AURORA ENSEMBLE & JOHN REID
Wednesday 22 April 2009 
8:15pm at the Radlett Centre

Maxine Willis - flute
Gwenllian Davies - oboe
Andrew Mason - clarinet
Helen Shillito - horn
Constance Tanner - bassoon

John Reid - piano

will be performing:

Beethoven - Piano quintet, Op. 16
Goleminow - Quintet No. 2
Salter - Through maze's running
Rimsky-Korsakov - Wind quintet in B flat

Prizewinners at the European chamber music competition, Musique d'Ensemble, held at the Paris Conservatoire in 2001, the Aurora Ensemble has performed in many major venues and festivals, including the Purcell Room, Manchester's Bridgewater Hall and the Warwick, Thaxted, Ryedale and Petworth Festivals. In 2002 the ensemble gave the first complete performances of Rhian Samuel's Primavera and recorded its debut CD, which included the world première recording of Ronan Guilfoyle's Groove Merchants.

In 2000 the ensemble formed its own education project, Sounds Exciting, which runs in conjunction with their recital work. They are a member of the late Yehudi Menuhin's Live Music Now! Scheme, which takes music into hospitals, prisons, residential homes for the elderly and schools.

John read music at Clare College, Cambridge, where he gained an M.Phil in musicology before taking up a scholarship to study at the Royal Academy ofMusic withMichael Dussek. His many awards include the 2003 Kathleen Ferrier, Maggie Teyte and English Song accompaniment prizes, the 2003 Birmingham Accompanist of the Year (joint winner), and the 2004 Gerald Moore Award.

He made his Wigmore Hall debut in 2004 with Lucy Crowe, was a founder member of the Royal Academy of Music Song Circle and is an alumnus of the Britten-Pears Young Artist Programme.