Introducing the performers…

Having made their debut only last month, ‘Frisson’ is a brand new trio comprising highly regarded players Hugh Webb (harp), Annie Beilby (viola) and Karen Jones (flute).

Hugh Webb (harp)

Hugh Webb studied with Renata Scheffel-Stein, Sioned Williams and Susan Drake. He has worked extensively in the contemporary music field and Javier Alvarez, Robert Keely and Ian Dearden have all written solo works for him with funding from the Arts Council of England. Hugh’s CD recordings include Bax’s Concerto for Flute, Oboe, Harp and String Quartet with the Academy of St Martin’s Chamber Ensemble (Chandos); a collection of French music for flute and harp; Villa Lobos’s Quartet (Clarinet Classics); and Bax’s Fantasy Sonata (Koch International). He gave the first performance of Cyril Scott’s Celtic Rhapsody as part of Sidonie Goossens’ 100th Birthday Celebrations at the Wigmore Hall. 

Hugh Webb also plays jazz on the harp and has given recitals at the European Harp Symposium and the World Harp Congress. He is active in the commercial world of television, film and popular music, devised a children’s show which toured very successfully in 1998 and has written music for a version of The Snow Queen. He has given many masterclasses and has lectured at London’s Royal Academy of Music, the Paris Conservatoire, the Sweelinck Conservatoire in Amsterdam and with Telynor Morgannwg in Wales. 

Annie Beilby (viola)

Australian violist Ann Beilby made her solo debut in the Sydney Opera house aged 19. She has since won many awards and prizes, both as a solo and as a chamber musician, including the Schott & Co Publishing Prize at the 2006 Lionel Tertis International Viola Competition, and the Cecil Aronowitz, Lionel Tertis and Lesley Alexander Prizes at the RCM (2009). Annie was also a finalist in the RCM String Player of the Year Award in 2009, and joint winner of the 2007 RCM Autumn Concerto Competition String section.

Having graduated from the Royal College of Music’s MMus programme with Distinction in 2010, Annie now enjoys a rich and varied musical life freelancing with the leading London symphony and chamber orchestras. She is eternally grateful for the support of here mentors Guenter Pichler, Alex Todicescu (Sydney Conservatorium of Music) and Ian Jewel (RCM, London), as well as the Worshipful Company of Musicians in London; the Musicians Benevolent Fund; the Leverhulme Trust; the Richard Carne Trust; the Meyer Foundation; the Escuela Superior de Musica Reina Sofia; the Australian Music Foundation; and the Royal College of Music. She plays on a wonderful modern viola made for her in 2011 by David Milward.

Karen Jones (flute)

Karen Jones studied at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama with Peter Lloyd and subsequently won a Fulbright Scholarship and Harkness Fellowship to study in Vienna with Wolfgang Schulz and in New York with Thomas Nyfenger. Her early successes include winning the woodwind section of the BBC TV Young Musician of the Year competition and the Gold Medal in the Shell/London Symphony Orchestra Scholarship. Whilst completing her studies in the USA, she was appointed principal flute of the Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra, a position she held for five years before returning to London.

Karen is in great demand as guest principal flute with all the major London orchestras and ensembles including the London Philharmonic Orchestra, Philharmonia and London Sinfonietta. In addition, she is principal flute of both the London Chamber Orchestra and the City of London Sinfonia, and in 2014 was invited to play with the World Orchestra for Peace. She combines this with regular solo engagements, chamber music projects and commercial studio work including the film scores to Harry Potter, Sweeney Todd and Bridget Jones.

Previously having held teaching posts at the Royal Northern College of Music and Trinity College of Music, London, Karen has a busy schedule as one of the UK’s leading flute teachers giving masterclasses across the country, as well as coaching for orchestras such as the National Youth Orchestra and Kent Youth Orchestra. In 2004 Karen became a professor at the Royal Academy of Music.