International Chamber Music Summer School

Adam Precious

Course Director and Double Bass

Adam Precious was a product of the Leicestershire County School of Music in its heyday. Working with the likes of Tippett, Previn, Kyung Wha Chung, Philip Fowke, Havergal Brian and Campoli, he appeared on television with the youth orchestra, made records and toured Europe. He left school at 16 to become part of the first in-take of the new Royal Northern College of Music, studying with Adrian Beers, and 5 years later was in the first year of The National Centre for Orchestral Studies on a BBC Bursary, studying with Gerald Drucker.

Adam Precious has had a long association with London’s major symphony and chamber orchestras, touring the world extensively. His freelance commitments as a double bass player include film and television work, contemporary music groups and chamber music. He believes strongly in music education, teaching in two major independent schools, and is a popular chamber music tutor and coach.

Michael Bell

Piano

Michael Bell studied at the Royal Northern College of Music in Manchester with Derryck Wyndham and Sulamita Aronovsky and later at the State Academy of Music in Warsaw, after being awarded the Chopin Fellowship by the Polish government. He has won several other awards and prizes at national and international piano competitions and has given numerous performances throughout Europe, Africa and Australia. He has also broadcast on television and radio.

An extensive solo repertoire includes over 30 concertos and he has recorded works by Haydn, Janacek, Tchaikovsky and Grieg as well as contemporary piano music, including a new piece dedicated to him by Peter Seabourne.

Michael is often invited to sit on jury panels at international piano competitions. He is a Lecturer and Director of Performance at Keele University on a part-time basis and also works as accompanist and chamber music player. He has proved to be a very popular member of the ICMSS coaching team.

Rupert Bond

Conductor/Double Bass

Rupert Bond gained his Bachelor of Music at Goldsmiths’ College, London University and then successfully auditioned for the Conductor’s Course at the Royal Academy of Music, where he also studied Double Bass. His most formative musical experience was as a student of George Hurst. He also holds a Master of Music degree in Composition from Surrey University. In 1999 he was appointed an Associate of the RAM. He began his career as a free-lance conductor and bass player, but a change of direction led to him being Director of Music at James Allen’s Girls’ School in London. He was able to continue his conducting vocation and founded the professional orchestra, “Docklands Sinfonietta”. He has also developed his skills as a composer and to date has written over 40 compositions. In 2003 he returned to full-time conducting, spending time in New Zealand (2006-7) and South West England (2008-13). Recent projects include recording a CD with the Moravian Philharmonic Orchestra with music of New Zealander Eric Biddington. Rupert regularly conducts many orchestras, including the Folkestone Symphony, European Doctors’ Orchestra, Kingston 3AO, Dartford Symphony, Suffolk Sinfonia, Southwark Sinfonietta, Surrey Philharmonic, the Sonnet Wind Orchestra and the Wandsworth Symphony. He believes passionately in Gustav Mahler’s dictum,
“in each performance a work has to be re-born”

Diana Cummings

Violin

Diana Cummings is one of the best known and most distinguished violinists in Great Britain. She studied at the Royal Academy of Music, in Rome and in New York and was a prize winner in the International Violin Competition ‘Nicolo Paganini’. Her career has developed over a very wide spectrum of musical activities.

As a chamber musician she is the leader of the Cummings String Trio and the English String Quartet and is artist in residence of the London Festival of Chamber Music. She is also a recitalist and concerto soloist with a very wide and varied repertoire and is in continuous demand as orchestral leader, guest leading many of the major symphony orchestras. In all these capacities she has made many recordings and CDs, has broadcast frequently and toured extensively throughout Great Britain, Europe and the USA.

Diana is a professor and Fellow of the Royal Academy of Music and a professor at Trinity College of Music. She has an international reputation as a teacher and adjudicator.

Lionel Handy

‘Cello

A commitment to expanding the solo cello repertoire has resulted in Lionel Handy commissioning and premiering many new works. He recorded extensively and his 2024 CD includes works by Frank Bridge, William Hurlston, Felix Swinstead and Doreen Carwithen. 
Lionel performs throughout the UK and Europe, and has given several solo recitals at the Wigmore Hall and South Bank. Much in demand as a chamber musician, Lionel has broadcast frequently for BBC Radio 3 and European networks. He has made numerous commercial recordings. Lionel’s interest in British twentieth century music has led to
performances of concertos by Finzi, Bax, Walton and Delius. With the London Sinfonietta he has worked with many leading composers, including Tippett, Berio, Lutoslawski, Henze, Carter, Part, Birtwistle, Reich and Knussen.
Lionel was principal cello with the Academy of St. Martin-in-the-Fields for ten years. Later as solo cellist with the Bournemouth Sinfonietta, he performed an eclectic range of concertos from CPE Bach and Boccherini to Tavener and Roxburgh.
Lionel has played as guest principal with most of the UK’s leading orchestras.
He was a professor at the Royal Academy of Music for over 40 years, and also taught at summer schools throughout Europe; many of his former pupils hold important
positions in ensembles throughout the UK. He was awarded F.R.A.M. from the Royal Academy of Music and plays on a cello by Fendt (circa 1820).

Jane Hanna

French Horn

After finishing school at Chetham’s School of music in Manchester, Jane continued her studies at the Royal Academy of Music with James Brown, then after a post graduate year with The National Centre for Orchestral Studies, became a busy freelance player. Jane has played with all the major orchestras, opera houses and ballet companies in London. She was second horn in Rambert Ballet Company for many years and is a committed member of many freelance orchestras.

Having been a member of NYJO during her student years, she also enjoys playing lighter music and has extensively performed in the West End, also working in many recording studios, playing a plethora of musical styles. Jane also enjoys teaching and taught at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama (GSMD) Junior dept for many years. She now teaches at Centre for Young Musicians at Morley College in London, Sevenoaks School and Alleyn’s in Dulwich and has many pupils who have gone on to work in the profession.

Laura Jellicoe

Flute

As a student, Laura Jellicoe won 1st prize in the British Flute Society’s International Young Artist Competition, chaired by Sir James Galway, joined the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra at 22, and is currently Principal Flute with the English Symphony Orchestra.

She has regularly played with BBC Symphony Orchestra, Academy of St. Martin-in-the-Fields, Halle, Ensemble 360 and Royal Northern Sinfonia. She has broadcast on radio and tv many times.

Alongside orchestral playing, Laura has played in many chamber ensembles, including The Abruzzi Trio and the Halle Wind Quintet, and collaborations with Peter Donahoe, Emma Johnson, members of the Lindsay Quartet, Takacs Quartet, Roderick Williams, Martin Roscoe, Ensemble 360.

Laura also has a real passion for teaching. She taught at Chetham’s School of Music for 10 years, led the flute department at Royal Northern College of Music, and is currently Professor of Flute at Royal Academy of Music. Many of her former students are now enjoying professional careers, and one of her greatest joys is turning up to a gig to find herself sat next to one of them!

Laura has given many UK masterclasses, and also online internationally, and she is Director of Grasmere Flute Retreat. She is also a conductor, working with Royal Liverpool Philharmonic, Manchester Camerata, BBC Philharmonic and the English Symphony Orchestra, as well as coaching the wind section for the National Youth Orchestra of GB, and bigger ensembles from Chethams and RNCM. She has been on the panel for competitions such as BBC Young Musician of the Year, the British Flute Society and Feis Coeil competition in Dublin.

Gabby Painter

Violin

When instrumental lessons were given out at Gabby’s junior school, little did she think that years later she would be playing the violin on concert platforms around the world. Not least because she had wanted to learn the clarinet! Gabby went on to study with Diana Cummings at the Royal Academy of Music and as a scholarship student with Mitchell Stern at the Manhattan School of Music and the State University of New York at Stony Brook where she gained her Doctorate of Musical Arts. Gabby is a member of Academy of Saint Martins in the Fields and the Assistant Leader of the City of London Sinfonia. Her concerto performances range from Beethoven to Szymanowski, Prokofiev and Lou Harrison and recital repertoire includes sonatas by Enesco, Busoni and Shostakovich. A passionate chamber musician, she has been a guest artist at the Banff Centre for the Arts and in numerous concert series throughout the UK, Europe and the US. Recently praised by Nicholas Kenyon in the Telegraph for her ‘strong leading at Opera Holland Park, Gabby has led numerous opera productions and was the leader of the renowned Endellion Festival for many years. She has led orchestras for conductors including Richard Hickox, Yehudi Menuhin, Ryan Wigglesworth, Martyn Brabbins, Gustav Meier and Leon Fleisher and performed as guest leader and in principal positions for many of Britain’s top chamber and symphony orchestras. Gabby has also been heard on Classic FM, BBC radio, Lyric FM, CRI and New World Records. Classical Source has described her playing as ‘rapt and intense’ with an ‘earthy lustrous tone’. Gabby is a dedicated teacher and taught for many years at the Junior Department of Guildhall School of Music and Drama and at the Senior Department of the Royal Welsh College of Music and Drama where she also devised and ran the Strings Teaching Skills Programme. She is sought after as a teacher and to give
masterclasses and coaching

Jonathan Price

Bassoon

Jonathan Price studied at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama, with John Orford, Meyrick Alexander and Robin O’Neill, and over the last twenty five years has established a busy and successful career as a freelance orchestral, chamber and session bassoonist. He has played with many of the leading orchestras and ensembles in the UK including the London Symphony Orchestra, Philharmonia, London Philharmonic Orchestra, Royal Philharmonic Orchestra and English Chamber Orchestra. Teaching and music education also play a large part in Jonathan’s varied career. He teaches in schools, leads classes and adjudicates at conservatoire level, with many past pupils who are now beginning their own professional careers.

David Rix

Clarinet

David Rix was for many years the principal clarinettist for Richard Hickox’s City of London Sinfonia, participating in scores of recordings of Britten Operas with Richard and for John Ritter alongside many Proms performances. Subsequently he became a founder member of the Oxford Philharmonic, an elite international team of freelance musicians. He has performed with all the London Orchestras and been involved in two hundred or so commercial recordings. David has managed to maintain a teaching presence throughout his career and performed for ten years at Opera Holland Park. He continues to hold teaching positions at Bedford and Oakham schools.

Justin Ward

Viola

Justin Ward studied at the Guildhall School of Music with Nannie Jamieson and Jack Glickman. After 8 years with the Bournemouth Symphony and BBC Radio Orchestra, where he loved working with the BBC Big Band, Justin has spent most of his working life freelancing widely in London, including 6 string quartet tours to Japan, a concert with Shirley Bassey under the Sphinx, Ring Cycles with Welsh Opera and much symphonic, chamber orchestra and studio work. However, chamber music has always been an major part of his musical life, both coaching players of all ages and playing with colleagues both amateur and professional.

Richard Weigall

Oboe

Richard Weigall was a member of the National Youth Orchestra of Great Britain. He gained a Foundation Scholarship to study at the Royal College of Music in London with Terence MacDonagh and, whilst there, was awarded the prestigious Worshipful Company of Musicians’ medal. After graduating from the Royal College he studied privately for a year with Johann Baptist Schlee in Essen, Germany. Richard returned to this country to take up the post of principal oboe with English National Opera. Two years later he joined the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra as principal oboe, where he stayed for 23 yearsNow freelancing, Richard has appeared as guest principal oboe with many British and European Orchestras, including the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, Academy of St Martin in the Fields, Radio Sinfonie-Orchester Stuttgart, Belgian Chamber Orchestra and Stuttgart Philharmonic Orchestra. He has broadcast as a recitalist several times for BBC Radio 3. Currently principal oboe with the Orchestra of the Swan, Richard also teaches oboe at the Birmingham Conservatoire.