Gabriella Swallow

Cello & Electric Cello

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Orchestral Experience The London Sinfonietta /Stefan Asbury Co-principal Brunel Ensemble/Christopher Austin The John Wilson Orchestra/John Wilson Southbank Sinfonia/Nicolas Cleobury (soloist and extra) London Concertante/Leo Hussein (co-principal) The London Contemporary Music Group/Mike Francis (principal) The Ensemble Modern Academy Orchestra/Frank Ollu Chelsea Sinfonia (No 3)/Neil Thompson Oxford Sinfonietta/Peter Bassano (soloist) Commercial /Jazz/Film/Television. Orchestra Session for composer Nigel Hess/Air Studio Sade-on her single on DVD ‘Voices from Darfur’-produced by Robin Miller. Charlotte Church- Tissues and Issues single/Sony BMG-Calling You. Gwilym Simcock Quintet/Radio 3 Session with ‘Swallow Quartet’ Barb Jungr-‘Walking In the Sun’/Linn Records (and 3 appearances at Ronnie Scots) Todd Gordon-Ballads from the Midnight Hotel, tracks with Guy Barker and John Paricelli (producer Ian Shaw) Ian Shaw-Live show at the Bloomsbury Theatre and the 606 club, recorded for DVD. Ian Shaw new album/Linn Records- tracks with Guy Barker, Lianne Carroll and Ian Shaw. ‘Most Wanted’-jazz funk tracks with Barnaby Dickinson, Graeme Flowers and Graeme Blevins. Jonathan Wilkes single/Steelworks-produced by Elliot Kennedy Dunkirk BBC2-solo cello/ Czech Philharmonic, score/producer by Sam Sim. The Basil Brush Show Ruby Blue-Score and producer Jeannette Mason. Classical Britannia-BBC 4 (June 2007) Songs of Praise After Bach. A Memory. Film by Idris Khan, BBC Proms-live on BBC 4-permanent guest on four shows/Producers Seren Irvine/Sue Judd Solo and Concertos Mark-Anthony Turnage, About Water –The London Sinfonietta/Stefan Asbury Boccherini Concerto in G/Faure ‘Elegie’ - Norfolk Symphony Orchestra /James Stobart Paul Max Edlin Cello Concerto - Southbank Sinfonia/Nicolas Cleobury Huw Watkins Sonata for cello and 8 instruments –Oxford Sinfonietta/Peter Bassano Duo concert with Craig Ogden (guitar)-Clitheroe Music Club. Duo with Anna Cashell (violin) Hugh Wood Cello Concerto –RCM Sinfonietta /Neil Thompson Helmut Lachenmann,Pression-Berlin Konzert Haus and Radio 3 broadcast Solo Bach Film project with artist Idris Khan. John Rutter Requiem/Ian Curror. Valiant Hearts-CD with Royal Hospital Chapel Choir Principal Chamber Music Rautio Piano Trio Trio with Chi-Yu Mo, clarinet (LSO) and Charles Wiffen, piano. Sans Souci Trio (with Huw Watkins-piano and Elizabeth Cooney-violin) West Cork Chamber Music Festival New Music Series Kettles Yard Rye Festival (UK premiere Turnage 1^st Piano Trio) The Warehouse cutting Edge (BBC Radio 3 broadcast) Cardiff University Music Society (concert and masterclass) London Archduke Trio Dartington International Summer School (concert and masterclasses) Bath Spa University (concert and masterclasses) Recording for Toccata Classics in production of Hugh Wood’s chamber music. Vitoria International Summer School in Spain (concerts and master classes) Education Royal College of Music-BMus (Hons)/MMus(perf) (Distinction) (1999-2005) Chethams’ School of Music (1990-1999) Professor: Jerome Pernoo (cello) Awards/Prizes/Fellowships Tagore Gold Medal Arts and Humanities Award 2003-5 John Lewis Partnership Scholarship West Belfast Music Bursary Edward and Helen Hague Award ABRSM Scholarship and special Bursary Award Bernard Stevens Prize with Sans Souci Trio Mills Williams Junior Fellowship RCM (2005-6) Phoebe Benham Junior Fellowship RCM (2006-7)

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GABRIELLA SWALLOW

Belfast-born cellist Gabriella Swallow commenced her musical studies at Chethams’ School of Music. In 1999 she was awarded an ABRSM Scholarship to study cello at the Royal College of Music with Jerome Pernoo and composition with Timothy Salter. As an undergraduate, she was Principal Cello of the RCM Sinfonietta and Symphony Orchestras, and performed with the New Perspectives Ensemble under Edwin Roxburgh where she developed her passion for contemporary music.  She graduated in 2003 and was presented the prestigious Tagore Gold Medal by RCM President, HRH The Prince of Wales.

Gabriella continued as a Postgraduate Scholar at the RCM which was supported by awards from the Arts and Humanities Research Board, Edward and Helen Hague and the John Lewis Partnership. In 2005 she graduated as a Master of Music with distinction. She continued her work at the RCM as the Mills Williams Junior Fellow and now has become the Phoebe Benham Fellow from 2006-2007.

In 1999 she founded the Sans Souci Piano Trio with violinist Elizabeth Cooney and proceeded to win the 2001 West Belfast Chamber Music Bursary Award and the Bernard Stevens Prize. In 2002 the trio reformed with the renowned composer and pianist Huw Watkins. Dedicated to the performance of new and rare British trio repertoire, Sans Souci gave the UK premiere of Mark-Anthony Turnage’s ‘A Short Procession’ and were also the dedicatees of ‘A Fast Stomp’, which they premiered at Sounds New Festival in Canterbury in February 2005 and also in the Cutting Edge Festival which was broadcast on Radio 3’s ‘Hear and Now’. Further engagements have included Kettles Yard New Music Series in Cambridge, Cardiff and Oxford Universities, and the West Cork Chamber Music Festival, broadcast by Lyric FM.

Gabriella’s performances also include Edwin Roxburgh’s Partita as part of the composer’s birthday celebrations at The Warehouse, the Benjamin Britten International Opera School’s celebrated production of The Turn of the Screw, Tim Souster’s Sonata for Cello, Wind, Brass and Percussion, concertos with the Norfolk Symphony Orchestra, a performance with the Brunel Ensemble, and recently the world premiere of Turnage’s A Few Serenades at the Umea Chamber Music Festival 2accompanied by the Composer, broadcast on Swedish Radio. She is the dedicatee of Jonathan Cole’s Elegy which features in the acclaimed folio Spectrum for Cello.

Gabriella recently performed the rarely heard Hugh Wood Cello Concerto with the Royal College of Music’s Sinfonietta under Neil Thompson, Dominic Nudd wrote:

‘Gabriella Swallow is a confident and accomplished performer. She undoubtedly grasped the solo part firmly and projected it with great clarity and vigour, playing with commanding intensity throughout’.

She has collaborated with the dancer and choreographer Eva Recacha on Xenakis’ solo cello work Kottos at the Zaragoza and Barcelona Dance Festivals. Other festival appearances in the UK have included Dartington International Summer School with the Archduke Trio, and Aberystwyth, Rye, Carlisle, Lake District Summer Music Festivals and recently the Snape Proms in Aldeborough.

She worked closely with the composer Helmut Lachenmann on his solo piece ‘Pression’ and has performed this in his 70th birthday festival in the Berlin Konzert Haus and has more recently in the Transcendent Festival broadcast by BBC Radio 3..

The 2007-8 season sees Gabriella make her South Bank debut as soloist with the London Sinfonietta and also the world premiere of the Paul Max Edlin cello concerto with the South Bank Sinfonia at the Sounds New Festival.

Gabriella has been a guest on Music Matters and was one of the permanent guests on BBC 4’s live TV coverage of The BBC Proms at the Royal Albert Hall. She is also the subject of visual artist Idris Khan’s new film ‘After Bach..A Memory’.

In June 2005 Gabriella was appointed Principal Cello of the London Contemporary Music Group.

She plays a cello by Charles Harris Snr made in Oxford in 1820.

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