Here are some of our brilliant musicians...
Rosalie Watson is a freelance oboe and cor anglais player. She graduated with a First Class honours degree from the Royal College of Music and a Masters from the Guildhall School of Music and Drama in London, and has built up a freelance orchestral career playing with many leading symphony orchestras and opera companies including the Philharmonia, CBSO, Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra and English Touring Opera.
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Rosalie enjoys teaching both privately and in several schools around Salisbury.
Rosalie and Al enjoy juggling their busy musical lives with bringing up their three young children, and Mini Classics is a chance to combine these two worlds!
New Zealand born, Alistair Watson has performed piano concerti with the Dunedin Sinfonia and the Christchurch Symphony Orchestra, with whom he won the National Piano Concerto Competition in 2000. Upon arriving in the UK he studied at both The Royal College of Music and The Guildhall School of Music and Drama.
In 2010 Alistair became a Lay Clerk at Salisbury Cathedral, where he now sings almost every day. He has been able to build a music career around the cathedral, performing as solo pianist in series such as Late Night Bach as part of the Southern Cathedrals Festival and Ravel’s Piano Concerto in G with the Salisbury Sinfonia. Alistair also teaches piano at Bishop Wordsworth grammar school, and works as an arranger for Music Sales and Hal Leonard publishers.
Fiona Brockhurst ARCM trained at the Royal College of Music. She is a freelance performer and teacher based near Salisbury appearing with Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra, La Folia, Decadent Brass, Salisbury Sinfonia, Avon Brass Ensemble, the Amberley Ensemble, Salisbury Symphony Orchestra, Questa Musica and Salisbury Brass
Ensemble, with whom she has made recordings and appeared on national television and radio. She has also been to sea, performing on classical music cruises.
Fiona has appeared as soloist with orchestras in Hampshire, Wiltshire, Dorset, Buckinghamshire, Hertfordshire, Leicestershire and Normandy playing Richard Strauss 1 st horn concerto, Mozart’s 2nd, 3rd and 4th concerti, the wind Sinfonia Concertante and Britten’s
Serenade for tenor, horn and strings.
Fiona teaches in Hampshire and Wiltshire and enjoys her summers working on the popular Music Makers courses for young musicians.
Bryony Moody performs regularly as a freelance cellist in the South West and London. She enjoys a varied playing career with experience performing in chamber groups, orchestras, as a session player and soloist. Bryony is principal cellist of the Westminster Chamber Orchestra and Zeitgeist Chamber Orchestra and also plays with The Faust Chamber Orchestra, La Folia and Orchestra Vitae. She regularly performs and records for artists in London, including Franc Moody, Craig David, Blonde, Calum Scott and London Electronic Orchestra. Bryony has taught classroom music at Bryanston and currently teaches cello at Lambrook Prep School and Streatham and Clapham High School, where she is Head of Strings.
Mary Chelu grew up near Salisbury, where she enjoyed taking part in a huge amount of music making run by Salisbury Area Young Musicians and as a music scholar at The Godolphin School.
She continued her studies at The University of Manchester where she received tuition in flute, singing and piano.
Having completed her music degree she returned to her home town and built up a busy instrumental teaching schedule.
Mary plays principal flute with Salisbury Symphony Orchestra and 2nd flute with Salisbury Sinfonia. She also sings with Sarum Voices and as a deputy lay clerk with Salisbury Cathedral Choir.
She has two children, Harry and Daisy, who are both choristers at the Cathedral.
Katie Salomon harp
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Katie Salomon has performed at venues as diverse as Buckingham Palace, the Royal Society of Medicine, the Ritz, London’s Guildhall, Wembley Pavilion Arena, the Gherkin and Royal Hospital Chelsea. Recent stage performances include last year's Wimbledon Champions’ dinner, Royal Ascot’s Royal Enclosure and the pre-opening of the Rugby World Cup 2015.
She has recorded with record labels including Deutsche Grammophon, Universal, Decca and Demon records, for artists including Aled Jones, Camilla Kerslake, Celeste and The Choir Girl.
Katie studied harp with Charlotte Seale at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama and since graduating with Sioned Williams, Principal Harp of the BBC Symphony Orchestra. Prior to this Katie was a chorister at Salisbury Cathedral, directed by Dr Richard Seal and Simon Lole. Her first harp teacher, who inspired and nurtured her love of the harp, was Morfen Edwards.
Katie is currently Teacher of Harp at Bryanston, Sandroyd, Salisbury Cathedral School and Godolphin, as well as mummy to Oscar and Lana who are both choristers at the Cathedral.
Mark Walker trombone
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Mark Walker started his musical career as a choir boy for his local church in London. When he was 8 he started to learn the piano followed by the cornet at 11. On moving to Manchester, he switched to the trombone.
On leaving school he joined the Gloucestershire regiment as a Bandsman and played all over the world for the next 9 years including two postings to Germany. As well as playing in the band, he was the regiment’s cocktail pianist and was also the keyboard player for the Nudgecrumps (the Regiment’s West Country cider band!).
Mark joined the Wiltshire Music Service and taught brass, recorder, singing, ukulele and drums as well as leading jazz and wind bands for SAYM.
He has many resources published for First Access programmes and brass teaching that are used widely both in Wiltshire and beyond including the Lemon Squeezy series and a collection of fun songs for primary schools called Reginald The Rock ’n' Roll Rhino (available on Amazon!)
Ben de Souza is one of a growing number of British classical accordionists at the
forefront of promoting the instrument in this country.
Ben often collaborates with professional ensembles, and in 2018 made his orchestral debut with the Philharmonia Orchestra, under the baton of Vladimir Ashkenazy. The accordion takes Ben across the UK and has allowed him to perform in venues such as St David’s Hall, Royal Festival Hall, Royal Birmingham Conservatoire, Stoller Hall, Hampton Court Palace, and South Hill Park Arts Centre.
Ben completed his undergraduate studies with Owen Murray at the Royal Academy of Music. He has also received tuition from many of the world’s leading accordionists including Friedrich Lips, Mario Stefano Pietrodarchi, Bjarke Mogensen, Mie Miki, Iñaki Alberdi and Matti Rantanen among others.
Ben is passionate about educating the next generation of British accordionists and
has a busy private teaching practice encompassing students of all ages and abilities.
He also holds the position of Accordion Teacher at Salisbury Cathedral School and
The Purcell School.
Ben also holds a Masters in Choral Studies from the University of Cambridge, where
he is the founding conductor of Clare Hall Choir. He is Musical Director of Farnham
& Bourne Choral Society and Newbury Chamber Choir, and the conductor of Taplow Children’s and Boys’ Choirs. Ben is also Interim Director of Music at Earley St
Peter’s Church, Reading.
Emily Askew is a versatile musician playing fiddle, recorders, vielle (medieval fiddle), bagpipes and shawm. Her interests are wide and varied reaching from the deep roots of folk music through to Medieval, Baroque and contemporary repertoire.
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Emily has been an established performer for nearly 20yrs. Over this time she has released several highly successful albums and has toured extensively with Askew Sisters. She is also a member of fiddle band Alma and recently released her debut album with The Emily Askew Band, which received rave reviews in Folk and National press.
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Emily performs with a range of early music ensembles and also enjoys collaborations between different art forms including poetry, storytelling and dance. Emily is a regular theatre musician, which has included positions such as principal recorder for operas at Glyndebourne and as a multi-instrumentalist in productions at Shakespeare’s Globe Theatre, The Apollo Theatre Shaftesbury Avenue and the Sam Wanamaker Playhouse.
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Emily is passionate about her teaching and has a wealth of experience leading workshops and courses. She was a principal study Recorder teacher at Trinity College as well as leading EFDSS’s London Youth Folk Ensemble. In Salisbury she runs the Askew Music School and the baby and toddler classes Salisbury Sopraninos.
Anthea Wood bassoon
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Anthea Wood is one of the leading freelance bassoonists in the UK today and has worked with Orchestras, Chamber ensembles, Ballet and Opera companies the length and breadth of the U.K. and beyond.
She started playing the bassoon at the age of 14 and originally hails from the Peak District in Derbyshire.
She studied at the University of Huddersfield, and then moved across the Pennines to the Royal Northern College of Music in Manchester to gain her Post-graduate Diploma in Advanced Performance.
Her other great passion, apart from performing, is teaching.
She now has over 20 years of teaching experience, having taught bassoon and coached chamber music at all levels- including Universities, Music Colleges and specialist Music schools.
Anthea also now runs her own annual Bassoon course every April on the beautiful Hebridean Isle of Raasay.
Anthea plays on an early 8000 series Heckel bassoon made in 1938 in Germany.
Its previous owner was the late Manfred Arlen, former Principal Bassoon in the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra and co-writer (along with Fritz Spiegl) of the Radio 4 UK theme!
Philip Blake-Jones, baritone, studied at the Royal Academy of Music. He made his solo debut with Glyndebourne Festival Opera and also appeared with Glyndebourne Touring Opera, Kent Opera, Pavilion Opera and at the Buxton Opera Festival. He sang Giuseppe in Gilbert and Sullivan’s The Gondoliers with the D’Oyly Carte, and also Strephon in Iolanthe on two national tours with the company (a role he recorded with the company).
Concert appearances include the bass solos in Messiah at the Pisa Opera House, Britten’s War Requiem with the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra in Liverpool Cathedral, an Opera Gala at La Fenice Opera House in Venice and a fundraising event at St James’s Palace for The Duke of Edinburgh’s Award.
Philip Blake-Jones is the Artistic Director and founder of London Festival Opera. His play with Opera, I lived for Art, was premiered at the Celebrate Voice Festival in 2021 to critical acclaim.
Winds of Change Trio
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Bryony Middleton, Polly Phillips and Simon Gilliver are all graduates of UK music conservatoires, and enjoy impressive and busy careers in music performance and education. Appearing regularly in many leading UK orchestras and chamber ensembles, they have performed in top venues including the Wigmore Hall, Royal Albert Hall, and Royal Opera House. They are passionate educators and believe strongly in the importance of bringing music to younger audiences, and those not able to attend live performances.
Their trio Winds of Change came about in 2021 as a result of the catastrophic impact of Covid-19 on the music industry. Finding themselves with far less performance work in the aftermath of the pandemic, and missing their colleagues, Bryony, Polly and Simon decided to get together to enjoy the excellent music written for piano, oboe and bassoon.
Having explored lots of repertoire with various combinations of instruments, they approached the outreach organisations Live Music Now and SoundStorm, and have since been busily filling their diaries with performances in schools, care homes and concert venues.
Duo Fisarco is a classical accordion and violin duo, comprising accordionist Ben de Souza and violinist Chloë Meade. Formed in 2017 while students at the Royal Academy of Music they are back on the performing circuit after a pandemic-enforced hiatus. Recent duo engagements include performances for the Friends of Newbury Spring Festival, Bach to Baby, Salisbury Chamber Music Club, Clare Hall Cambridge, and the New Room Bristol.
Future engagements include recitals in Reading, Hemel Hempstead, and Ely Arts Festival.
Duo Fisarco's repertoire includes original and transcription works by composers including Schnittke, Elgar, Piazzolla, Hermosa, Koppel and Mozart. They also often intersperse programmes with solo pieces on both instruments.
Ben and Chloë's respective careers also encompass solo, chamber and orchestral playing, as well as teaching, coaching, and conducting work.