Royal Academy of Music, YMF 2002
![[The Farrington Ensemble]](images/older/farrington.jpg)
The Farrington Ensemble was formed by students at the Royal Academy of Music in autumn 2000, since when it has been coached by Michael Dussek, Andrew West, Lionel Handy, Angela Malsbury and Joseph Seiger. On 15 January 2001, it performed Olivier Messiaen’s Quartet for the End of Time to commemorate the sixtieth anniversary of its premiere, and has also given concerts in Trinity College Chapel, Cambridge and in Southwark Cathedral. The Farrington Ensemble performs a broad range of chamber music repertoire including piano trios, clarinet trios and duo works.
Conny Lindgren was born in Stockholm, Sweden and studies violin and jazz saxophone at the Royal University College of Music in Stockholm. In 1997, he was awarded a scholarship to study violin with Professor Erich Gruenberg OBE at the Royal Academy of Music in London where he recently graduated with a Postgraduate Diploma. Conny was leader of the Nordic Youth Orchestra 1995-96 and was also a member of the European Union Youth Orchestra 1996-2000, in which he performed at many of the major venues around Europe and South America with conductors such as Sir Colin Davis, Bernard Haitink, Gennady Rozhdestvensky and Vladimir Ashkenazy. He has performed as a soloist in Conway Hall, and with the Stockholm Philharmonic Orchestra.
Peter Sparks studied the clarinet at Cambridge University with Dame Thea King, and performed John Adams’s clarinet concerto Gnarly Buttons under Stephen Cleobury. He was Principal Clarinet with the National Youth Orchestra of Great Britain, giving man performances in Britain and abroad, and has also played with the Bournemouth symphony and Royal Philharmonic orchestras. As a soloist, Peter reached the Final of the Royal Overseas League Music Competition and has performed at the Cheltenham International Music Festival. He has worked with the Nash and Endymion ensembles and is a member of the Gallimaufry Ensemble (wind quintet and piano). He is currently a postgraduate student at the Royal Academy of Music, studying with Angela Malsbury and Nick Rodwell, and was last year awarded the RAM Development Award for contemporary music.
Graham Walker was born in Edinburgh in 1978 and received his early musical education as a chorister under Dr. George Guest at St. John’s College, Cambridge. In 1991, he went to Harrow School on a top Music Scholarship, where he studied piano, cello and organ, giving performances in 1995 of Schumann’s Piano Concerto and Elgar’s Cello Concerto. In 1996, he returned to St John’s as an Alto Choral Scholar. Whilst at St John’s, Graham studied mathematics as an undergraduate and also performed widely on the cello. In addition, he pursued an interest in conducting, directing performances of Requiems by Fauré and Duruflé, as well as Bach’s B minor Mass. He was musical Director of the ‘Gentlemen of St John’s’ from 1997 to 1999, and won the 1996 UNICEF National Young Conductors’ Platform. In 1999, he was awarded a scholarship to the Royal Academy of Music to study cello and baroque cello at postgraduate level, where he currently studies with Lionel Handy and Jennifer Ward-Clarke.
Iain Farrington is a freelance pianist and organist, working with some of the country’s leading singers and choirs. He studied piano accompaniment at the Royal Academy of Music, where he gained a DipRAM, the highest grade for any postgraduate. He recently won the Megan Foster Prize for Accompanists at the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden. Iain works regularly with Lesley Garrett, the BBC Singers and the London Symphony Chorus, under such conductors as Sir Simon Rattle, Sir Colin Davis and Yan Pascal ortelier. He has performed in Sweden, France and London, including performances at the Wigmore Hall, the Purcell Room and the Proms 2001, in a concert of works by Esa-Pekka Salonen.