"Bringing big names to a small town"
WEDNESDAY 13TH SEPTEMBER
ST EDWARD'S HALL 7.30PM
STOW-ON-THE-WOLD • GL54 1AE
The Adderbury Ensemble was formed in 1986 by a number of Britain’s finest young musicians and has grown from concerts organised in the beautiful village of Adderbury in North Oxfordshire. The Ensemble has helped to establish the now famous Oxford Coffee Concerts and the Music in Adderbury series. It also has a regular summer series of its own in the Sheldonian Theatre in Oxford.
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The String Quartet
Anna Cashell (violin) began her musical studies in Ireland before training at the Yehudi Menuhin School and the Royal College of Music in London. Whilst at the College she studied with Itzhak Rashkovsky and was awarded many prizes including the college’s prestigious Mills Williams Junior Fellowship and the Tagore Gold Medal which was presented to her by Prince Charles. With her sister Sophie she performs in the Cashell Duo and they are currently represented by Music Network Ireland. Anna has performed as a soloist with many orchestras in Ireland and the UK, such as The National Symphony Orchestra of Ireland and Camerata Ireland conducted by Barry Douglas. Chamber music is one of Anna’s passions; she performs regularly with her husband Simon Watterton in the Cashell-Watterton duo.
Chris Windass (violin) has spent much of his life based in Oxfordshire and formed the Adderbury Ensemble in 1986. He also established the Music in Adderbury series and the famous Oxford Coffee Concert Series in the same year. He studied at the Birmingham School of Music and later went on to study privately with Emmanuel Hurwitz and David Takeno. He has played with the London Philharmonic Orchestra,
the Philharmonia, Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, CBSO, English Chamber Orchestra, London Chamber Orchestra, Glyndebourne and English Touring Opera. Chamber groups include the Medici, Brodsky, Carducci, and Tippett String Quartets, along with the Guildhall String Ensemble.
Chris teaches at Bloxham and Stowe School, his love of chamber music having always been a driving force in his teaching and playing.
Vanessa McNaught (viola) started to learn the violin at the age of four and took up the viola aged 12. She was awarded the Director’s Prize at Junior Guildhall, having performed as soloist with their String Ensemble on tour and broadcast on BBC Radio 3. She went on to gain a Masters degree in philosophy and mathem-atics, before completing a post-graduate diploma at the Royal College of Music with distinction. While studying at the RCM, Vanessa won all the string chamber music prizes and the Bernard Shore viola prize in the Royal Overseas League competition. She was a founder member of the Tavec String Quartet and now plays with a variety of chamber music groups and chamber orchestras including the Adderbury Ensemble. She has also enjoyed playing at the Edinburgh Festival and the Wigmore Hall.
Katherine Sharman (cello), originally from New Zealand, won an Arts Council scholarship in 1983 to study in the UK and Europe with several teachers, including Tanya Prochazka, Jennifer Ward-Clarke and Steven Isserlis. Kath has now settled just down the road from Adderbury, in King’s Sutton, and now enjoys a busy career performing as continuo player and chamber musician with a wide variety of groups.
She has performed and recorded as continuo cellist with many orchestras, including the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment, the Gabrieli Consort and Players, the King’s Consort, the London Handel Orchestra and the Academy of Ancient Music, and most recently collaborated with renowned baroque dancer Mary Collins, exploring the Bach Cello Suites. However, Kath’s most treasured music-making is the closest to home, playing chamber pieces with her friends and colleagues in the Adderbury Ensemble.
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