WACIDOM

Saturday 17th May 2025 1:45pm – 2:30pm

Wenchun Fan – violin, Jordi Bitlloch – piano

Programme

Claude Debussy Sonata for Violin and Piano in G minor, L.140

1. Allegro Vivo
2. Intermède (Fantasque et léger)
3. Finale (Très animé)

Amy Beach Romance for Violin and Piano, Op.23

Johannes Brahms Sonata for Violin and Piano No.3 in D minor, Op.108

1. Allegro
2. Adagio
3. Un poco presto e con sentimento
4. Presto agitato

Biographies.

Wenchun Fan is a performer-researcher currently completing a PhD at the University of Leeds, supervised by Dr Clive McClelland and Professor Michael Allis. Originally from China, she began learning the violin at the age of five. In 2013, she entered the Central Conservatory of Music in Beijing, studying with Jia Zhang, Liwei Tan, and Wei Xue. She has performed at prestigious events including the Beijing Youth Art Festival, the International Youth Art Festival, and the 33rd Harbin Summer Music Festival, where she collaborated with world-renowned conductor Zubin Mehta, the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra, and the Harbin Symphony Orchestra. In 2017, Wenchun was awarded a full entrance scholarship and the George Henry Peters Scholarship to study at the Royal Northern College of Music under the distinguished violinist Leland Chen. Her studies were further supported by the China Scholarship Council’s Special Art Talent Cultivation scheme.

As a soloist and chamber musician, she has performed widely across China and the UK. With the Ink Quartet, she won second prize at the 14th Luigi Cerritelli International Music Competition. Her practice-led research on Schubert has been presented at conferences including the BFE/RMA Research Students’ Conference (Newcastle), the SMI/ICTMD-IE Conference (Maynooth), and the ÖAW Schubert Workshop (Vienna). She has also given recitals for the Schubert Institute UK at Conway Hall, London and in Leeds, and performs regularly in WACIDOM’s concert series in Warrington.

Jordi Bitlloch was bornin France in a musical family, Jordi attended the Yehudi Menuhin School in Surrey as a teenager, studying under Ruth Nye, and later the University of Arts in Berlin (Germany) under Pascal Devoyon, where he earned undergraduate and postgraduate degrees in performance. During those years he also attended courses and masterclasses with Ferenc Rados, Klaus Hellwig, Heime Müller (chamber music), Dietrich Fiescher-Dieskau and Eric Schneider (vocal accompaniment). His international breakthrough came when he won second prize and audience prize at the International Beethoven Competition in Bonn (Germany). He has also garnered prizes in the European Piano Competition Vlado Perlemuter and Concours Aujourd’hui Musiques (France). He has performed throughout Europe as a soloist and chamber musician and has been a guest at festivals such as the Klavierfestival Ruhr (Germany), Music in Paxton (Scotland), Windsor Festival, Festival Jeunes Talents (France) and Euriade Festival (Holland). He is currently based in Manchester working as a performer and accompanist in the North West, and was Junior Fellow in Accompaniment at the Royal Northern College of Music between 2021 and 2023.

Next week’s concert – Chris Hardy (clarinet) and Hector Leung (piano)

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Saturday 10^th May 2025 – 1:45pm – 2:30pm

Laurie Ashworth (soprano) John Gough (piano)

Programme

Purcell Music for a While

Mozart Abendempfindung / Als luise die briefe

Strauss Meinem kinde / Die nacht / Du meines herzens / Zueignung

Guastavino La rosa y el sauce

Vaughan-Williams Silent Noon

Armstrong-Gibbs Silver / The Witch / Song of Shadows / Five Eyes

Monkton The Pipes of Pan are Calling

Biographies

Soprano, Laurie Ashworth was born in Wigan, Lancashire and she has established herself as highly sought-after concert artist, specialising in oratorio, recital and recording, which she combines with a busy teaching career.

Laurie commenced her studies at the Royal Northern College of Music under the tutelage of Caroline Crawshaw. She graduated with first class honors and was awarded the RNCM Gold Medal, the college’s highest accolade for performance. Awards from The Arts and Humanities Research Council and The Countess of Munster Musical Trust enabled Laurie to complete her Masters in Vocal Performance at the Royal College of Music, where she studied with Patricia Rozario and Janis Kelly, graduating with distinction.

In 2010 following an acclaimed performance of Jonathan Dove’s song Full Fathom Five, Laurie was awarded the Song Prize at the Kathleen Ferrier Awards. In the same year she was a finalist and runner-up in BBC Radio 2’s The Kiri Prize; a nationwide search by Dame Kiri Te Kanawa and the BBC to find a new operatic star.

Laurie has performed at all of the UK’s major venues, making her Wigmore Hall recital debut in 2014 and her BBC Proms debut at the Royal Albert Hall in 2012. She has appeared regularly in broadcasts for BBC Radio 2 and 3, and Songs of Praise, and she features as the soprano soloist on the premiere recordings of Bob Chilcott’s Requiem (Hyperion Records) and St John Passion (Signum Records). Aside from performing, Laurie is regularly on the judging panel for the BBC Young Chorister of the year Competition.

Keen to expand her horizons, Laurie co-founded the vocal duo Eterni Amici with saxophonist Spencer Moran. The duo performed regularly on Viking Ocean Cruise Line, Holland America Line, Norwegian Cruise Line and Fred Olsen Cruise Line pre-pandemic, but Laurie is returning to the ships for short contracts in 2025!

John Gough was born and bred in Chester. He enjoys a busy career combining solo playing, accompaniment and teaching at the RNCM. He has broadcast many times on BBC Radio 3 and has performed at the Wigmore Hall, London, and as soloist with the RLPO and Northern Chamber Orchestras. Overseas, he has performed at the Carnegie Hall, New York, and on Danish Radio.

Next week’s concert – Wenchun Fan, violin and Jordi Bitlloch, piano.

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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 500^th 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.

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