ARTISTS
FIONA WINNING
Fiona Winning studied at the Juilliard School in New York, going on to become Principal Violist of the Royal Philharmonic and Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestras. She is a regular guest principal of the London Philharmonic Orchestra (including four seasons at Glyndebourne Opera), Scottish Chamber Orchestra and BBC Symphony Orchestra, and has also appeared as principal with the Aurora Orchestra, BBC Philharmonic, BBC National Orchestra of Wales, Philharmonia and the Royal Northern Sinfonia. She has worked closely with eminent conductors such as Charles Dutoit, Vladimir Jurowksi, Yannick Nezet-Seguin, Gianandrea Noseda & Vasily Petrenko.
As a chamber musician Fiona has appeared at halls and festivals all over the world, such as Carnegie Hall, Bargemusic, Lincoln Centre, New York, Festival da Camera, Lima, the Wigmore Hall, Edinburgh International Festival, Singapore Esplanade Hall and the Banff Centre. She has been inspired by chamber music partners including Pinchas Zuckerman, Lawrence Power, Maxim Emelyanachev, Assaff Weisman, the Fidelio Trio and Ensemble 360, and regularly performs with her husband, clarinettist Timothy Orpen, and pianist John Reid. She is currently co-curating a three year project with poet Jacob Sam-La Rose for the Deal Festival. Her collaborations with jazz guitarist Graeme Stephen have most recently included appearances at the Edinburgh Jazz Festival.
A renowned exponent of contemporary music, she is a regular guest principal with the London Sinfonietta, with whom she has performed at the BBC Proms, South Bank Centre, Huddersfield Festival and in Europe and the Far East. Other highlights include George Benjamin’s Into the Little Hill at the Wigmore Hall, one of Pierre Boulez’s last conducting engagements (Stravinsky Dumbarton Oaks) and premiering works by Saxophonist Marius Neset at the BBC Proms. She has a close association with composer Luke Styles, whose work Three Phase Stanzas she commissioned and performed nationwide.
As a session musician Fiona records regularly at Abbey Road and Air Studios in London and she can be heard on numerous soundtracks for film and TV.
Fiona plays on a viola by Antonio Gragnani, generously supported by the Countess of Munster Musical Trust and the Loan Fund for Musical Instruments. She lives near Loch Lomond with her husband and two sons and can often be found climbing in her local hills
Tristan Gurney
Tristan Gurney enjoys a wide-ranging career as a director, soloist, chamber and orchestral violinist. He established himself on the British chamber music scene as leader of the Edinburgh Quartet (2007-2016). During his time with the quartet, Tristan collaborated with many esteemed artists such as harpist Isobelle Moretti, tenor Andrew Staples, clarinetist Maximilliano Martin and flautist Juliette Bausor and worked closely with composers such as Sir James MacMillan, Sir Peter Maxwell Davies, Helen Grime, Tom Harrold and Howard Blake. The Edinburgh Quartet released several CDs with Tristan, including, recordings of Matyas Seiber Quartets, Robert Crawford Quartets and Haydn, Shostakovich and Prokofiev Quartets all to great acclaim. Their disc of Sir James MacMillan String Quartets was awarded a ‘Critics Choice’ in Gramophone Magazine.
Tristan is currently the Artistic Director of RNS Moves, Royal Northern Sinfonia’s inclusive ensemble, featuring professional disabled musicians and non-disabled members of Royal Northern Sinfonia. It is a role that draws on his chamber music expertise as curator, director, and chamber player. Tristan combines this role with a flourishing freelance career, regularly collaborating with chamber music colleagues at chamber festivals and music clubs and venues worldwide, as well as guesting as a Principal player with orchestras such as the Philharmonia, London Philharmonic, Royal Philharmonic, Aurora, London Mozart Players, Academy of St Martin in the Fields, Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra, Royal Northern Sinfonia, BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra, Scottish Chamber Orchestra, Royal Scottish National Orchestra and BBC National Orchestra of Wales. He is also Principal Second of Scottish Ensemble which performs at prestigious venues and festivals internationally and has a regular series at Wigmore Hall, London.
Tristan studied the violin at the Royal Northern College of Music with Yossi Zivoni and then at the Royal Conservatory of Music, Toronto with Lorand Fenyves and plays on a Ferdinand Gagliano Violin.
Jacob Sam-La Rose
Jacob Sam-La Rose is a celebrated poet, editor and educator. His work is required reading for an English A’ level syllabus, and has been translated into Portuguese, Latvian, French, and Dutch. Among other appointments, he has served as poet-in-residence at Raffles Institution in Singapore, artistic director for the Spoken Word Education Programme at Goldsmiths UoL, and poetry professor at Guildhall School of Music & Drama. He founded and continues to lead the Barbican Young poets programme. His current projects include research in poetry and generative text.