Hungarian violinist Dominika Fehér was born into a musical family and has always had a passion for chamber music. During her studies at the Franz Liszt Music Academy Budapest she had regular coaching with members of the Bartók and Kodály Quartets as well as János Rolla, the leader of the Franz Liszt Chamber Orchestra. Upon completing her Masters degree with highest honours, Dominika was awarded the Weingarten Scholarship to study with Oistrakh pupil Rimma Sushanskaya at the Royal Birmingham Conservatoire, where she later became a Junior Fellow as a member of the Bantock Quartet. Their performances included Steve Reich’s ‘Different Trains’ and ‘Triple Quartet’. While at the Conservatoire, she developed a passion for early music under the guidance of Margaret Faultless, Lucy Russell and Oliver Webber, and has become a sought-after performer specialising in historically informed performance practice of 17th – 19th century music.
Dominika has toured the world with leading early music ensembles, such as the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment, English Baroque Soloists, Academy of Ancient Music, Early Opera Company and The Kings Consort, and recorded for Signum Classics, Resonus Classics and Convivium. She has appeared at the BBC Proms and also performed at the Royal Albert Hall, Wigmore Hall, Royal Opera House Covent Garden and Royal Festival Hall in London, Carnegie Hall in New York, La Scala in Milan, Konzerthaus in Vienna and National Centre For the Performing Arts in Beijing.
Dominika has broadcast live as soloist in Dittersdorf’s Double Violin Concerto on BBC Radio 3 and given solo performances of works by Bach, Vivaldi, Mozart, Piazzolla, Schnittke and Malcolm Arnold. In 2019 she was a finalist in the Premio Bonporti International Baroque Violin Competition. She plays a Rogeri violin kindly loaned to her by Simon Smewing through the Beare’s International Violin Society.
Rachel Stott is a viola player and composer. She played for many years with the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment, London Classical Players and other period instrument orchestras while also exploring new music with Music Projects of London, Ensemble Exposé and the New Music Players. She performs with chamber music groups The Revolutionary Drawing Room, The Bach Players and Sopriola and explores repertoire for viola d’amore with both contemporary and baroque ensembles.
Rachel’s compositions have been performed at the London South Bank, Wigmore Hall, St John’s Smith Square, in UK festivals and abroad in Europe, America and Japan. Her first string quartet, Quiet Earth, was commissioned for performance by the Fitzwilliam String Quartet at the 2002 Swaledale Festival and a second quartet, The Enchanted Lyre, was performed by the Dante String Quartet at the Wigmore Hall in 2005. Winds Through a Symmetry, composed for the Callino Quartet, was composed during a residency at the Banff Centre for the Arts in Canada in 2015, and her most recent quartet, Euphonia, was written for the Revolutionary Drawing Room during the lockdown in London, spring 2020. She has recently completed a commission from the Society for Strange and Ancient Instruments for their trumpet marine project.
Aside from her work as a viola player and composer, Rachel recently completed an MA in Creative Writing at Royal Holloway, University of London. She is interested in projects which combine musical and literary skills. She has written a series for BBC Radio 3 entitled Harmony and Invention, adapted the script for the Revolutionary Drawing Room’s CD, A Viennese Quartet Party, and created the text for the recent Omnibus Classics release, Odysseus and the Sorceress.
Visit Rachel’s website here:
Ruth Alford has established herself as a well-respected chamber musician and continuo-cellist with many ensembles and chamber groups in London. She graduated from Manchester University with an honours degree in music and the Proctor Gregg Performance Award, having studied with Bernard Gregor-Smith and the Lindsay Quartet. Further studies followed at the Royal Academy of Music, London with David Strange, the Amadeus Quartet, Sidney Griller, Jenny Ward-Clarke and William Pleeth. During this time she gained performing experience in a variety of musical genres ranging from solo classical recitals to jazz and music theatre.
Ruth still thrives on a diverse musical diet, from Baroque to Contemporary, as well as sharing her enthusiasm for music through various educational outlets. She performs and records throughout Europe, the Far East and America as a principal player and continuo-cellist with the English Baroque Soloists, Orchestre Revolutionaire et Romantique and Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment, as well as chamber ensembles including Brandenburg Consort, The Music Collection, Fiori Musicali, Florilegium, Configure8 and The Revolutionary Drawing Room.
Adrian Butterfield is a violinist, director and conductor who specialises in performing music from 1600-1900 on period instruments. He is Musical Director of the Tilford Bach Festival and Associate Director of the London Handel Festival and regularly directs the London Handel Orchestra and London Handel Players as well as working as a guest soloist and director in Europe and North America. He has led The Revolutionary Drawing Room for 25 years.
He started playing string quartets at the age of seven at Pro Corda, a string chamber music course for children, and after 11 years as a student was a member of the coaching staff for over ten years.
The London Handel Players perform regularly at Wigmore Hall and throughout Europe and North America and made their debut at Carnegie Hall in 2014. Adrian’s world premiere complete recordings of Leclair’s first two Books of violin sonatas were released in 2009 and 2013 on Naxos Records.
He is Professor of Baroque Violin at the Royal College of Music in London, gives masterclasses in Europe and North America and has taught at Dartington and Pro Corda Baroque. He also directs an annual baroque project with the Southbank Sinfonia.
He has conducted all the major choral works of Bach as well as numerous works by Handel and his contemporaries and directed ensembles such as the Croatian Baroque Ensemble in Zagreb, the Malta Philharmonic Orchestra and the London Mozart Players.
Plans for the 2020/21 season include conducting Messiah with the London Mozart Players and Handel’s Il Trionfo in the London Handel Festival, performing Bach’s Brandenburg Concertos with the London Handel Players, Beethoven quartets with the Revolutionary Drawing Room and recording more Leclair sonatas for Naxos.
Visit Adrian's personal website here.