Accompanists

Accompanists

Stewart Death BSc, PPRNCM

Stewart Death was born in Suffolk in 1964. He began his formal musical training at City University in 1984 studying piano with Alan Schiller at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama. After graduating with a BSc.(Hons.) in 1987 he entered the Royal Northern College of Music to study piano accompaniment with David Lloyd gaining the prestigious Professional Performers Diploma.

Since leaving college he has toured throughout Europe with the Condordia Opera Trio and has been heard as an accompanist on Classic FM, BBC Radio and Independent Television. He has worked as an accompanist for Welsh National Opera and has recorded several compact discs with many different artistes. He is also a founder member of Travelling by Tuba, a duo with which he performs over 200 concerts a year. Among the many concerts that he has given are appearances at the Purcell Room, Festival Hall, Barbican Centre, Fairfields Halls and St. David's Hall. He is an accompanist member of The British Federation of Festivals and as such appears regularly at many festivals throughout the North West.

Kathleen Hesford ARCO., GRNCM., ARNCM. (Accomp.)

Kathleen started to play the piano at the age of 4 and at 10 years of age she gained a place at the Royal Manchester College of Music Junior School.

On leaving school Kathleen studied at the RNCM studying piano, flute and organ.

She specialised in accompaniment , studying with John Wilson and David Lloyd.

Kathleen has been associated with Heaton Mersey Youth Festival for many years. Prior to her work here as an accompanist, she regularly entered the solo classes.

Kathleen works freelance in the Manchester area, accompanying several choirs

She works for Salford Music Service and does a small amount of private teaching.

Dr.Valerie Langfield MA(Cantab.), PhD, ARCM, PGCE

Valerie Langfield is a freelance musician, teaching piano, theory and aural, and accompanying and coaching singers and instrumentalist.

She was born in London, and after reading music at Girton College, Cambridge (where she studied piano with the South African teacher, Valerie Norman), she took a post-graduate course in singing at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama; her work as an accompanist draws substantially on the experience she gained there.

Valerie is a composer (chiefly of Chamber Music); she is also a tutor for the Centre for Continuing Education at the University of Manchester; and as a writer on music, is a contributor to the revised New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians, and to the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography. Her definitive biography of the song-composer Roger Quilter wa published in 2002 and she has written sleeve notes for several CD's of his music, including the forthcoming recording of the complete songs, by the English National Opera baritone Mark Stone. She travels all over the country, giving talks on music - and of course on Quilter in particular. Her Quilter research led, by a cicuitous route, to her producing the performing edition of the recently recorded opera by Michael Balfe, The Maid of Artois, for which sho worked on the original 1836 parts.

She is on of the accompanists for the Stockport Music Service: This is the fourth year accompanying for the Heaton Mersey Youth Festival.

Anne Sutcliffe GRNCM LRAM ARCM

Born in Manchester and having lived in Heaton Mersey for over 20 years, Anne was a pupil in the Junior Department of the Northern School of Music where her teachers included John Wilson.

Whilst at the Royal Northern College of Music she attained LRAM in piano teaching and ARCM in piano performance and top mark in the year of the former Northern School of Music students.

Since leaving college she has taught piano, theory, aural and violin and acted as accompanist in various schools and colleges including De la Salle (Middleton), the College of Adult Education (Manchester) and the King’s School (Macclesfield).

She currently teaches privately and acts as an accompanist for Associated Board examinations.

HMYF

Heaton Mersey Youth Festival