The Absolution quartet was formed at the Royal Northern College of Music, where all four members are currently students in either third or fourth year. The group are winners of the 2009 and 2010 Trevor Wye Memorial Prize and also the RNCM Chamber Music Grand Prize in June 2009 which lead them to become recognised publicly as the RNCM’s leading chamber music group.
Absolution are winners of the RNCM concerto auditions and will be performing Concerto for Saxophones by Tristan Keuris with the RNCM symphony orchestra over the 2010/2011 season. The group are also recent finalists of the 2010 Royal Overseas League wind/mixed ensemble category for the centenary year.
As well as recent competition success the group are currently taking part in education projects throughout the UK and perform in a variety of settings with Live Music Now!
Absolution recently featured in the Royal Northern College of Music’s 2010 annual Chamber Music Festival where they performed an evening recital of British contemporary music in the RNCM opera theatre. Outside of the RNCM the group also perform regularly for Music Societies in the North West such as Manchester Musicale, Flixton House, ‘Spirito’ and the Whitworth Art Gallery concert series. In May 2010 the group will be performing world premieres by Manchester based composers as well as the groups own visual and electronic project ‘Shattered Unity’ at the Sounds New festival in Canterbury.

Sam Corkin - Soprano and Alto Saxophone
Timothy End - Piano

Sam and Tim met while studying for their undergraduate degrees at King’s College London and have worked together ever since. The have recently been accepted onto the ‘Live Music Now’ scheme, and perform LMN concerts to a wide range of audiences across the country. They are a hugely versatile duo playing anything from classical concert recitals right up to modern day jazz.

SAM CORKIN
Since taking up the saxophone at the age of 11, Sam Corkin has been principal saxophonist of a huge variety of ensembles. He has toured abroad and, closer to home, performed in venues that include the Royal Festival Hall, The National Theatre and at the Edinburgh fringe festival. Recent performances include a concerto in St John’s, Smith Square, London, solo recitals in Bath Abbey and Rochester Cathedral, and a concert with the London Symphony Orchestra in the Barbican Hall. Sam is also proud to represent ‘Live Music Now’ with whom he performs across the UK.

As a member, later president, of the music department at King’s College London, Sam studied the saxophone under Richard Addison at the Royal Academy of Music. In his final year he won a place on the advanced performance course which culminated in a first rate performance. Also in his final year he gained his Licentiate of the Royal Academy of Music in the teaching of saxophone.

Sam has since learnt the clarinet with Richard Addison, the flute with Nick Moss and the saxophone with Christian Forshaw and John Harle. Having recently completed his Masters in Advanced Performance at the Guildhall School of Music & Drama, he has been awarded a fellowship at the same institution. Sam will be organising a series of concerts for his department in his capacity as a fellow.

Sam also works professionally as a vocalist, currently studying singing at the Royal College of Music with Justin Lavender. At the age of 7 he discovered a passion for choral music when he became a chorister – later head chorister – at Bath Abbey. He went on to sing in the Chapel Choir at King’s College London and was appointed to his current position as a Lay Clerk at Rochester Cathedral in 2008. Sam deputises at churches across the southeast – these include the Chapel Royal; Hampton Court Palace, Canterbury Cathedral and All Saints; St Margaret Street.

TIMOTHY END
Timothy End, born in London, is a much in demand chamber music pianist. A mulit-award winner including the 2011 accompanist prize at the Wigmore Hall Song Competition and 2010 winner of the Gerald Moore Award for Accompanists at the Sir Henry Wood Hall, Timothy graduated with a first class honours degree in Music from King’s College, London in 2006 before entering Postgraduate study in Piano Accompaniment at the Royal Academy of Music where he gained the prestigious DipRAM award for an outstanding recital in 2008. He held the Shinn Fellowship at RAM for the academic year 2008-09 under the tuition of Julius Drake and Patsy Toh.

Prizes at the Royal Academy of Music include first and second prize in the Delius Competition, the Sir Arthur Bliss Prize, the Flora Nielsen Prize, the Ludmilla Andrew Prize for Russian Song, the Evelyn German Prize for Piano Accompaniment and the Vivian Langrish Memorial Prize at the final of the RAM Club Prize Competition. Timothy was also awarded the Sir Anthony Lewis Memorial Prize accompanying the bass-baritone George Humphreys. In February of this year Timothy was awarded the Parnell Award for an Accompanist at the ROSL Annual Music Competition. He not only accompanied the trumpeter Huw Morgan who won the Woodwind and Brass Section of the competition but also the baritone Jonathan McGovern who won the Singers’ Section.

Recent engagements include a song recital with the bass Sir John Tomlinson at the Saville Club in Central London. Forthcoming engagements include a recital for the Iford Summer Festival and concerts through ROSL with the Camilla Wind Ensemble at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival.

Timothy has performed masterclasses with Thomas Allen, Robert Tear, Ann Murray, Felicity Lott, Barbara Bonney, Rudolf Jansen, Jean-Philip Schulz and most recently Margaret Price at the Machynlleth Festival in Wales, performing Schumann’s Liederkreis Op.39.

Timothy has also recently been accepted onto the Making Music Artists’ Scheme with the trumpeter Huw Morgan.

Timothy is most grateful for the support he received from the Musicians' Benevolent Fund through the Sir Henry Richardson Scholarship in addition to generous awards from the Countess of Munster Trust, the South Square Trust, Craxton Memorial Trust and the Tom Acton Memorial Trust.

Violeta Barrena - Violin

Violeta Barrena was born in Barcelona to a Spanish father and Swiss mother. She started taking violin lessons at the age of four and soon after she was accepted into professor Xavier Turull’s class. Later at the age of twelve she pursued her studies with Chris Nicholls (Ruggiero Ricci’s assistant) and in 2001 made her concert debut performing Vivaldi’s “ L’inverno” as a soloist with the “Orchestre de chambre musijeunes”. One year later she also performed in Bach’s double concerto.

In 2005 she started her studies at The Royal Academy of Music with Professor Howard Davis and then pursued them with Professor Tomotada Soh. In 2007 she won the Winifred Small Solo Violin Competition for Bach and Paganini and in 2008 she was a finalist in the “National Pablo de Sarasate Violin Competition”.
She graduated this summer from the Royal Academy with First Class Honours.
Currently she is doing a masters degree at the Royal College of Music after having been accepted into Professor Itzhak Rashkowski’s class. In March this year she was invited to play the Mozart Concerto in G Major with the OPUS Orchester Bern in Switzerland.

Violeta is also actively involved in numerous chamber music, currently working with soprano Kristi Assaly and pianists Nafis Umerkulova and Kamilla Arku. Recitals include St.Bride’s, Southwark Cathedral, St.Paul’s Picadilly, St. Mary’s Aylesbury and St. Martin in the fields. Last year she played in a trio with Rolf Hind in an event featuring the renowned pianists Katia and Marielle Labeque. In addition to that with her Duo “Allegro con Brio” she is being promoted by the organisation “Live Music Now” to do outreach work all over Britain and abroad.

Amongst others she has attended master classes by Maxim Vengerov, Pinchas Zuchermann, Gordan Nikolich, Tasmin Little, Thomas Brandis, Keiko Wataya, Natalia Lomeiko, Remus Azotei, Alexsandar Pavlovic, Joshua Fisher and Charles Casselman.

Nafis Umerkulova - piano

Nafis Umerkulova was born in Tashkent in 1988 and studied piano at the Uspensky Specialist Music School in Tashkent (1995 – 2004) with Natalia Tzinzadze and Marat Gumarov. At the age of 9 Nafis won 2nd prize at the Republican Piano Competition in Tashkent. In 2000 she was awarded a Diploma and a special prize at the Internatitional B. Dvarionas Piano Competition in Vilnius. Nafis was awarded 1st prize and a scholarship at the Internatitional N. Rubinstein Piano Competition in Paris. She was a winner of the Richmond young pianist of the year award in 2008 in London. Nafis participated in Masterclasses with Elena Richter, Lev Natochenny, Pascal Devoyon, Dmitriy Bashkirov, Mikhail Olenev and many others.

From 2004 until 2006 Nafis studied at the Purcell School of Music under William Fong. She was one of the prize – winners of the Purcell School annual Concerto Competition and as result of this she performed the Grieg Piano Concerto with the Purcell School Symphony orchestra in November 2005. Her other performances include chamber music recitals at the Wigmore Hall, Drapers Hall, solo recitals at the Purcell Room, (South Bank Centre), St Martin-in-the-Fields Church, Notting Hill Community Church, Winchester Cathedral and others. Nafis has just graduated with honours from the Royal Academy of Music in London where she was receiving a full scholarship to study with William Fong and Tatiana Sarkissova and this year she was awarded a full scholarship to continue her studies as a Masters student at the Royal Scottish Academy of Music studying with Aaron Shorr.

The Animé flute and guitar duo formed in 2010 while studying at the Royal Welsh College of Music and Drama. It was here that they established their shared passion for ensemble performance, finding a particular enthusiasm for the music of the 20th and 21st Centuries. The duo aim to bring the music for this unique combination of instruments to a wider audience in an engaging and approachable style.
 
The Animé duo have performed in a number of recitals around Wales and the rest of the UK, including a concert as part of the Cardiff Guitar Series, and a performance at the Arcomis International Flute Festival held at the Wales Millennium Centre. 

Vicky Guise is currently working as a freelance flautist and teacher within the Cardiff area. After being selected for a professional placement with the Orchestra of the Welsh National Opera for three consecutive years, she has since started working as an extra player for them. Vicky is also an extra for the Welsh Sinfonia chamber orchestra and has performed as a member of the National Symphony Orchestra. She has performed regularly with the Cardiff Sinfonietta, an orchestra that brings together young musicians from across the UK. Vicky has also played principal flute for Opera D’draig’s recent production of Mozart’s ‘Marriage of Figaro’. As well as orchestral work,Vicky also has experience playing for theatre productions and has played for shows run by the Orbit Theatre Company and the Unknown Theatre Company. Vicky has also experienced success as a soloist as the winner of the Instrumental Class at the Abergavenny Eisteddfod in 2010, and as a finalist in the Llangollen International Eisteddfod Instrumental Soloist Aged 16-30 Class in 2008.
While pursuing her freelance career, Vicky is also studying on the Master of Music postgraduate course at the Royal Welsh College of Music and Drama with the support of the EMI Sound Foundation. Here she is studying flute with Jonathan Burgess and Sarah Newbold and piccolo with Nic Dowton and Andrew Lane. During her first year as a postgraduate, she was selected to represent the college in the Royal Welsh Wind Quintet alongside Meyrick Alexander, bassoonist and Head of Woodwind at the college. She has also been involved with many college ensembles, including playing principal flute in both the chamber and symphony orchestra.

Before beginning her postgraduate study, Vicky graduated with First Class Honours from the BMus (Hons) undergraduate degree course at the Royal Welsh College of Music and Drama where she was also presented with the HTV Study award. During her study, Vicky has been privileged to take part in masterclasses from Sir James Galway, Michael Cox and Fenwick Smith.

Will Browne was awarded a scholarship in 2005 to study with John Mills and Christopher Stell at The Royal Welsh College of Music and Drama and graduated in July 2009 with a First Class Honours degree.

During his time at college, Will took part in a host of master classes, working with artists such as Graham Devine, Craig Ogden, Kai Nieminen and Mark Ashford, and was invited in 2008 to study at the Koninklijk Academy, Brussels under the Erasmus exchange scheme with Antigoni Goni.

He has worked with eminent composers such as Stephen Dodgson, Michael Berkeley and with Leo Brouwer at the 2009 West Dean Guitar Festival. In 2010 Will was a finalist in the Julian Bream Trust Audition.

Will was twice awarded the Stuart Cohen Guitar Prize in recognition for his achievements at the Royal Welsh College, awarded The Clarendon and Vice Chairman's Guitar Prize at the Portsmouth Music Festival in 2003 and in 2010 received scholarships from both the EMI Sound Foundation and the Laura Ashley Trust.
Will made his professional debut as a soloist at the New Artists Series in 2010 for the Worcester Guitar Society. Other performances in the UK and Europe include concerts at the Bolivar Hall in London, recitals in Finland, a number of performances at the Eisteddfod Festival in Cardiff, at the Brighton Fringe Festival in 2010 and 2011, and with the 'Alaudiae' Vocal Ensemble at The Gate Arts Centre, Cardiff. Internationally he has performed in Chongqing and Beijing, China, supported by the Welsh Assembly Government, and in a vocal and guitar recital at the Chamber Concert Hall, Singapore with the soprano Shing Min Yap.

Will is currently studying for a Masters degree at the Royal Welsh College and continuing his studies with Graham Devine and John Mills.

Anna Huntley

Mezzo-Soprano, Anna Huntley recently graduated from the Benjamin Britten International Opera School at the Royal College of Music where she was supported by a Sir Jack Ackroyd Award and Sir Thomas Allen Scholarship studying with Russell Smythe. Prior to this she attended the Junior Royal Academy of Music before being awarded a full scholarship to study at the Royal Academy of Music. She graduated with a 1st Class Honours Degree, the Mary Burgess Award for Academic Excellence and a Postgraduate Diploma with Distinction. Other prizes and awards include an Independent Opera Fellowship 2009, the Michael Oliver Prize in the London Handel Singing Competition 2009, the Douglas Craig Opera Bursary 2009, the Hampshire Singing Prize, the Oxford Recital Award and Music Benevolent Fund Education Awards. She was also a semi-finalist in the 2009 Kathleen Ferrier Awards and was selected by Thomas Quasthoff to take part in the live finals of the inaugural ‘Das Lied’ competition in Berlin.

Professional operatic work to date includes Dido/Sorceress (cover) in Purcell’s Dido & Aeneas for English National Opera with Christian Curnyn; chorus for Glyndebourne Festival Opera 2008; Hermia (A Midsummer Night’s Dream) for English Touring Opera and Dorabella (Cosi fan tutte) for English Chamber Opera whilst other roles include Ramiro (La Finta Giardiniera), Angelina (Cenerentola) and Mignon for the BBIOS; Cherubino (Le nozze di Figaro) for Dartington International Summer School; Isabella (L’italiana in Algeri) at the XXIV Festival Internazionale de Musica Cinque Terre; Cis in Albert Herring for British Youth Opera and Cherubino, Sesto (Guilio Cesare) and Stewardess in Dove’s Flight at the RAM. Anna performs extensively on the concert platform across Europe and is a regular soloist in oratorio most notably in the Bach B Minor Mass with Trevor Pinnock; Handel’s The Choice of Hercules with Daniel Taylor and Laurence Cummings; the Haydn St Nicholas Mass in the King’s Lynn Festival with the European Union Chamber Orchestra, the Vaughan-Williams Serenade to Music with Sarah Connolly, Catherine Wyn-Rogers, Janis Kelly, Alfie Boe, Gerald Finley and conducted by John Wilson, Mahler’s Lieder eines fahrenden Gesellen with the Colne Philharmonic Orchestra, a concert of Bach arias at the Tilford Bach Festival with Laurence Cummings and recitals at St Martin-in-the-Fields, Handel House and the Winchester Festival. She has participated in masterclasses with Siegfried Jerusalem (Wiener Meisterkurse), Edith Wiens, Patricia MacMahon, Ann Murray, Michael Chance (London Handel Festival), Petra Lang (Mahler Society), Robert Tear, Jan Phillipe Schulze and Roger Vignoles. Anna is a Samling Foundation Scholar, a Concordia Foundation and Live Music Now! Artist and is generously supported by the Josephine Baker Trust and Platform Tees Valley.

James Bailleu - Piano

James Baillieu, one of South Africa’s top young pianists and accompanists received the Bachelor of Music (Performance) degree with distinction at the University of Cape Town (UCT) in 2004. He studied piano under Graham Fitch and François du Toit, and the clarinet under Jimmy Reinders. Before enrolling at UCT he completed an Individualised Programme of Study in piano and accompaniment at Trinity College of Music, London. As a distinguished music student at UCT he was awarded all the piano prizes. He won the first Laura Searle Piano Competition and was the Eric Chisholm Centenary Competition in Cape Town. James also won the Stellenbosch Conservatoire’s Rachmaninov Piano Competition in 2003.

In May 2004 he participated in the International Russian Piano Competition in California at which as a laureate he was awarded a scholarship to study in Vienna. At the Vienna International Pianists Academy he was awarded the Rosario Marciano prize for an eminent artistic personality.

James has received a full scholarship, the Avery Picker award, from the Royal Academy of Music in London, where he is completing his postgraduate studies with Michael Dussek, Malcolm Martineau and Kathryn Stott. He is generously supported by Llutz Fellmann. James has won the Flora Nielsen, Ludmilla Andrews and Brenda Webb accompanists prizes and was highly commended for his performance in the Lillian Davies Beethoven competition at the Academy. He recently was a participant at the European Liedforum in Berlin, and also attended the 2006 George Solti Accademmia di Bel Canto in Italy working with Mirella Freni.

He was awarded the Elisa Fawcett award at the Royal Overseas League Competition in London and the MBF accompanist’s prize at the 2006 Kathleen Ferrier Competition, which took place at the Wigmore Hall.

Anneke Hodnett began her harp studies on the Irish harp with Madeleine Meehan in Limerick, Ireland. She completed her BMus at the Guildhall School of Music & Drama with distinction, and in September 2010 was awarded her MMus from the Guildhall Artist Programme, also with distinction. At the Guildhall, Anneke studied with Imogen Barford, Bryn Lewis and Charlotte Seale. She has played in masterclasses with, among others, Marisa Robles, Isabelle Perrin, Letizia Belmondo, Elinor Bennett and Karen Vaughan. She is currently a Chamber Music Fellow at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama, and continues to study with Bryn Lewis.

In June 2010 Anneke won the harp position on the London Symphony Orchestra String Academy, which culminated in a performance of the Debussy Danses in LSO St. Luke’s. Other concerto appearances have included the Handel Harp Concerto with the Handel Collection, and further performances of the Debussy Danses. Solo recitals have included appearances at the Greenwich, and St. Lawrence Jewry Festivals. Anneke has also worked extensively as an orchestral musician, under conductors such as Vasily Petrenko, Pierre-Andre Valade and Andre de Ridder. With the Guildhall New Music Ensemble she has broadcast live several times on BBC Radio 3. Her comtemporary music experience also includes the premiere and recording of new works for octet with musicians from the BBC Symphony Orchestra, and a performance at the Wigmore Hall as part of the Voiceworks Series.

Anneke is a committed chamber musician, and her flute, viola and harp trio, Trio Anima, are currently Chamber Music Fellows at the GSMD. With the same trio, she was a finalist in the 2007 Royal Overseas League Chamber music competition and winner of the 2007 North London Music Festival/ Camac Competition’s Ensemble Class. In 2008, her trio enjoyed a highly successful tour in France, and also took part in an Aldeburgh residency with David Dolan. The group perform regularly across the UK, with recent recital highlights including a return visit to St. Martin-in-the-Fields. They collaborate frequently with composers, and in April 2010 performed at the Royal Opera House as part of the “Operashots” series. Anneke recently founded the Animare Ensemble to perform larger scale chamber works with harp. Anneke is very grateful to the Arts Council of Ireland for supporting her in her studies.

Aoife Nic Athlaoich - Cello
Cliodna Shanahan - Piano

Aoife and Cliodna have been playing together since meeting at the
Royal College of Music over five years ago.
They have given numerous performances throughout the UK and Ireland
and have attended both the Clandeboye Festival and the West Cork
Chamber Music Festival in Ireland.
Aoife and Cliodna won the duo prize and the contemporary music prize
at Feis Ceoil, Dublin, they have a keen interest in new music and have
two commissions underway by young Irish composers.
Aoife and Cliodna have attended Music Network Ireland's 'making
overtures' musicians Seminar, and have been generously supported by
the Arts Council Ireland, An Chomhairle Ealaíon.