Treske String Quartet

Wednesday 8th November, 2023 at 7:30pm
St Mary’s Parish Church, Church Street, Clitheroe BB7 2DD

Programme

Felix Mendelssohn – String Quartet No. 6 in F minor Op. 80

Gabriella Smith – Carrot Revolution

– Interval –

Franz Schubert – Quintet in C major for 2 Violins, Viola and 2 Cellos D956

(2nd cello : Bob Buller)

Oliver Baily is a graduate of the Royal Northern College of Music, where he was taught by Ben Holland. Whilst at the RNCM he won the Helen Porthouse Paganini Prize and the Emmanuel Prize. In recent years Oliver has given solo performances across the UK, including a recital at the Northern Aldborough Festival and concerto appearances with the Settle Orchestra, Manchester Beethoven Orchestra and Vacation Chamber Orchestra. He is a founder member of the Treske Quartet and SONO Ensemble, and as a chamber musician he has performed at numerous UK and international festivals including the Ryedale Festival, West Cork Music Festival and Buxton International Festival. Oliver regularly freelances with orchestras and ensembles across the UK. He has previously directed youth orchestra workshops for the Malta Philharmonic Orchestra, and in early 2019 he joined the Chamber Orchestra of Europe on tour in Salzburg.

Oliver performs on a Derazey violin made in Paris in the late 19th Century, and is also very grateful to the Harrison Frank Family Foundation for the loan of a beautiful modern violin and bow made by W.E Hill & Sons.

Mollie Wrafter has just completed her studies at the Royal Northern College of Music under the tutelage of Leland Chen where she was awarded a first class honours degree. During her time at the RNCM, Mollie won the Norman George Violin Competition and was awarded the Irish Heritage Performance Bursary for 2019/2020. She will make her London debut in the Rudolph Steiner Hall in Marylebone in 2021. With her emerging piano trio, Mollie was awarded the Nossek Prize for 2020, and has enjoyed playing in masterclasses for Ning Feng, Mauricio Fuks and Jonian Ilias Kadesha. Memorable performances of the 2019/20 season include Wigmore Hall and National Concert Hall. As an Irish student in the UK, Mollie celebrates her heritage by curating chamber concerts which comprises the music of female Irish composers in Elizabeth Gaskell’s House, the seat of feminism in Manchester.

Through the support of the Wolfston Foundation, Mollie plays a copy of the ‘Lord Wilton’ Guarneri del Gesù crafted for her by Glen Collins in 2018.

Abigail Hammett was born in South Wales and has recently completed her Masters at the Royal Northern College of Music where she studied with Levon Chilingirian and Benedict Holland. During her time at the RNCM she was the recipient of the Leverhulme Scholarship and won the RNCM Schubert prize and the Hirsch Chamber prize. Since graduating she has received viola tutelage from Veit Hertenstein, Peijun Xu and Nobuko Imai. Abigail is a dedicated chamber musician and a founding member of the Manchester-based Treske Quartet, who are currently RNCM Quartet Studio Artists and residents at the Banff Centre for Arts and Creativity in the summer of 2022. Abi freelances in Manchester where she is an Artist on Live Music Now and frequently performs with Opera North, the Hallé and other orchestras across the North. Her viola was made by her father Timothy Hammett in 2013.

The German born English cellist Robert Wheatley is a versatile musician with an international career performing in the fields of chamber music, contemporary music and improvisation. He is a founding member of the contemporary music ensemble S201, the Emmeline String Quartet, Crimson Sunbird and multidisciplinary impro-group Theater Filidonia (a collective of young artists consisting of musicians, dancers, actors and installation artists). As of November 2022 he is the cellist of the Treske Quartet. His work as a performing artist has led him all over the world, having visited South Korea in 2018 and 2019 appearing at Youngnam Contemporary music festival and the Daegu Contemporary music festival, Klangzeit Festival Berlin, Beethovenfest Bonn in Germany, as well as many other national and international stages. He is passionate about performing all music, with concerts this past year ranging from Haydn string quartets to hardcore noise music and interdisciplinary performances. He began his cello studies in 2014 with Prof. Christoph Richter at the Folkwang University of the Arts, Essen and subsequently moved back to Manchester to study a Master’s degree in Cello at RNCM in Manchester under Nicholas Trygstad, where he was the recipient of the Barbirolli Cello prize in November 2019. Furthermore, he received guidance in baroque cello from Susan Shepherd and in improvisation from Steve Berry and Iain Dixon.