2002/03 Season's Concerts
nineteenth Season

THE ENGLISH ROMANTICS TRIO Click here for the Programme

Victoria Soames Samek - clarinet
Laurence Perkins - bassoon
John Flinders - piano

The English Romantics Trio was formed in 1998 and has given concerts in the UK and Croatia. Their CD the English Romantics for the CD label Clarinet Classics which includes premiere recordings by Hurlstone, Howells and Lloyd was awarded 5/5 for performance by the BBC Music Magazine who wrote: ‘Victoria Soames and her colleagues should be commended for their assiduous scholarship and research... The addition of two pieces (Hurlstone and Lloyd Trios) to the repertoire is most welcome... All the performances are given with a genuine enthusiasm.’  The American Record Guide agreed: ‘Victoria Soames and her colleagues have made this esoteric repertoire their own.’

The English Romantics were selected for recommendation by the National Federation of Music Societies for the 2002/2003 season.

Victoria Soames Samek was a pupil of Roger Fallows before being awarded a scholarship to study at the Royal College of Music where her teachers were Colin Bradbury and bass clarinet Stephen Trier. She later studied with Tony Pay. Since her debut at the Purcell Room she has performed internationally in concertos, duo recitals and concerts with the Mühlfeld Trio of which she is a founder member. She broadcasts for BBC Radio 3 and is a member of English Serenata. Victoria is responsible for commissioning works from major British composers. Her most recent commissions are two works by Thea Musgrave – ‘Autumn Sonata’ a bass clarinet concerto and Threnody for clarinet and piano. Following the premier performance, Victoria made the premiere recording for Cala records of ‘Autumn Sonata’ together with Thea Musgrave’s Clarinet Concerto with the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra under the direction of the composer. This has been re-released on the Clarinet Classics label.

In 1992 she launched the celebrated CD label Clarinet Classics which has quickly established itself as a unique showcase for the clarinet in all its richness and diversity. Her own recordings for Clarinet Classics include On the Winds of English Melody including music by Ireland, Stanford and Bliss with duo partner John Flinders and the World Premiere recording of Copland's Clarinet Sonata voted ‘Most sheerly seductive record of the year’ by the Sunday Times.

Laurence Perkins was born in Lancashire in her 1954 and studied in Manchester with Charles Cracknell, principal bassoonist in the Halle Orchestra, and became principal bassoonist in the Manchester Camerata Orchestra in 1974 while still a student at the Royal Northern College of Music. As a soloist he has given concerts at the Wigmore Hall and the Purcell Room, along with performances throughout the UK and abroad, including a tour of Eastern Europe for the British Council. He has given live and recorded performances for BBC Radio 3, Radio 4, Classic FM and Granada Television. His commercial recordings include an award-winning album for Hyperion in 1982, and solo and chamber recordings for IMP/Pickwick and the Clarinet Classics label, and he has just released a new Hyperion CD of bassoon concertos by Mozart and Weber with the Manchester Camerata conducted by Douglas Boyd.

Laurence is also Director of Wind Chamber Music at the Dartington International Summer School in Devon. His other activities include musical relaxation sessions with cancer patients, and hill walking in remote areas.

John Flinders is from Derby. He studied piano with Dorothea Law at the University of York, and with Mary Peppin at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama.

He now has a wider-ranging musical career; he has appeared on BBC TV, Radio 3 and Classic FM, and performed in Japan, Turkey, Croatia and South America. In recital he has partnered William Bennett, Jill Gomez, Neil Jenkins, Colin Lawson and Adrian Thomson.

John is Assistant Musical Director of the early opera group Opera Restor’d, for whom he prepared an English translation of D Scarlatti’s ‘La Dirindina’. He is a staff accompanist at the Guildhall School's Junior Department and teacher and accompanist at Westminster Under School. In 2000 he made his first appearance at the Dartington International Summer School, and was invited to return in 2001.