Artists Biographies : 29th International East Anglian Summer Music Festival

JUDITH BUCKLE was born in County Durham and studied at The Guildhall School of Music & Drama. After gaining her AGSM with distinction she was an ad hoc member of the BBC Singers before joining the London Savoyards on their QE2 world cruises singing the principal mezzo Gilbert & Sullivan roles. She was a finalist in both the NFMS Award and the ISM Young Musicians Scheme which gave her a lot of experience on the concert platform.
Judith made her London debut at the Fairfield Halls, Croydon with The London Mozart Players in Beethoven’s Choral symphony and then went on to sing Mendelssohn’s Hymn of Praise at The Royal Albert Hall and Sea Pictures at the Royal Festival Hall. She has had a wide and varied career, ranging from early music to grand opera and has travelled extensively throughout Great Britain and performed in Ireland, Belgium, Holland, Spain and the USA.
Judith’s operatic career started when she sang for 5 years with Pavilion Opera singing the roles of ‘Rosina’, ‘Dorabella’, and ‘Cherubino’. Since then she has sung over 20 major roles and favourites include Orfeo (Gluck) and Dido (Dido and Aeneas) which she sang to great acclaim in Holland.
Judith has recently been performing the role of Donna Elvira, Don Giovanni for the Canterbury Festival and the role of Cherubino, The Marriage of Figaro for the Classical Music Company at the Purcell Room. Future engagements include singing for Saga for their Classical Music Holidays and next year she is performing the roles of Fricka and Erda in Wagner’s Ring Cycle for the Classical Music Company.

CLAIRE CONSTABLE A former member of the National Youth Orchestra of Wales, Claire Constable studied for a B.Mus at the University of Birmingham, and subsequently for an M. Mus at Kings College, London University.  In 1989 she entered the Royal College of Music where her cello professor was Christopher Bunting, and took part in public masterclasses wit William Pleeth and Tim Hugh.  She now leads a busy, varied London-based free-lance career where she is particularly involved with opera (Principal cellist Carl Rosa Opera, regular work with English Touring Opera),and ballet(English National Ballet). She is a regular member of the Brighton Philharmonic, and freelances with among others the BBC Scottish (including Proms 2007), Royal Philharmonic Concert Orchestra, Royal Liverpool Philharmonic, RTE National Symphony Orchestra of Ireland and London Concert Orchestra. Widely in demand for chamber music, she has performed with numerous trios, quartets and quintets over the past decade, including Summer Music at Hadleigh, London Schubert Players, Mercia Ensemble (specialising in new music) and the Eclectic String Quartet. Her cello is from 1974 by Fernando Solar of Madrid, with a bow from 1979 by Jean Jacques Millant of Paris.

PETER GREVATT was born in Hastings and went on to complete a BA(Hons) in Theology/ Philosophy at King’s College, London. Philosophically, then, he started his vocal training with Michael Maurel and gained valuable early experience singing fully-staged operas in cramped conditions. His professional debut was as Mozart’s Figaro for London Opera Players. Since then he has portrayed a large variety of major and minor roles (Malatesta, Dandini, Count Almaviva, Enrico, Onegin, Marcello, Pish-Tush amongst them) for companies such as British Youth Opera, Opera Project, First Act Opera, & the D'Oyly Carte in addition to nourishing his growing concert and oratorio work. He presently studies with Nicholas Powell.

ANDREW LAING was born in Aberdeen and studied violin with David Martin at the Royal Academy of Music where he won numerous prizes and scholarships. It was here that he formed and led the Locrian String Quartet, which became resident at the Hatfield Polytechinic (now University of Hertfordshire) and gave many first performances of contemporary music, including quartets by Nyman, Crosse and Panufik. Mr Laing has held the posts of Sub Leader of the BBC Radio Orchestra and Leader of the London City Ballet Orchestra. He has also regularly appeared as solo violinist with the Royal Shakespeare Company and Garden Opera.

LONDON CITY CHAMBER ORCHESTRA was originally created for violinist Ruggiero Ricci, and in 1973 Thomas McIntosh assumed conductorship of the group. As Mr Ricci had performed both as soloist and conductor, so Mr McIntosh has continued that tradition. Reorganised in 1983, the London City Chamber Orchestra performs a wide spectrum of music from the 18 th to 20 th centuries, and is the principal performing body of the International East Anglian Summer Music Festival. Other regional appearances include the Theatre Royal, Bury St Edmunds; Riverside Theatre, Woodbridge; and The Arts Centre, Wells-next-the-Sea. London appearances have included Queen Elizabeth Hall, Royal Festival Hall, and several appearances at London City Airport.

THOMAS MCINTOSH was educated at the Juilliard School of Music in New York City, as a recipient of a Martha Rockefeller Foundation Grant, where he had the unique distinction of studying conducting with Jean Morel, piano with Edward Steuermann, and choral conducting with Frederick Prausnitz. Thomas McIntosh was first prize winner in the International Kranichstein Competition, Germany, and a prize winner of the Busoni Competition, Bolzano, Italy. These awards launched a career which has taken Mr McIntosh as conductor/pianist to more than 70 countries of the world. Mr McIntosh is Principal Guest Conductor of the Canton Symphony Orchestra, The People’s Republic of China, and has had a successful musical partnership with the Taiwan Symphony Orchestra. With Opera Anglia, for which he serves as Artistic Director, Mr McIntosh has produced and conducted more than two dozen operas, including the world première performance of Victor Yellin’s Abaylar, as well as a highly successful revival of Mozart’s Lucio Silla. His recent tours have taken him to Japan, The People’s Republic of China and The United States of America, and concerts here in the United Kingdom, as well as Germany, Spain and Russia. Mr McIntosh is also a composer. Click on Miscellaneous page for information as to his compositions.

JOHN RAYSON studied music at the University of Wales in Cardiff, gaining a B.Mus with First Class Honours, and going on to complete his Masters degree, specialising in 20 th Century Music analysis. Following post-graduate study at Goldsmiths College, University of London, he then joined the orchestra of the Welsh National Opera company, and in six years with the company performed with several distinguished conductors, including Sir Charles Mackerras, Sir Reginald Goodall and Pierre Boulez, and also took part in the company’s first ever performances of Wagner’s “Ring” cycle. After leaving the WNO he joined the Sterling String Quartet, which made the first complete recording of the four string quartets by Edmund Rubbra. Reviewing this disc, the “Strad” magazine described his playing as being “…as evocative as one could wish”. John Rayson is also an accomplished arranger and composer, and in 2004 four of his arrangements for string quartet were performed live on BBC1 television by “Celticana” as part of the BBC “Proms in the Park” event, whilst many other arrangements are now in regular use by ensembles across the UK and abroad, including the USA. His most recent composition, “Variations on a Norwegian Folk Song” for two violas was performed with great success at St Alfege's Church, Greenwich, London.

ROBYN SEVASTOS graduated from Melbourne University with a B.Mus., with First Class Honours in Performance. She performed extensively in Australia as a piano soloist and accompanist before moving to England to continue her studies where she obtained a Postgraduate Diploma in Piano Accompaniment at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama, and a performance diploma from the Royal College of Music. She has accompanied a large variety of singers and instrumentalists and has been engaged as repetiteur and accompanist by a number of opera companies and musical institutions both in the UK and abroad and has also performed at Sandringham for HRH the Prince of Wales.
Robyn is also in great demand as a conductor and has conducted many of the major choral works including the Brahms and Verdi Requiems, Mendelssohn’s Elijah and Carl Orff’s Carmina Burana at the Fairfield Halls in Croydon. Her extensive operatic repertoire includes operas by Mozart, Puccini, Verdi, Rossini, Bizet and Sullivan.
She is Music Director of a number of organisations including London Opera Players, Bromley Philharmonic Choir and the Sevenoaks Philharmonic Society, chorus master for Kentish Opera and a professor at the Blackheath Conservatoire of Music. Robyn has recently been appointed Music Director for the Llantilio Crossenny Festival.

BRIAN THEODORE RALPH first worked in Ipswich when the Wolsey Theatre opened in 1979 and directed or played leading roles in more than fifty productions. Outside the theatre he has worked in Television, Radio and the West End, and has appeared in Regional Theatres and toured all over the United Kingdom. His last theatre performance was in Sir Peter Hall's production of Lysistrata which played in the Theatre Royal Richmond and at the ancient Greek Amphitheatre of Epidavros. In 1993 he began lecturing at Suffolk Civic College, where he is now a Senior Lecturer and leader of the Further Education in Performing Arts. He retains his links with the Wolsey Theatre and is president of the Wolsey Theatre Club. Brian is delighted to be returning to The Old School and to immersing himself in the spirit of Christmas.