Wednesday 12 February 2025
7.30pm
Milton Court Concert Hall
Improvisers’ Workshop
Trish Clowes director
Clare Wheeler director
Annette Walker tap dancer
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Milton Court
Eating is not permitted in the auditorium. Drinks are allowed inside the auditorium in polycarbonates.
Filming or recording of the performance is not permitted.
Latecomers will be able to enter the auditorium at a suitable break in the performance.
Guildhall School of Music & Drama
Founded in 1880 by the City of London Corporation
Chair of the Board of Governors
The Hon. Emily Benn
Principal
Professor Jonathan Vaughan
Vice-Principal & Director of Music
Armin Zanner
Welcome
The ‘Improvisers’ Workshop’ is a Guildhall School group focusing on creative jazz improvisation, approaching the jazz ensemble as a malleable vehicle for contemporary composition.
This performance, directed by saxophonist and composer Trish Clowes and singer and composer Clare Wheeler, will feature original compositions by and for the group. We are delighted to welcome one of the leading exponents of a generation of tap dancers, Annette Walker, to feature as special guest for this performance.
Programme
Nikki Iles Awakening
Trish Clowes Iris Nonet I
Trish Clowes Under Your Wing
Conduction Piece (led by Angel Wong & Johanka Petrlikova)
Trish Clowes Ayana
Traditional The Month of January (arr. Trish Clowes)
Trish Clowes Tap Dance for Baby Dodds
Improvisers’ Workshop
Soprano Voice
Olesa Zgurskaia
Johanka Petrlikova
Alto Voice
Angel Wong
Lucy Joy
Urte Gineleviciute
Clare Wheeler
Tenor Voice
James Walker
Bass/Baritone Voice
Alastair Eddie
Cello
Cubby Howard
Alto Saxophone
Jamie Harms
Tenor Saxophone
Meg Cronin
Trumpet
Carmen Llena Pérez
Trombone
Angus Grierson
Guitar
Vincent Malloch
Dan Fawcett-Tuke
Piano
Edgar Ho
Hannah Richardson
Bass
James Leaver-Whitfield
Joe Orme
Drums/Percussion
Frank Hawkes
Reuben Merry
Harp
Bibi Afshar-Shirazi
Trish Clowes
director
Saxophonist and composer Trish Clowes has been described as “an improviser to be reckoned with” (Downbeat Magazine) and “one of the most agile and original jugglers of improv and adventurous composition to have appeared in the UK in recent times” (The Guardian). Clowes is currently an Associate Artist at Wigmore Hall, and her band MY IRIS has been hailed as “the jazz of the future” (Augsburger Allgemeine).
Notable career performances include the NDR Concert Hall (Hanover), Barbican, Toronto Jazz Festival, Rochester International Jazz Festival (US), Royal Festival Hall, Ronnie Scott’s Jazz Club, Wigmore Hall, Celtic Connections (with BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra), Women in (e)motion Festival (Germany), National Opera House (Ireland), Galway Jazz Festival, Karlsruhe Jazz Festival, and broadcasts for BBC 2 Proms Extra, BBC Radio 3, NDR (Germany) and Radio Bremen. In May 2024, Clowes played a short run of dates in the UK & Ireland with US trumpeter Dave Douglas, presenting compositions for a new quintet EYES UP, appearing at London’s Pizza Express Jazz Club in Soho, Cheltenham Jazz Festival, and Bray Jazz Festival. In November 2024, Clowes guested with the NDR Big Band for three performances in Hamburg & Hanover, performing a set of new compositions entitled Radiant Resistance.
Clowes has recorded a number of critically acclaimed albums as leader, including A View with a Room (2022) on Greenleaf Music, directed Dave Douglas. She has also released five albums on UK indie label Basho Records, and two independent albums on Bandcamp. Her new duo album with pianist Ross Stanley, Journey to Where, is out on Stoney Lane Records (released March 2024).
Clowes premiered Joe Cutler’s saxophone concerto Hawaii Hawaii Hawaii in 2019 with the BBC Concert Orchestra, the recording of which is released on Cutler’s album of the same name on NMC Recordings. Clowes is also a featured soloist with the London Symphony Orchestra on Cevanne Horrocks-Hopayian’s debut album for NMC Recordings, and two albums with Orchestra of the Swan on Signum Classics.
Recent commissions include writing for the NDR Big Band (Germany), London Sinfonietta, National Youth Orchestra of Great Britain (for the BBC Proms 2022), Orchestra of the Swan, BBC Radio 3 and Architecture of Autonomy (producing music for a dance-film). Clowes’ music video Abbott & Costello, directed by Rose Hendry, was shortlisted for Voice of a Woman Awards 2019, and screened at Cannes Lions Festival and Aesthetica Short Film Festival.
Clowes released a series of albums on Basho Records from 2010–2019, working with artists such as Gwilym Simcock, Jules Buckley (conducting two orchestral tracks on her debut album Tangent) and the BBC Concert Orchestra conducted by André de Ridder (three tracks on her third album Pocket Compass). From 2012–2014 Clowes was a BBC Radio 3 New Generation Artist, and during that time she was commissioned by BBC Radio 3 to write for the BBC Concert Orchestra, a piece that won her a British Composer Award in 2015. Clowes has also collaborated with Norma Winstone, Heath Quartet, Donald Grant (Elias Quartet), Mike Walker, Food (Iain Ballamy & Thomas Strønen), Louise McMonagle (Riot Ensemble), vocal ensemble Juice and appeared on the soundtrack for the feature documentary Ronnie’s by Oliver Murray, with music composed by Alex Heffes.
Born on 11 May 1984, Clowes was raised in Shrewsbury, Shropshire and moved to London in 2003 to study at the Royal Academy of Music – she was later honoured as an Associate of the Royal Academy of Music (2013). Clowes holds a PhD in Musical Composition, awarded by Birmingham City University (Royal Birmingham Conservatoire) in 2020. Her research project was centred around the activities of her new music festival Emulsion, exploring collective practice and audience interaction through her compositions, and was funded by a STEAM Scholarship (2016). Clowes is an ambassador for the charity forRefugees (formerly Donate4Refugees), and teaches for Guildhall School, Royal Academy of Music, Royal Birmingham Conservatoire, and has guest tutored at the Royal College of Music.
Clare Wheeler
director
With a background in both Classical music and Jazz, Clare toured with The Swingles for 11 years, and is now embarking on other musical ventures. Growing up in Kenya, she has sung in African Gospel Choirs, as well as Gospel Choirs in UK, Jazz Vocal Ensembles, Classical Chamber Choirs, Symphonic Choirs and of course The Swingles. She is a solo jazz singer, improviser, composer and arranger, as well as a workshop leader and educator.
Clare taught music theory and harmony at the Academy of Contemporary Music before joining 5-time Grammy winning vocal group The Swingles in 2007. She performed with the group, writing music and making albums for eleven years, having the chance to sing with artists such as Rumer, Jamie Cullum and Labrinth, as well as performing in some of the world’s most prestigious music venues and working with legendary conductors.
She has been a guest host of the BBC Radio Two show The Choir, as well as arranger and vocal coach on the BBC One show Pitch Battle in 2017, working in the final with vocal group Scot Soul and soul legend Chaka Khan.
As a singer Clare performs all over the world, as a soloist, in choirs and vocal ensembles, singing Early Music, Jazz, Gospel, Contemporary Classical and Pop, following her love of music from across all genres, from singing backing vocals for Jacob Collier’s Prom Performance in 2018 with the Metropol Jazz Orkester to brand new original tri-lingual, tri-genre setting of Te Deum by John Featherstone across Europe.
Clare writes prolifically for vocal and instrumental ensembles, runs workshops and masterclasses, as well as adjudicating vocal competitions around the world. In September 2019 she joined the Jazz Department staff at Guildhall School of Music & Drama, where she is Faculty Chair of Jazz Voice, teaches improvisation, aural and transcription, vocal jazz and directs the Vocal Jazz Ensemble. She is passionate about empowering singers to achieve their potential within solo or ensemble contexts.
Annette Walker
tap dancer
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Annette Walker MA BSc (Hons) DipHE is one of the leading exponents of a generation of tap dancers taking the stage with grace, style, and above all, rhythm. She is a dynamic and multi-skilled performer and has appeared in a variety of shows, from theatre, circus and dance, to the concert stage, television and film. Annette is an alumni Trailblazer Fellow of Dance of the African Diaspora (One Dance UK), a freelance writer, researcher and consultant and was the specialist in tap dance for the Royal Academy of Dance’s pilot project of Dance for Lifelong Wellbeing.
In 2019 Annette featured as a tap soloist in the BBC Proms Duke Ellington’s Sacred Music concert at the world famous Royal Albert Hall. As an aerial acrobat, she was one of the Mary Poppins in the London 2012 Olympics Opening Ceremony. Annette regularly collaborates with other artists and is currently working with Artistic Director and award-winning jazz bassist, Gary Crosby OBE, of Tomorrow’s Warriors. She teaches both music and dance and regularly leads the Renegade Stage, an improvisation workshop for tap dancers, at the London Tap Jam.
Annette’s research area of interest is the past and present relationship between jazz dance and music, improvisation, and the development of tap dance in the UK in relation to its historic American roots. She is one of the co-directors and steering committee members of the Tap Dance Research Network UK (TDRN UK) that formed in 2019 and is currently a PhD in Performing Arts scholarship student.
Forthcoming Events
Guildhall Jazz Orchestra & Choir: Emboldened
14 February 2025
Milton Court Concert Hall
Guildhall Jazz Orchestra and Choir welcome guitarist and composer Steve Banks to perform his debut album, Emboldened, re-voiced for jazz orchestra and choir from the original quintet by Jonathan Silk.
Guildhall Big Band: Portraits in Jazz
09 March 2025
Milton Court Concert Hall
Acclaimed jazz pianist and composer Helen Sung joins Guildhall Jazz musicians for the UK debut performance of her new multi-movement work Portraits in Jazz.
Guildhall Jazz Orchestra: Dankworth Seven
13 March 2025
Milton Court Theatre
Immerse yourself in a golden era of UK jazz as the nucleus of the Guildhall Jazz Orchestra brings the vibrant spirit of the legendary Dankworth Seven to life in an intimate performance at Milton Court Theatre.
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