Sheida Davis
Director
Alongside her performing career, Sheida taught at the City of London School for Girls and South Hampstead High School. She established cello ensembles in both schools, using her own arrangements of popular and classical music. She aims to encourage the development of group skills, which are essential elements of all string-players' futures. Paying special attention to listening and rhythm, these sessions compliment what has been learned in individual lessons and provide a fun context in which these skills can evolve.
Sheida previously taught at the Greycoat Hospital School and at specialist string schemes such as Stringwise, Musicale, the Royal Academy of Music Junior Department and the Alexander Music School in Spain. She is a member of the Incorporated Society of Musicians and the European String Teachers Association.
Inspired by her love of chamber music, the children she teaches and with the encouragement of her own teachers and fellow musicians, Sheida has been holding Cellos Rock! courses since 2008.
Guy Johnston
Patron, Tutor 2010Born into a musical family, Guy Johnston joined his brothers in the Choir of King's College, Cambridge and went on to study cello with Steven Doane, David Waterman, Steven Isserlis, Ralph Kirshbaum, and Bernard Greenhouse. He achieved early recognition winning the BBC Young Musician of the Year award in 2000, appearing at the Opening Night of the BBC Proms in 2001, and being chosen Young British Classical Performer at the 2002 Classical Brit Awards. One of the leading cellists of his generation, he performs with major orchestras worldwide and is regularly broadcast on BBC radio 3. The Daily Telegraph praised him for his 'lustrous, sensitive artistry', and his Chandos recording of David Matthews's Concerto in Azzurro earned him a Gramophone Award nomination. He is a founder member of the Aronowitz Ensemble, appeared with Steven Isserlis at the 2010 Cheltenham Music Festival, and regularly attends the Open Chamber Music seminar in Prussia Cove and residences in Aldeburgh. A visiting professor at the Royal Academy of Music, Guy Johnston also gives classes at the Royal College of Music and Chetham's School of Music, and is currently working on educational projects with the Wigmore Hall. He is a patron of such charities as Future Talent, Harpenden Musicale, 'Cellos Rock!', and the Niemann-Pick Disease Group, and recently ran the London Marathon to help raise £20,000 for the Brain Injury Rehabilitation Trust.
Guy is keen to help and encourage young cellists by passing on his experiences and discoveries as a cellist and musician. He is particularly interested in reaching out to work with young cellists in the communities where he performs.
In working and interacting with the younger members of his cello playing audience, Guy aims to dispel the image that live musical performance is inaccessible and elitist.
Tamara Diakow - General Musicianship
Tutor 2015-16Tamara has taught clarinet and saxophone at the City of London School for Girls and St. Christopher's School for a number of years. She directs various ensembles in both schools, including the CLSG Jazz Ensemble, which she also founded. Tamara is a freelance musician and performs with various ensembles, bands and orchestras. She is also a DJ. In her spare time, she supports Arsenal football team, where she has a season ticket; she is a keen tennis fan and regularly watches Roger Federer at Wimbledon. She is also an avid reader, and is a big crime fiction fan.
Caryn Cohen - Violin
Tutor 2011-16
Caryn studied at the Royal Academy of Music with Jean Harvey and Lydia Mordkovitch. Whilst there she formed the Regent quartet and won the Academy’s prize for best quartet, as well as the JC Wyse prize for violin performance. The Regent quartet has gone on to have a busy concert schedule, recently including performances at the Brighton Festival, Cambridge Corn Exchange Theatre and The National Portrait Gallery.
Caryn has performed Mendelssohn, Bruch and Bach concertos with the Cape Town Philharmonic Orchestra and last year appeared as a soloist with the London International Orchestra. She currently divides her time between freelance orchestral work, quartet engagements and teaching.
Caryn teaches violin and chamber music at South Hampstead High School and University College School. The chamber groups she coaches have gone on to win The National Schools Chamber Music Competition, Pro Corda Competition and Spring Grove Music competition many times, and in 2009 one of her quartets was awarded a Wigmore Hall performance.
Rachel Ford - Cello
Tutor 2010/12-13
Rachel’s musical education started in the East Sussex Music Service. She continued as a scholar at the Royal Academy of Music at the Junior Department, during which time she won a government scholarship to study at the Purcell School of Music. She then went on to study with Derek Simpson through the Intermediate Department of the Royal Academy of Music before going on to gain her Bachelor’s degree and LRAM Teaching Diploma from the RAM.
Since then Rachel has enjoyed a varied career as a freelance cellist and teacher. She has worked with many orchestras, ballet companies and theatre productions in London and the UK. Her work has also taken her as far a field as Kuala Lumpur where she spent several months working with the Malaysian Philharmonic Orchestra. Rachel recently spent three years studying, working and teaching in New York, during which time she gained a Performance Certificate from the State University of New York studying with Julia Lichten.
Before to going to the States Rachel taught for nine years at St. Paul’s Girls School in Hammersmith and King’s College School in Wimbledon. She currently teaches privately and at Thomas’s School in Fulham. Upcoming concerts include a tour of China and events at the London 2012 Festival.
Catriona Hetherington - Cello
Individual lessons 2008-2013Catrìona Hetherington studied at the Royal Scottish Academy of Music and Drama, first of all at their Saturday Junior School under Timothy Paxton and later as an undergraduate and postgraduate student under Robert Irvine. In 2000 she was awarded Distinction in a Master of Music Degree. Subsequently, she received a number of awards and scholarships, the most prestigious being from the Countess of Munster Musical Trust, the KPMG/Martin Musical Scholarship Fund and the Musicians Benevolent Fund for further studies under the renowned cellist Robert Cohen in London and at the Conservatorio della Svizzera Italiana in Lugano, Switzerland. Specialising in unaccompanied solo cello performance, she has given many solo cello recitals around the UK, including a performance of all six Bach Suites over two consecutive nights at the RSAMD and a recital in St David’s Hall, Cardiff. In March 2002, she won a U.S. based VSA Arts Rosemary Kennedy International Young Soloists Award which led to performances in the Kennedy Center, Washington D.C. as well as performing live on Fox Television. From 2002 until 2007 Catrìona undertook many concerts for ‘Live Music Now!’, which was founded by the late Yehudi Menuhin to take live music performed by young professional musicians to a wide range of audiences. During this period, she also performed regularly in workshops for ‘Connecting to Music’, an Edinburgh International Festival education project. She has recently completed a research project with the aid of Dewar Arts Award sponsorship entitled ‘A consideration of left-hand cello technique, inspired by violin playing, with particular reference to practising Paganini’s Violin Caprices opus 1 on the cello’. As well as solo cello performances Catrìona now also focuses on individual tuition
Alice Jones - Cello
Tutor 2015-16The first few years of Alice’s life were spent in London before her family moved to Mid Wales. There she took up the cello after watching a demonstration of the instrument at school. Seeing that it was decidedly bigger than her sister’s violin, she knew in was the instrument for her! Alice’s joy for playing and teaching was inspired by her first teacher, Mira Henderson, who would regularly organise cello events for her students. These days, Alice’s students range in age from 5-70. She teaches at Nonsuch High School for Girls, Sydenham High School for Girls and on Junior Trinity’s String Time Programme. She also devises the Trinity Teenies music classes for 3-5 year olds and runs Boppin’ Bunnies classes for 0-4 year olds.
Alice studied music at Dartington College of Arts, graduating with a first class honours degree in 2006. She went on to study with Joely Koos at Trinity Laban Conservatoire of Music and Dance on Pearson and TCM scholarships, graduating with a Masters in 2011. Over recent years Alice has played at Sadler’s Wells, Spitalfields Music Festival, on BBC Radio 3’s In Tune series, at the Royal Albert Hall and at The Sage, Gateshead where she performed Dvorak’s Cello Concerto. She has performed recital concerts with the Florestan Duo around the UK and abroad. In 2015, Alice recorded the music for the puppet show, Beegu and has performed in the Evelina De Lain Trio. In March she performed Max Bruch’s Kol Nidrei with the Cobweb Orchestra and a Concertino composed for her by John Hawkes with the Tyndale Symphony Orchestra.
Anna Morrison - Cello
Tutor 2010-13Anna is from Edinburgh where she started to learn the cello at the age of eight. She joined the sixth form at Chetham's School of Music in 1998. She subsequently studied at both the Royal Northern College of Music and the Royal Academy of Music obtaining a First Class Honours Degree and a Postgraduate Diploma in Performance.
Anna now enjoys a varied career teaching and playing the cello. She previously taught at Putney High School and Falkner House School and is now cello and chamber music tutor at Bute House Preparatory School in addition to her busy private teaching practice. She has also coached on many courses run by Musicale Holidays and The Edinburgh Children's Orchestra.
Anna is a member of the Scottish Ballet Orchestra. She also freelances with orchestras both in Scotland and in London as well as playing for musical theatre productions.
Anna had a great time teaching on her first Cellos Rock course last summer and is really looking forward to seeing lots of new and familiar faces this year.
Anna Mowat – Cello
Tutor 2009 & 2011-12Anna enjoys a busy freelance career in London. She has performed extensively giving solo recitals at the City of London Festival, "Live" on Classic FM, St Martins in the Field, Rye Festival, and gives an annual concert at the Pump Rooms, Bath.
Anna freelances with numerous orchestras and ensembles including the London Symphony Orchestra, Philharmonia, London Philharmonic Orchestra, Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, The Opera Group, and the BSO. Anna has played as guest Principal cello with the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, RTE National Symphony Orchestra, Dublin, London Strings, Manning Camerata, and St Georges Chamber Orchestra.
Anna is an avid chamber musician and has given recitals with the Jerusalem Quartet, Clio Gould (RAM Soloists) and Lydia Mordkovich.
She is a member of the Alexander Piano Quartet (since 2000) with whom she has given recitals in the Murten Festival, Switzerland, St John's Smith Square, and as part of the Young Artist's series at Blackheath Halls (Musicians in Residence).
Anna has recorded for EMI, "LSO Live", Decca and Naxos and has performed "live" on BBC radio 3 with Massive Attack.
Whilst a student Anna was Principal cello of the European Union Youth Orchestra touring with Sir Colin Davis, Ashkenazy and Paavo Jarvi. Anna was a scholarship student (including the Suggia Scholarship) at the Royal Academy of Music where she won numerous prizes and graduated with a first class honours degree whilst studying with Mats Lidstrom and Philip Sheppard.
Anna has been teaching in the cello for ten years. Having worked at the Junior Royal Academy of Music and Blackheath Conservatoire of Music she now teaches privately in London. Anna particularly enjoys ensemble teaching, having taught chamber music on the prestigious Procorda Course.
Jeffrey Phillips – Violin
Tutor 2012-13
Jeffrey Phillips is a founding member of the Cadillac Moon Ensemble, Nemus Duo and Eriksson String Quartet. He has performed with the Artemis Chamber Ensemble, Mimesis New Music Ensemble, Scandinavian Chamber Orchestra of New York and Sequenza21 at venues including Symphony Space, the Flea Theater, the Kennedy Center, Cadogan Hall and the Gershwin Hotel in New York City. Jeffrey obtained his MMus at SUNY Purchase Conservatory of Music and BMus at St. Olaf College while studying violin and chamber music with Laurie Smukler, Calvin Weirsma and Andrea Een. He also did a two-year apprenticeship with the Manhattan String Quartet. He currently teaches violin and viola in addition to being director of string ensembles at Thomas’s Fulham.
Helen Reid – Piano
Tutor 2009-2012Helen Reid first came to public attention when she appeared on BBC2 in the National Keyboard Finals of the BBC Young Musician competition in 1998. In 2000 she won first prize in the Karic International Piano Competition. In 2006 she was hailed as a ‘rising star’ in The Independent magazine.
Helen has given recitals all around in England, at venues including the Wigmore Hall, Purcell Room, Fairfield Halls and Blackheath Halls, London, St. George’s, Bristol, Cheltenham, the Bridgewater Hall, Manchester and the Aldeburgh and Buxton Festivals. She has performed in Spain, Slovakia, Hungary, Germany, Austria and the Czech Republic. Recent performances have included Rachmaninov’s Piano Concerto No.2 with the Westmoreland Orchestra, Gershwin’s Rhapsody in Blue with the Aurelian Ensemble at Blackheath Halls and the world premiere of David Matthews’ Piano Concerto at Dartington International Summer Festival, a work written for Helen.
Helen studied at Chetham’s School, Royal Holloway University and Cologne Music College, completing a Master’s Degree at City University and the Guildhall School of Music. She is currently professor of piano at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama, Leeds College of Music and Trinity College of Music Junior Department, and has been invited to give masterclasses at Gdansk Conservatoire, Bristol and Hull Universities, Dartington International Summer School and Pro Corda.
Future plans include solo and chamber recitals around Britain including for the Darlington Piano Society, Barnes and Egham Music Clubs, and the Pleyel Society in Austria. For more information, please visit www.helenreid.net.
Anna Wagstaff – Cello
Tutor 2009-2011Anna has been teaching cello for ten years and now runs a teaching practice from her home studio in East Berkshire. Anna is also a great ambassador of chamber music and has taught young students in string ensembles at the Junior Department of the Royal Academy of Music for several years under the guidance of Wendy Max. Anna previously taught at Goodwyn Prep School in Mill Hill and for Hertfordshire County Music Service. As a performer Anna has studied and performed extensively with the Vilensky String Quartet, playing at venues in London, across the UK and in New York. With other chamber ensembles she has performed at the Perdenone Silent Film Festival in Italy, at the London Turkish Film Festival at BAFTA and on the Saga Pearl II Cruise Ship down the Amazon River in Brazil. Anna also performs as a freelance orchestral player and in a Duo with pianist Tanya Ursova. Alongside her performing and teaching career, Anna also runs her own business Vilensky Event Music supplying professional musicians to high end weddings and corporate events in London and the South East.
Joseph Wolfe - Violin
Tutor 2011Joseph Wolfe began violin lessons at the age of five, first with the Suzuki method, then with Sheila Nelson, who introduced him to string quartets at the age of nine. He soon formed the Cromwell Quartet (1981-88) which won the Schools Prom Chamber Music Prize in 1986 and performed at the Albert Hall, London, and broadcast live on BBC2. Joseph won a music scholarship to the City of London School in 1980 where he won the string prize five years running. In 1984 Joseph went on to study with Bela Katona at Trinity College London and from 1988-1990 took lessons with Gyorgy Pauk at the Royal Academy of Music.
After finishing school Joseph decided to travel to Dresden to study in the Hochschule Carl Maria von Weber with Reinhardt Ulbricht, a member the world renowned orchestra Die Staatskapelle Dresden. Here he founded the Wolfe Quartet which attended many masterclasses with quartets and artists such as the Amadeus Quartet, Endellion Quartet, Borodin Quartet, Takacs Quartet, Yehudi Menuhin, Eli Goren, Emmanuel Hurwitz and Sidney Griller.
In 1994, having completed his studies in Dresden, he returned to London for a postgraduate course with Simon Fisher at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama where he founded the Johannes Ensemble, concentrating on piano based chamber music.
Joseph was joint leader of the chamber orchestra Academia di San Giorgio in Venice from 1998-2000 and a member of the English Chamber Orchestra from 2000-2003. He enjoyed teaching privately for many years as well as at the Greycoat Hospital School in London, alongside chamber music coaching for advanced students and conducting the first year and postgraduate orchestra at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama from 2005-2007.
Since leaving the ECO, Joseph has pursued a career in conducting whilst continuing work as a freelance violinist and teacher. His conducting career has seen him work with orchestras worldwide. Violinists he has worked with include Tasmin Little, Nicola Benedetti, Jack Liebeck, Carmina Lauri, Gordan Nikolitch, Mathew Trussler, Benjamin Schimd, Chloe Hanslip and Arabella Steinbacher.
Cellos Rock!
