Nicola Summerscales and Havilland Willshire

Saturday 5th April 2025 1:45pm – 2:30pm

Nicola Summerscales – Flute and Havilland Willshire – Piano

Programme

Fauré Fantasie

Aaron Copland Duo for Flute and Piano

  1. Flowing
  2. Poetic, somewhat mournful
  3. Lively with bounce

Fauré Morceau de Concours

Bohuslav Martinu First Sonata

  1. Allegro Moderato
  2. Adagio
  3. Allegro poco Moderato

Biographies

Nicola Summerscales is a prominent freelance flautist featuring as a chamber and orchestral musician throughout the UK. Alumni of Chetham’s School of Music and the Royal Academy of Music, Nicola graduated with a BMus Hons and a Postgraduate Diploma with Distinction studying with Michael Cox, Kate Hill, Patricia Morris and Karen Jones.

Nicola performs regularly in live, televised and broadcasted performances with the BBC Symphony Orchestra, BBC Concert Orchestra, BBC National Orchestra of Wales, Opera North, Welsh National Opera, English Touring Opera, Scottish Opera and English Chamber Orchestra. Highlights include performances at the BBC Proms, Britten Pears Festival, orchestrations of film scores such as Jaws and The Nightmare before Christmas.

A prize-winning chamber musician, Nicola founded the Nephele Ensemble and they were a featured Park Lane Young Artist and winner of the Tunnell Trust. A firm supporter of Contemporary music, they commissioned works from Timothy Salter, Stuart MacRae and Colin Riley which were premiered to critical acclaim in the Purcell Room. Nicola frequently performs with the chamber ensemble Symphonia Academica and is also an ABRSM Examiner and visiting flute teacher at Beaconsfield High School.

Havilland Willshire studied piano with Rsyzard Bakst and accompaniment with Clifton Helliwell at the Royal Northern College of Music and Music Education at the University of Manchester. He held the post of Coordinator of Metropolitan Wigan Instrumental Music Service for nine years before accepting the position of Head of Junior Conservatoire of Music at the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland in 2000. Following a year as Head of Music Education in 2008 he became Dean of the School of Music in 2009. In 2014 he was appointed Assistant Director and Head of Performance at Trinity Laban Conservatoire of Music and Dance and more recently, Director of the Faculty of Music in November 2018, a post he held until early 2023.

A dedicated teacher, he taught for a number of years at the Birmingham Conservatoire of Music Junior School and continued to teach at the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland and Trinity Laban. Currently he teaches at Cheltenham College. He also enjoyed an active concert career as soloist and chamber musician including live broadcasts and recordings for BBC Radio and is the duo partner for the violinist Pip Clarke.

This is the last in our current series, but we’ll be back on 3rd May with Outstanding Young Pianists!

We hope that you have enjoyed the Spring series of concerts and we all thank you for your continued support.

Wishing you a very happy and blessed Easter and looking forward to seeing you again soon!

Sharon, Diane, Brian, Irina, Helen and Gina.

WACIDOM – a short note about us

WACIDOM is a voluntary run music society and charity that holds free lunchtime concerts on Saturday afternoons at Holy Trinity Church in Warrington Town Centre. All our concerts are funded by donations.

Our main aim is to offer opportunities to young student musicians, most often from the Royal Northern College of Music and Chetham’s School of Music, but sometimes further afield. We also support musicians at the start of their careers as they build repertoire, confidence and platform skills.

In 2024 we celebrated our 500th free concert which was played by Patron, Leon McCawley and Patron, Sir Stephen Hough kindly offered to play a December concert, to bring our celebratory year to a close.

Sir Stephen asked that donations were to go to WACIDOM to support our work with young and aspiring musicians. He was there once!

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