Introducing the performers…

Fiona Cross (clarinet)

Fiona Cross is one of the leading clarinet players of her generation. She combines chamber music with a solo career and playing guest principal clarinet with all the leading British orchestras. She is principal clarinet of the Manchester Camerata and joint principal clarinet of the Brighton Philharmonic Orchestra. She has performed concertos with the London Philharmonic Orchestra, the Bournemouth Sinfonietta, Manchester Camerata and the English Sinfonia. She has performed chamber music with various ensembles including the Vanbrugh and Alberni string quartets, Kegelstatt Trio, New Music Players, LPO Ensemble and Adderbury Ensemble. She was also invited to perform chamber music with Andreas Schiff at his festival in Weimar.

Fiona has recorded the Lefanu Concertino for Naxos, the Horovitz concerto for Dutton, the Simpson clarinet quintet for Hyperion and a virtuoso CD of clarinet and harp music for the Dinmore label. She takes a keen interest in promoting new music, and has commissioned many new works for clarinet and piano and clarinet and harp. She has given many recitals in all the major venues in Britain, including London’s South Bank Centre, as well as performing in many of the established music clubs and festivals. She is a professor of clarinet at Trinity College of Music, London.

Benjamin Marquise Gilmore (violin)

Benjamin Marquise Gilmore grew up in England and studied with Natalia Boyarskaya at the Yehudi Menuhin School and Pavel Vernikov at the Vienna Conservatory, as well as with Julian Rachlin, Miriam Fried, and members of the Artis quartet and the Altenberg trio. Benjamin’s father was the musicologist Bob Gilmore, from whom he received instruction in music theory at a young age, and his grandfather is the conductor Lev Markiz, with whom he has performed on many occasions.

Benjamin has appeared at festivals such as Kuhmo, IMS Prussia Cove, Ravinia’s Steans Music Institute and Styriarte, and his chamber music partners have included Frans Helmerson, Janine Jansen, Natalia Gutman, Gary Hoffman, Elisabeth Leonskaya, Benjamin Schmid, Mischa Maisky and Gerhard Schulz.

Benjamin has also worked with composers such as Giya Kancheli, Bernhard Lang, Guus Jansen, Gavin Bryars and Frank Denyer. As a soloist he has performed with the Amsterdam Sinfonietta, the NDR Hannover, the Rotterdam Philharmonic and the Munich Chamber Orchestra.

The recipient of several awards including first prize at the Oskar Back violin competition in Amsterdam, fourth prize at the Joseph Joachim violin competition in Hannover and third prize at the Mozart competition in Salzburg, Benjamin has been a member of the Chamber Orchestra of Europe since 2011. He was appointed concertmaster of the Scottish Chamber Orchestra in 2016 and joint concertmaster of the Philharmonia Orchestra in summer 2019.

The Adderbury Ensemble

Formed in 1986 by a group of the UK’s finest young freelance musicians, the Adderbury Ensemble has always had a flexible line-up, mixing and matching different players to deliver performances primarily as quartets, quintets or small chamber groups and occasionally adding further instruments to play symphonies and concertos by the likes of Haydn, Mozart, Beethoven, Mendelssohn or Brahms – with or without a conductor.

Everyone who performs as part of the Adderbury Ensemble is an eminent instrumentalist, usually a principal player with one or more of the leading orchestras of Europe. From its early years playing Sunday evening concerts in the beautiful village of Adderbury in north Oxfordshire, the group has gone on to develop a global reputation. It performs regularly throughout Britain and overseas and helped found the world famous Oxford Coffee Concerts at the Holywell Music Room, the oldest purpose-built music venue in Europe.

The Adderbury Ensemble has released ten recordings in its own right since its first CD was released in 1997 and individual members have recorded many more, either as soloists or as members of other groups.

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