THE ARTISTS
Co Festival Founder, Violin
CHARLOTTE SCOTT
As a highly sought after violinist and collaborator, Charlotte enjoys a varied career as a soloist, chamber musician and director. Discographies that received high critical acclaim include recordings for Linn Records, Champs Hill and Apple Music.
Co-founder and first violinist of the Oculi Ensemble, Charlotte previously held the latter position in the Piatti- and Badke Quartets. As a passionate director and concertmaster, she frequently plays with the Scottish Chamber Orchestra, Musica Vitae, English Chamber Orchestra and various others worldwide.
Regular performances both as a soloist and chamber musician include venues such as the Wigmore Hall, Concertgebouw and Festival Hall, as well as an array of international summer chamber music festivals.
Charlotte plays on a violin by Antonio Stradivarius 1685 “Gagliano”.
Co Festival Founder, Soprano
ISABELLE PETERS
British Soprano, Isabelle Peters,was a former English National Opera 'Harewood Artist', Welsh National Opera Associate Artist, and an alumna of the Guildhall School of Music and Drama and the Royal Northern College of Music.
Isabelle regularly appears on major UK Opera stages; most recently she appeared as 'Mabel' in English National Opera's revival of Mike Leigh's Pirates of Penzance, followed closely by her return to Garsington Opera as 'Marzelline' in their season revival of Fidelio. Isabelle made her Royal Opera House debut in the role of ‘Sigismondo’ in Handel’s Arminio to critical acclaim and made her Opera North debut last Autumn as Nannetta in Olivia Fuchs Falstaff.
Isabelle is a passionate concert recitalist; her most recently engagements include The Royal Opera House Crush Room together with Dylan Perez, BBC Hoddinott Hall recital with Malcolm Martineau and Oxford International Song Festival with Sholto Kynoch. Isabelle had the pleasure of joining Chineke! Orchestra at the Queen Elizabeth Hall for the UK premiere of Garcia’s Requiem. She is a 2022 Classic fm “30 Under 30 Rising Star” and finalist of both the Voice of a Black Opera and the ROSL Annual Music Competition.
Cello
NATHANIEL BOYD
As an internationally recognised chamber musician and soloist, Nathaniel appears regularly at the world’s leading concert halls. Described as ‘exceptionally gifted’ by Musical Opinion magazine following a recital at the Southbank Centre with duo partner Alexander Boyd, he is a laureate of numerous prizes for his work with the Navarra Quartet, including the MIDEM Outstanding Young Artist Award, Cannes (2008) and a Borletti Buitoni Fellowship (2007) as well as being selected for representation by YCAT and as a soloist, by the Tillett Trust (2009). His recordings of Vasks and Haydn quartets both received 5 star reviews from BBC Music Magazine.
Nathaniel appears as guest Principal Cellist with UK orchestras including the Scottish Chamber Orchestra, Royal Northern Sinfonia, Manchester Camerata, Royal Scottish National Orchestra and Aurora Orchestra.
Nathaniel is a member of the Albion Quartet. Formed in 2016, the quartet have forged a busy international schedule with concerts at the Wigmore Hall, Concertgebouw and at the Aldeburgh Festival. Recently the quartet were in residence at the Båstad, Ryedale, Sainte-Mère and Stratford International festivals and their most recent recording of Dvořák quartets on the Signum label (part of a complete survey) was chosen as Editor’s Choice in Gramophone magazine. They broadcast regularly on BBC Radio 3, most recently from the Presteigne and Belfast International festivals.
Actor
MARC ELLIOTT
Before his television and stage debuts, Elliott's career began in radio hosting on various BBC-radio stations.
Elliott has appeared in a number of productions at Stratford-Upon-Avon's Royal Shakespeare Theatre while studying at Warwick School. In 2006, he joined the cast of the acclaimed Royal National Production and following tour of The History Boys. With a mainly theatrical background before joining EastEnders he has appeared in Holby City and The Bill.
In 2009, Elliott was cast as Syed Masood in the BBC soap opera, EastEnders and he won the 2010 British Soap Award for Best Newcomer for this role. Syed was a gay Muslim struggling with his sexuality, family expectations and religion: his defining storyline was his gay affair with Christian Clarke. In September 2012, he announced he was leaving the soap, and on 15 November 2012 he made his last appearance.
After leaving EastEnders, Elliott joined the cast of Tape in the West End. In November 2013, Elliott appeared with The History Boys at the National Theatre 50 Years on Stageproduction, broadcast live by BBC Worldwide. In 2014 he appeared in Midsomer Murders: Wild Harvest and in the UK premiere of Urinetown: The Musical at St. James Theatre, as Mr. McQueen. He reprised his role in Urinetown with the West End transfer of the musical to the Apollo Theatre. In June 2016, Elliott made his first appearance as doctor Isaac Mayfield in the BBC medical drama Holby City.
Since leaving Holby City in 2017, Elliot has continued to appear in stage productions across the UK. In 2019, he reprised his role in Holby City for a short stint. In 2022 he appeared in the BBC’s Call the Midwife as Anglo Indian train driver Lionel Corbett in a train crash disaster.
Actress
Eva Feiler
Eva's stage roles have included parts in Othello(2015) and The Merchant of Venice (2015).In 2024, she could be seen starring as Joanna Baillie alongside Rachael Stirling in the premiere cast of April De Angelis play The Divine Mrs S. at Hampstead Theatre, directed by Anna Mackmin.
She played a young Margaret Thatcher in series 4 of The Crown. Feiler also appeared in the Urban Legends season 1 episode The Girl in the Mirror and portrayed Joselyn O'Donnell in BBC One daytime crime series Father Brown.
She played Lucy in a 2023 Christmas special of BBC One series Beyond Paradise.She reprised the role for a 2024 series.
She appeared in Hulu's 2024 holocaust series We Were the Lucky Ones.She played Bella Tatar, the girlfriend and childhood sweetheart of Amit Rahav's Jakob Kurc.
In 2020, she voiced Chloe in long running BBC Radio 4 series The Archers. She is the voice of Killjoy in the video game Valorant. She has also narrated audiobooks, including Warhammer horror audio drama Darkly Dreaming.
Actor
Clive Francis
Clive Francis began his acting career at the age of 16 in weekly repertory as a Penguin Player at Bexhill-on-Sea and has acted on stage, radio, television and films.
He is also a caricaturist and has had several exhibitions at the National Theatre. His caricatures have appeared on the covers of several books including Blessings in Disguiseby Alec Guinness and a biography of John Gielgud.
His own publications include: Laughlines, There Is Nothing Like a Dane(Hamlet) There Is Nothing Like a Thane(Macbeth). A Star is Drawn and The Many Faces of Gielgud, to celebrate Gielgud's 90th birthday Francis appeared as Joe the Lodger in Stanley Kubrick's A Clockwork Orange (1971). His other films include Inspector Clouseau (1968), The Man Who Had Power Over Women (1970), Girl Stroke Boy (1971), Villain (1971), Pierrepoint(2005), Mr. Turner, (2014), The Lost City of Z, (2015), The Crown (2016),The Little Stranger(2018), Official Secrets (2019), Cursed (2019), and Archbishop in Dolittle (2020).
In 1981, Francis played the Roman officer and imperial spy Attius in the ABC miniseries Masada opposite Peter O'Toole. In 1986, Francis guest starred in episode five, "The Man with the Twisted Lip," of the series Sherlock Holmes, as Neville St Clair. Francis starred in the series The 10%ers; The Piglet Files (which as noted above used his caricatures in the credits), as Colonel Windham in Sharpe's Company and May to December.
Francis has guest-starred in dozens of other television programmes, including Yes, Prime Minister, in which he played Luke, a private secretary for foreign affairs, who, the Prime Minister is told, is in fact a spy for the Foreign Office, a department whose policy is often in conflict with the PM's.
His television work also includes: The Rear Column, The Critic, Pierrepoint, New Tricks and Lipstick on Your Collar. In 2016, he played the part of Lord Salisbury in the Netflix series The Crown.
Cello
Brian O'Kane
British cellist Brian O’Kane enjoys a busy career as both soloist and chamber musician. Since winning first prize at the Windsor International String Competition in 2008, he has made his debuts with the RTE National Symphony Orchestra, the Philharmonia Orchestra under Ashkenazy and in recital at the Wigmore Hall. Brian is a former “Rising Star” of Ireland’s National Concert Hall and he recently recorded his debut CD for the Champs Hill label.
An avid chamber musician, Brian enjoys playing as a member of the Cappa Ensemble and Navarra Quartet. He has collaborated with a wide variety of artists such as Michael Collins, Aleksandar Madzar, Anthony Marwood, Pekka Kuusisto, Lawrence Power, Antoine Tamestit and Sir James Galway. Brian has also performed at concert halls and festivals throughout the world such as Sydney Opera House, Suntory Hall Tokyo, Seoul Arts Centre, Concertgebouw Amsterdam, West Cork, Radio France-Montpellier, Lockenhaus and the Weesp Chamber Music Festival, Holland of which his quartet are the artistic directors.
A graduate of both the Royal Academy of Music and the Guildhall School of Music and Drama in London, Brian‘s biggest influences have come from Louise Hopkins and at Prussia Cove, Aldeburgh & Chamber Studio from studies with Ralph Kirshbaum, Steven Isserlis, Ferenc Rados and Eberhard Feltz.
Violin
emma parker
Emma graduated from the Royal Academy of Music in 2006. She has dedicated much of her career to chamber music as second violinist in the Badke Quartet (2002-2015) winners of First Prize and audience prize in the Fifth Melbourne International Chamber Music Competition.
Then, as a member of the Albion Quartet, in 2016-2022, enjoyed making a number of discs for Signum Records as signed artists. Their latest CD was voted Critic’s Choice of the Year and Editors Choice in Gramophone
Magazine.
Emma has performed regularly at many of Europe’s most prestigious chamber music Halls, the the Wigmore Hall (London) Snape Maltings (Aldeburgh festival) Konzertgebeouw (Amsterdam) Louvre (Paris) and Esterhazy (Hungary).
No stranger to the air waves, she has regularly performed on BBC radio 3.
Alongside her quartet work, Emma is a founder member of the Oculi Ensmeble.
Outside chamber music, Emma enjoyed her role as principal second of Manchester Camerata from 2014-2019.
Viola
Gary Pomeroy
Born and raised in South Africa, Gary was lucky enough to become an ABRSM International Scholar at the Royal Northern College of Music in Manchester, UK where he enjoyed guidance in solo and chamber music from Mark Knight, Christopher Rowland, Isabel Charisius-Deplazes and Thomas Riebl. He went on to spend a year studying at the Reina Sofia Escuela Superior in Madrid, Spain.
Gary is a founder of the Heath Quartet, who have been awarded the Royal Philharmonic Society Young Artist Award, live-recorded the complete string quartets of Michael Tippett and Bela Bartok, studio-recorded Tchaikovsky Quartets 1 + 3 and a Second Viennese disc of Berg, Schoenberg and Webern to critical acclaim. They have performed at Wigmore Hall, Carnegie Hall, Boulezsaal Berlin, Elbphilharmonie Hamburg, Musikverein Vienna, been part of theatre and opera productions, and toured to USA, New Zealand, South Africa, Australia and China.
Gary enjoys a range of education work, teaching viola and chamber music at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama in London, working for Wigmore Learning, coaching the Kuumba Youth Orchestra, and the Pro Corda Conservatoire and Intermediate Courses. He has recently been Guest Principal Viola with the Scottish Chamber Orchestra and the Orchestra of the Royal Opera House Covent Garden.
Soprano
kate royal
Born in London, Kate Royal studied at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama and the National Opera Studio. Her many awards include the 2004 Kathleen Ferrier Award, the 2004 John Christie Award and the 2007 Royal Philharmonic Society Young Artist Award.
In concert she has appeared with the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment and Sir Simon Rattle (BBC Proms and Festspielhaus Baden-Baden), the Bach Akademie Stuttgart under Helmuth Rilling, at the Edinburgh Festival with Sir Charles Mackerras, the National Symphony Orchestra (Washington) under Helmuth Rilling, the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic and Vasily Petrenko, the Orchestra of La Scala Milan and Chung, the Los Angeles Philharmonic under Pablo Heras-Casado, Le Concert d’Astree under Emanuelle Haim and the Berlin Philharmonic under both William Christie and Sir Simon Rattle. She has appeared in recital throughout Europe and North America.
She has recorded Mahler’s Symphony No. 4 with the Manchester Camerata and Schumann’s Liederkreis (for Hyperion) with Graham Johnson. In October 2006 Kate Royal signed an exclusive contract with EMI Classics. Her first solo recording with Edward Gardner and the Academy of St Martin-in-the-Fields was issued in the summer of 2007.
In opera she has sung Pamina (Die Zauberflöte) for both the Glyndebourne Festival and the Royal Opera, Countess (Le nozze di Figaro) and Governess (The Turn of the Screw) for Glyndebourne on Tour, Helena (A Midsummer Night’s Dream) for both the Teatro Real, Madrid and the Glyndebourne Festival, Poppea for the English National Opera, Miranda (Ades’ The Tempest) for the Royal Opera, Handel’s L’Allegrofor the Paris Opera, Micaela (Carmen) and Donna Elvira (Don Giovanni) for the Glyndebourne Festival and Countess Almaviva for the Aix-en-Provence Festival.
Her concert engagements include both the Berlin Philharmonic and the Orchestra of Bavarian Radio under Rattle, the Scottish Chamber Orchestra and Ticciati and the Rotterdam Philharmonic and Nezet-Seguin. Her operatic engagements include the Governess for the Glyndebourne Festival, Pamina for the Royal Opera and Euridice in her Metropolitan Opera debut.
Violin
Alessandro Ruisi
Violinist Alessandro Ruisi performs internationally as a chamber musician, soloist and orchestral leader. He is a founding member of the Ruisi Quartet who are winners of the Royal Philharmonic Society Award for young British string players. The Quartet regularly perform across the UK and Europe and recently
gave the premiere of Növények by Thomas Adès at the Wigmore Hall. This work will feature on their latest record alongside works by Haydn and Ligeti, due to be released on Apple Music’s classical label Platoon in 2025.
Alessandro has performed chamber music with musicians including Patricia Kopatchinskaja, Shmuel Ashkenasi, members of the Endellion and Doric quartets, in venues such as the Berlin Philharmonie, Paris Philharmonie and at festivals including Prussia Cove and Ravello.
A leading interpreter of new music, Alessandro has collaborated and given premiere performances of many of the finest British composers including Oliver Leith, Kate Whitley, Thomas Adès and Oliver Coates, as well as working closely with Jörg Widmann.
He is regularly invited to guest lead orchestras and has recently performed with Aurora Orchestra at the Royal Opera House, Manchester Camerata, London Contemporary Orchestra the Swiss ensemble Chaarts and the 12 Ensemble. Later in the year he will appear as guest concertmaster of the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra.
Alessandro has performed as a soloist across the UK, Europe and North America. Highlights include performing Bach concerti at Bach’s church in Leipzig and next season he will perform alongside Hungarian mezzo-soprano Katalin Károyli at the Louis Vuitton Foundation in Paris.
A musician with wide ranging influences, Alessandro has performed and recorded with an array of artists including Jimmy Page of Led Zeppelin, Björk, The Smile and featured on screen in the Nick
Cave film ‘This much I Know to be True’ directed by Andrew Dominik.
Alessandro studied at the Royal College of Music where he received his BMus and Masters with distinction. Whilst studying he received prizes from the Countess of Munster Trust, Martin Musical Fund,
and the Emily English Award. He is a Beare’s International Violin Society Artist and is very grateful for their support.
Violin
jonathan stone
Jonathan has an extensive career as soloist, director, leader and chamber musician - performing and recording a diverse range of genres on both modern and period instruments.
He performs regularly with the Nash Ensemble and is violinist of the Phoenix Piano Trio, having been a member of the Doric String Quartet from 2005 until 2018. During this time, the quartet grew to become one of the world’s leading ensembles, recorded 16 discs for Chandos Records and performed in the world’s finest concert halls including New York’s Carnegie Hall, Amsterdam Concertgebouw, Vienna Musikverein, Hamburg Elbphilharmonie and regular concerts at Wigmore Hall.
Jonathan’s love for chamber music continues to take him to a wide variety of festivals and to the most notable concert halls around the globe.
In demand as a guest leader and director throughout Europe, Jonathan is Concertmaster of the Deutsche Kammerphilharmonie Bremen and Le Cercle de l’Harmonie and has appeared as soloist with both orchestras.
Jonathan studied with Howard Davis at the Royal Academy of Music in London where he is now Professor of Violin himself. He continues to teach, coach chamber ensembles and give masterclasses internationally.
His violin was crafted by Raffaele and Antonio Gagliano of Naples in 1830 and he plays with bows made by Luis Emilio Rodriguez Carrington and Eugène Sartori.
Viola
jon thorne
Upon leaving the RCM, Jon joined the Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra.
Jon left the BSO to form the Bronte String Quartet. Prizewinners at both the Royal Over-Seas League and the Cremona International Quartet Competitions, the Bronte Quartet played at venues such as London’s Wigmore Hall, Queen Elizabeth Hall and Purcell Room, and many festivals throughout the UK and abroad.
Jon joined the Badke Quartet in 2009 and played with them at venues throughout the UK and abroad including the Wigmore Hall (live on BBC R3), Kings Place, the Aix, Montreux, Ljubljana and Mecklenburg Festivals, Esterhazy Palace, USA tours and the Concertgebouw. They also broadcast on BBC R3, Classic Fm and on French National Radio and TV. The Quartet was resident at Imperial College and Royal Holloway universities. The Quartet recorded for Champs Hill Records and for Cadenza Classics.
Jon is a current member of The Oculi Ensemble. As well as performing at venues such as the Concertgebouw and on BBC Radio 3. The Oculi Ensemble's CD 'Metamorphosen' received international acclaim and 5-star reviews.
In addition to his work with the Oculi Ensemble, Jon has played with many of the major orchestras in the UK and currently holds the position of Principal Viola with the Oxford Philharmonic. He is also a regular guest principal with The London Philharmonic Orchestra, English Chamber Orchestra, London Mozart Players and Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra.
Jon has appeared on numerous film releases, from Batman to Almodovar and performs on many pop albums, from Amy Winehouse to Primal Scream. He recently appeared as a soloist on the Naxos release of the Puccini Requiem and Malpiero De Profundis with the Vassari Singers.
A Viola and Chamber Music Professor at the Academy, Jon previously he taught viola at the Royal College of Music, the Royal Welsh College of Music and Drama and the Royal Holloway University. He is viola and chamber music coach for various courses and has given masterclasses at Sibelius Academy, Royal Danish Conservatoire, ESMAE Porto, FSU, UCONN, Shanghai Conservatoire, EMESP Sao Paulo and for festivals across the UK and Europe. He is also a trustee of Vacation Chamber Orchestras.
Jon has appeared as a juror for the Tertis Competition, The Royal Overseas League Chamber Music Competition, Windsor Festival International String Competition, The Parkhouse Award, The European Music Festival for Young People in Neerpelt, Belgium, North London Music Festival Viola Competition, Trinity College of Music’s John Barbirolli Quartet Competition, the Somerset Young Musician or the Year, Ripon Young Musician of the Year, Hurstpierpoint College.
Jon plays a viola by Guarneri c1690.
Actor
james wilby
Wilby's first appearance on screen was in the Oxford Film Company production Privileged(1982) alongside Hugh Grant. He acted with Grant again in the Merchant Ivory period film Maurice (1987), which brought him to the attention of an international audience and earned Wilby and Grant the Venice Film Festival's Best Actor award. He then starred in A Handful of Dust (1988), for which he won the Bari Film Festival Best Actor award. His further roles included A Tale of Two Cities (1989) for Granada Television, Howards End (1992), Regeneration (1997), Ismail Merchant's Cotton Mary (1999), Gosford Park (2001), and Alain Robbe-Grillet's C'est Gradiva qui vous appelle(2006), co-starring Arielle Dombasle, which premiered at the Venice Film Festival.
On stage, Wilby starred in the 1995 revival of John Osborne's A Patriot for Me by the Royal Shakespeare Company at the Barbican Theatre. He then appeared in a production of Helping Harry at the Jermyn Street Theatre in 2001; and in 2004 as the title character in a run of Don Juan at the Lyric Theatre. He has also starred in On Emotion (2008) at the Soho Theatre; The Consultant (2011) by Neil Fleming and the Hydrocracker Theatre Company at Theatre503 in London; and in tours of Terence Rattigan's Less Than Kind (2012) and Patrick Hamilton's Gaslight (2019).