Royal Northern College of Music, YMF Showcase November 2006
![[Rowena Calvert]](images/2006sc/calvert240.jpg)
Rowena studied at the Yehudi Menuhin School with Leonid Gorokhov where she played concertos with the London Mozart Players, the Guildford Symphony Orchestra, the Fairfield Halls Orchestra, Edinburgh Festival Orchestra and the Harlow Symphony Orchestra.
She went on to study with Paul Watkins at the Royal Academy of Music where she was national string finalist of BBC Young Musician of the Year. After two years she moved to Bombay (India) where she ran the Mehli Mehta Music Foundation and had her own cello class in the Mathieson Music School. Here she had recitals in the British Council, a concerto on Indian television and performed in (and coached an orchestra for) the Sangat Western Classical Music Festival. On her return to Britain, she undertook a tour with her harpist duo partner Eleanor Turner and played the Elgar cello concerto in the Queens Hall (Edinburgh).
Rowena has been a recent winner of the Busenhart-Morgen Evans Award (from the Worshipful Company of Musicians), the Haworth Trust for cellists, the Jellineck Award, the Ian Flemming Award (from the Musicians Benevolent Fund) and the Countess of Munster Award. Prominent solo appearances include the Wigmore Hall, the Royal Festival Hall and the UNESCU celebrations in Paris. Here she had masterclasses with Mstislav Rostropovich, Steven Isserlis, Bernard Greenhouse, Gary Hoffman and Tsuyoshi Tsutsumi in Manchester Cello Festival, Kronberg Cello Festival (Germany) and the World Cello Congress (USA).
She is currently studying with Hannah Roberts at the Royal Northern College of Music where she has her own piano trio and string quartet. Her trio, Estrella, have been prizewinners in all the major competitions in the RNCM for their performances of Brahms, Casken and Haydn and they have recently performed the London premier of John Casken's piano trio in the Venezuelan Embassy. Her quartet has played in festivals in Manchester and Cambridge, played twice in the Wigmore Hall and has had lessons from Mstislav Rostropovich and Yehudi Menuhin.
Having been awarded a very nice French bow from the Scottish Arts Council, Rowena has recently won the opportunity to perform the Dvorak concerto with the RNCM Symphony Orchestra. She is looking forward to the release of her first CD by the BBC in January and to her Wigmore Hall debut next May.
Rowena appears by kind permission of the Royal Northern College of Music.