GINA McCORMACK & NIGEL CLAYTON

Thursday, 12th January 2012 at 7:30pm in the Eastgate Theatre

We are particularly delighted to welcome Borders-based Gina McCormack, renowned both as soloist and as leader of some of the UK's most distinguished string quartets. Gina's programme for us comprises German and French masterpieces, including, in the year marking the 150th anniversary of his birth, the final work completed by Claude Debussy.

Gina McCormack, violin	Nigel Clayton, piano

About Gina McCormack and Nigel Clayton

Gina McCormack is well established as one of Britain’s leading artists, with regular solo appearances at London’s Wigmore Hall, the South Bank Centre and at venues across the country. She has performed at many British Festivals, including the City of London, Henley, Edinburgh, Buxton, Aldeburgh and Salisbury Festivals, and has appeared as soloist in the UK with the Hallé and Royal Philharmonic Orchestras and the former Bournemouth Sinfonietta. Tours abroad have taken her to France, Norway, Denmark, the Czech Republic, South Africa and South America, and most recently to Austria and Switzerland.

Gina studied with György Pauk at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama, London, and attended masterclasses with Sandor Vegh (at the Salzburg Mozarteum and at Prussia Cove in Cornwall), Dorothy DeLay, Andras Mihaly and Siegmund Nissel (from the Amadeus Quartet). While still a student, she was a prizewinner at the Royal Overseas League Music Competition in London and at the International Young Concert Artists’ Competition in Tunbridge Wells, where she has since returned to serve on the jury.

For thirteen years Gina was the leader of the Sorrel Quartet, with whom she was frequently heard on BBC Radio Three. The quartet made twelve CDs for Chandos Records, of works by Britten, Mendelssohn, Schubert and the complete cycle of Shostakovich quartets. Their Elgar CD was chosen as one of Classic FM’s records of the year and was Editor’s Choice in Gramophone Magazine. The group also recorded John Pickard’s Quartets on the Dutton label.

She then led the Maggini Quartet for two years, recording two cd’s of Rubbra quartets for Naxos with the group. But since March 2010 Gina has been concentrating on her solo career, continuing her long-standing recital-partnership with pianist Nigel Clayton. She is also a professor of violin at Trinity College of Music, London, and gives regular masterclasses at home and abroad.

"…from all points of view a splendid performance." (Daily Telegraph)
"…an excellent violinist, fluent, suave in tone, and technically at ease." (The Scotsman)

Nigel Clayton studied with Stephen Savage and Angus Morrison at the Royal College of Music London, where he won prizes in every category of piano performance and was awarded the College’s yearly prize for his Bachelor of Music Degree. Whilst there, a particular interest in chamber music and accompanying developed and was further encouraged by international prizes from competitions in London, New York (Concert Artist Guild) and from the English Speaking Union. Since then his worldwide travel has included four major tours of India, Sri Lanka and Pakistan with Indian cellist Anup Kumar Biswas, tours of the Middle East and America with Wissam Boustany, of Scandinavia with Gerard LeFeuvre and several throughout Europe; he has also appeared at most of the music clubs and festivals in Great Britain, appearing regularly on the BBC’s radio network, at the Wigmore hall, and at the South Bank Centre. More recently he has been a regular performer in Japan, as a concerto soloist and duo partner on some 16 tours.

Nigel continues to perform as a soloist, including playing on board British luxury cruise liners SS Canberra, Oriana, Victoria, Arcadia and Saga Rose; he has performed concertos by Beethoven, Gershwin, Schumann, Shostakovich, Ravel, Rachmaninov, Liszt and Mozart(directed from the keyboard), and was a soloist in Poulenc’s two piano concerto in the Royal Albert Hall whilst a junior student at the Royal College of Music.

Apart from longstanding partnerships with Gina McCormack, Michael Cox, Lorraine McAslan and Joan Enric Lluna, Nigel has appeared with Michael Collins, Sylvia Marcovici, Ofra Harnoy, Tasmin Little and Bryan Rayner Cook, the Chilingirian, Sorrel, Bridge, Maggini and Bingham Quartets and with instrumentalists from Japan, Korea, Canada, Spain, America, Poland and Iceland. He is engaged annually as Official Accompanist for the Tibor Varga and Schlomo Mintz International Violin Competitions in Switzerland and has recorded several compact discs. He is also dedicated to teaching, as principal piano teacher in the North East of Scotland Music School in Aberdeen, and as a professor at the Royal College of Music, as well as on summer and holiday courses throughout the UK. Most recently he travelled to Cuba to teach and give concerts and will return there in 2011 to sit on the jury of Havana’s International Piano Competition.

This concert is subsidised by Enterprise Music Scotland supported by The National Lottery through Creative Scotland.