Music on Thursdays

Thursday 25th September 2014
12.30 Lunchtime

Leatherhead Methodist Church

Picture
Acacia Duo
Samantha Pearce, flute
Heather Wrighton, harp


















Supported by:
Leatherhead Concert &
Arts Society

Programme




Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (1756-1791)
Andante in C major K315/285e (1778)

Astor Piazzolla (1921-1992)
from History of Tango
Bordello 1900
Café 1930

Camille Saint-Saëns (1835-1921)
Romance in Db Major Op 37 (1871)

Andy Scott (b1966)
And Everything Is Still (2010)

Benjamin Godard (1849-1895)
Suite de Trois Morceaux Op 116 (1889)
    Allegretto  -  Idylle  -  Valse






Rialto Lounge will be selling sandwiches and drinks in the church after the concert.






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Samantha Pearce


Samantha was born in Kent and studied at the North East of Scotland Music School in Aberdeen with David Nicholson. She completed a BMus (Hons) with first class at the Royal Academy of Music, winning the Chris Taylor Flute Prize, before studying with Robert Winn in Cologne.

Samantha has performed Ibert’s flute concerto with the RAM’s Concert Orchestra and in 2012 won the June Allison Woodwind Award from the Martin Musical Scholarship Foundation. She gave a solo recital at the Royal Festival Hall and is also a keen Baroque flute player.

Currently a professional freelance flautist, she has performed with the BBC Philharmonic and Scottish Opera, and has received trials with the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra and the BBC National Orchestra of Wales.


Acacia Duo


Samantha and Heather met in 2008 whilst studying at the Royal Academy of Music. They had an instant rapport and formed the ‘Acacia Duo’, performing together in concerts, recitals, events and masterclasses.

These award winning musicians have performed together to high acclaim across London and the South East and are constantly looking to further the repertoire for this combination, with Heather regularly transforming piano parts for harp performance.

Individually they are both busy freelance musicians, fulfilling an array of orchestral and solo engagements at events including the BBC Proms and in venues such as Royal Festival Hall and the Royal Opera House. Despite such varied opportunities they regularly return to this smaller combination for its beautiful and romantic sound and the variety of possibilities for intimate chamber performances.
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Heather Wrighton


Heather was inspired to play the harp at the age of six, and as a junior student at Trinity College of Music she studied harp with Gabriella Dall’Olio and Frances Kelly and continued her studies at The Royal Academy of Music with Karen Vaughan, graduating with an MA (Distinction), BMus(Hons) and an LRAM teaching qualification.

Heather currently freelances as a soloist, orchestral and chamber musician. Performance highlights include playing in the choir of 60 harps at the Royal Opera House, London for His Royal Highness Prince Charles 60th birthday celebration, performing the Mozart Flute and Harp Concerto with the European Union Chamber Orchestra, accompanying the New Forrest Children’s Choir in the ‘BBC Choir Of The Year’ final held at the Royal Festival Hall which was broadcast on BBC radio and TV.


Concert at Home

If you cannot be with us at the lunchtime concert
you can enjoy a similar Concert at Home by
clicking the buttons below:
We begin this week's selection with a recital from Plymouth State University
Music Dept, New Hampshire, of Mozart's Andante for Flute and Harp:
In 1986 Piazzolla wrote Histoire du Tango - four pieces designed to reflect the style of each era,
starting with 1900, which he called Bordello:
Flautist Thomas Robertello and harpist Maria Luisa Rayan-Forero continue with the 1930 piece Café:
As an online treat here is the next in the sequence, Night Club, 1960:
And finally, representing 1986, Concert d'Aujourd'hui:
Parisian flautist Alain Marion is the soloist in this performance of Saint-Saëns Opus 37 Romance,
here with piano accompaniment:
Our players sometimes comment that they get a bigger audience in Leatherhead than in many of London's city churches, so it is good to see a decent crowd in this recording - although we don't make as much incidental noise!
Here is Andy Scott's lovely And Everything is Still, played by the Aoyama Duo:
For a 1986 recording this is surprisingly good quality. Here to finish is a magical performance of
Benjamin Godard's Suite de Trois Morceaux, with Patrick Gallois, and the Orchestre du Festival de
Musique de Chambre de Paris,  in the Chapel Royal at the Palace of Versailles:
Directions to
 Leatherhead Methodist Church