“I was taught that composers were dead white men – I didn't realise someone like me could earn money writing music.”
Meet Jessica Curry: award-winning composer. She won a BAFTA for her music to PlayStation game Everybody’s Gone to the Rapture in 2015; it’s since had 12 million plays on Spotify.
Rupert was born in Carmarthenshire, and grew up in the town of Llandeilo. After starting on the trumpet, Rupert switched to the trombone at the age of 12. Much of Rupert's youth was taken up by playing in the various youth music ensembles in Carmarthenshire and west Wales, as well as the Welsh national ensembles.
Rafael Payare is grateful to the traffic chaos in Caracas. As a member of the Simón Bolívar Youth Orchestra of Venezuela, he would often get last-minute phone calls from jammed conductors telling him to start the rehearsal for them. The experience was invaluable and at the age of 37 he is now one of the leading conductors of his generation – he has just been announced as the new Music Director of the San Diego Symphony. He joins the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra on 27th March with a programme of Mozart and Strauss, which will be broadcast live on BBC Radio 3.
We are very pleased to welcome Naomi Watts to our Cello section!
Naomi won a scholarship to study at the Purcell School of Music from the age of fourteen where her cello teacher was Pal Banda. She went on to the Royal College of Music in 2005 to study with Amanda Truelove, Helene Dautry and Thomas Carroll. Whilst at the RCM, Naomi was loaned a beautiful Gofriller Cello and performed at Cadogan Hall, Wigmore Hall and appeared on Television in America playing the Amarylis Fleming Stradivarius Cello for a CBS news programme.
