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 Duofor 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.


Northerly Winds

Saturday 29th March 2025 1:45pm – 2:30pm

Northerly Winds – wind quintet

Flute – Emily, Oboe – Emily, Horn – Mike, Bassoon – Jon, Clarinet – Beth

Programme

Cecilia Mcdowall – The Blackbird

György Ligeti – Six Bagatelles

  1. Allegro Con Spirito
  2. Rubato. Lamentoso
  3. Allegro grazioso
  4. Presto ruvido
  5. Adagio.Mesto (Béla Bartók in memorium)
  6. Molto vivace. Capriccioso

Valerie Coleman – Umoja

Júlio Medaglia – Belle Epoque En Sud-America

Background

Northerly Winds is formed of working freelance wind players who can be heard with orchestras like the Halle, BBC Philharmonic, Manchester Camerata, Manchester Concert Orchestra and many others. So far, the quintet has performed as several exciting venues, including the Antony Burgess Foundation, LowFour Studios and Sheffield Cathedral.

Next week’s concert is the last in our current series:
Nicola Summerscales (flute) and Havilland Willshire (piano)


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!

Our location link. Our next/current series programme information. Previous concerts link.


Our Facebook page

After each concert the WACIDOM Facebook page is updated to reflect the concert in words and pictures.

The page can be accessed from:

Main Menu (above) – Links – WACIDOM Facebook and then click on the logo or blue text.

Click here for a shortcut to the link.


Welcome to our website

We prepared this website in time for the start of our February 2024 concert series and hope that you find it useful. Explore the Main Menu bar at the top of this page to see what it offers. This Home Page has information about the next concert and any ‘latest news’.

To see our current programme either go to the Main Menu and select Concerts then Programme or click Current Programme. Clicking blue, underlined text will take you directly to that item without having to navigate the Main Menu.

You may find the ‘Links’ menu items useful, this will take you to other local music related sites.