener, cello, studied in Germany with Wolfgang Borggrefe, Heinrich Schiff, William Pleeth (UK), Janos Starker (U.S.A), Uzi Wiesel (Israel) and the Amadeus Quartet. She has given concerts all over Europe and Russia and has made an extensive range of recordings for CDs, radio broadcast and TV. Barbara is one of the string teachers of the Cornwall Music Service Trust and loves performing with her friends in various ensembles
* See Access, Tickets & Finding Us for more about why there are three ticket prices, plus other useful info about coming to events at Ashburton Arts Centre.