Programme Information
Sunday Evening Chamber Music
Time & Date:
7.00pm, Sunday 25 May 2025
Venue:
Priory Church of St George, Church Street, Dunster, TA24 6SH
Who:
Jackie Shave (violin), Clare Finnimore (viola), Robert Irvine (cello), Thomas Hancox (flute), Rachel Wick (harp)
Tickets:
£25/£15/£10 (see seating plan in the picture gallery)
£1 for 8-21s
Running Time:
Approximately 2 hours (including a 20-minute interval)
Programme Info:
Exmoor-based violinist Jackie Shave, former leader of Britten Sinfonia, is joined by a hand-picked ensemble of friends and colleagues for this concert. Together they have lovingly programmed an evening of exquisite chamber music especially for Dunster Festival, including Bach, Mozart, Berkeley and some of Jackie’s own compositions.
TICKET RELEASE DATES:
Festival Friends tickets on sale from Sunday 23rd February
Festival Passes on sale from Sunday 2nd March
All other tickets on sale from Sunday 16th March
Artist Biographies
Jackie Shave (violin)
Jacqueline Shave received her formal training at the Royal Academy of Music but drew her particular performance inspiration and her love of chamber music from her time at the Britten Pears School in Snape.
She has since been in constant demand as a leader, beginning with English Touring Opera on leaving her studies, and subsequently guest leading many of the UK’s orchestras including the London Sinfonietta, Scottish Chamber Orchestra, Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, BBC Scottish, BBC Symphony and the Nash Ensemble.
Jackie spent fifteen years leading the Brindisi String Quartet, giving concerts worldwide and making many recordings. She has appeared at the Wigmore Hall over fifty times.
She is former leader and director of the Britten Sinfonia, Associate Ensemble at London’s Barbican Centre. Notable performances include The Messiah in the Concertgebouw and Bach’s St John Passion at the Barbican.
She is leader of the Red Note Ensemble, Scotland’s leading contemporary music group, and gives concerts regularly as violinist in the Britten Oboe Quartet.
Jackie has appeared as conductor at the Barbican, St John’s Smith Square, Milton Court and at the Loch Shiel Festival, conducting works by Henze, Helen Grime, Anna Clyne and Benjamin Britten.
She gives performance classes at the Royal Academy of Music in London and the Royal Conservatoire in Glasgow and has taught at the Yehudi Menuhin School.
In 2011 she took a year away and based herself on the Isle of Harris in the Hebrides to explore other musical pathways, resulting in ‘Postcards from Home’ a world music/jazz CD in collaboration with Kuljit Bhamra (tabla) and John Parricelli (guitar). During this year she presented a complete Beethoven String Quartet Cycle in a Sculptor’s studio on the East coast of Harris, and gave a free improvisation concert in a cave on Hestur in the North Atlantic Faroe Islands, which she sailed to via St Kilda with her husband on their boat Kyle.
Jackie is particularly drawn to Indian music and improvisation, and has collaborated with musicians such as Amjad Ali Khan, Kuljit Bhamra, Nitin Sawhney and Anoushka Shankar. She is the violinist in Simon Thacker’s group committed to Indian music, Svara Kanti, with whom she has performed and made recordings.
She hosts a festival in Northern Italy in the tiny village of Borniga where the concerts are given in the square surrounded by mountains.
Jackie works regularly in the London studios recording music for pop, film and TV. Her string quartet recorded the music for ‘Portrait of a Lady’ ( Nicole Kidman) and were subsequently invited to perform at the Venice Film Festival.
She led the chamber group for Thomas Adès’ music for the film ‘Colette’ and for ‘Final Portrait’ directed by Stanley Tucci, and has played on hundreds of soundtracks, including Bond, Shrek, Mission Impossible and Harry Potter.
Jackie lives on Exmoor and is committed to the premise that ‘Music is for All’. She is always searching for ways to bring music out of the concert hall into the community. She has given performances in prisons, refugee centres, Ugandan orphanages, care homes, schools and hospitals and is currently in the process of forming a chamber orchestra for Somerset, Devon and Cornwall, planning to launch later in 2021.
Jackie plays on a violin by Nicolò Amati made in Cremona in 1672, acquired on her behalf by Nigel Brown OBE and the Stradivari Trust.
Clare Finnimore (viola)
Clare has been principal viola with Britten Sinfonia for the last 20 years, appearing as soloist many times, including at the BBC Proms, Royal Albert Hall.
She is a regular participant at the IMS Chamber Music Festival, Prussia Cove.
Her viola is ‘Unknown’ – possibly Italian, dated 1689.
Robert Irvine (cello)
Robert Irvine was born in Glasgow and at the age of 16 was awarded a scholarship to the Royal College of Music (RCM) where he studied with Christopher Bunting and Amaryllis Fleming. While there he won most of the major prizes in chamber music and solo playing.
After leaving the RCM, he studied with William Pleeth and Pierre Fournier, before joining the Philharmonia Orchestra as sub principal cello.
He also worked extensively at Aldeburgh, forming the Brindisi String Quartet and working closely with Sir Peter Pears as continuo cellist and as principal cellist of the Britten Pears Orchestra. At this time he toured much of Europe with the Brindisi Quartet, making numerous festival appearances and broadcasts.
He left the Philharmonia in 1988 to take up the position of principal cello with the Academy of St Martin-in-the-Fields, touring extensively.
In 1990 he returned to Scotland to take up the post of principal cellist with Scottish Opera Orchestra, and founded the Chamber Group of Scotland with Sally Beamish and James MacMillan, performing and broadcasting a wide range of both chamber and solo music.
He is artistic director of the Red Note Ensemble which specialises in contemporary repertoire, and has a busy schedule of projects throughout the UK and Europe.
He has broadcast frequently as soloist and chamber musician on BBC television and Radio 3, including several live performances on “In Tune.”
He is a founder member of the Da Vinci Piano Trio, who play and broadcast widely in the UK, and also performs regularly with Allan Neave, guitar.
He has performed concerts and recitals throughout the UK, including the Cheltenham Festival, St Magnus Festival, Aldeburgh, Gloucester, Norwich, Glasgow, Edinburgh, Aberdeen and Dundee, as well as several European festivals and at International Musicians Seminar (IMS) Prussia Cove.
He has recorded several critically acclaimed CDs, including the cello works of Sally Beamish for the BIS label, Dallapiccola solo works, the cello music of Giles Swayne, and the Rachmaninov and Shostakovich sonatas for the Delphian label.
Thomas Hancox (flute)
Thomas Hancox is co-principal flute of the English Chamber Orchestra and Britten Sinfonia, and works regularly as guest principal flute for other orchestras, including the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, London Philharmonic Orchestra, Philharmonia Orchestra, Academy of St Martin in the Fields, and English National Opera, amongst others.
Solo and chamber work has led to collaborations with artists and ensembles including the Allegri, Castalian, Piatti, and Sacconi string quartets, Haffner Ensemble, Trevor Pinnock, Mahan Esfahani, Stephen Hough, and Jeremy Denk, with recitals in prestigious venues and festivals throughout the UK and further afield.
He also has the privilege of recording scores for film and television, with recent titles including James Bond, Doctor Who, Spiderman, The Crown, Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them, and The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power.
Thomas read Music at St Peter’s College, Oxford, from where he graduated with a first, before pursuing further studies in Paris with Patrick Gallois, and subsequently at the Royal Academy of Music with Paul Edmund-Davies and Samuel Coles, finishing with a distinction and the honorary DipRAM.
In his spare time, he is an avid cook, a moderately keen gardener, and enjoys anything written by D. H. Lawrence, Evelyn Waugh, or Graham Greene.
In 2019 he was made an Associate of the Royal Academy of Music.
Rachel Wick (harp)
Rachel is a graduate of St. Peter’s College, Oxford and the Royal Academy of Music. She freelances with many of the UKs leading orchestras including the London Philharmonic Orchestra, BBC Symphony and Concert Orchestras and Royal Philharmonic Orchestra. She also plays a nineteenth century Erard harp, most recently with the Orchestre Révolutionnaire et Romantique. Rachel has performed with the English rock band Procol Harum and for Quincy Jones’ 85th birthday concert at the O2 Arena.
Rachel is also an active chamber musician, appearing at festivals and music clubs across the UK. She has recorded with New College and Christ Church Cathedral Choirs, Oxford and has broadcast live on Classic FM from Buckingham Palace with Her Majesty’s Choir of the Chapel Royal, St James’s Palace. Other film and session work includes playing on Howard Goodall’s album Inspired, ITV’s Sound of Music ‘Live’, appearing on screen in Mission Impossible – Rogue Nation and on Google’s ‘Inside Abbey Road’ virtual online tour.
Rachel teaches harp at Berkhamsted School, City Junior School and the Junior Department of the Royal Academy of Music and coaches for the National Children’s Orchestra.
In 2018 she was made an Associate of the Royal Academy of Music. Rachel co-founded the Dunster Festival, a chamber music festival which takes place in May each year.