Rachel Helleur-Simcock is a member of the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra and The 12 Cellists of The Berlin Philharmonic. Together with International piano sensation Gwilym Simcock they will be presenting works by Saint-Saens, Fauré, Massenet, Popper and a new work by Gwilym Simcock.
5:00pm Pre-concert Early Bird meal at La Casa Mia (not included in the ticket)
Why not make an evening of it and book your pre-concert dinner at La Casa Mia who are kindly helping to sponsor the concert series
Programme
6:30pm Doors open
7:00: Spotlight Concert
Music performed by talented young people from Sandbach
7:30 Intermission
Refreshments
8:00 Main Concert
The programme to include works by Saint-Saens, Fauré, Massenet, Popper and a new work by Gwilym Simcock.
Rachel Helleur-Simcock has been a member of the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra since 2009. Born in 1980 in Ipswich, Rachel studied at the Purcell School of Music, The Royal Academy of Music and the Hochschule für Musik ‘Hanns Eisler’ in Berlin, before becoming a member of the Karajan Akademie of the Berlin Philharmonic. She was a member of the National Youth Orchestra of Great Britain and the European Union Youth Orchestra, where she was principal cellist. Rachel has worked as guest principal cellist of the London Philharmonic Orchestra, Philharmonia Orchestra, Bavarian Radio Orchestra and the NDR Radio Orchestra of Hamburg. Her first full-time appointment was as the principal cellist of the Deutsche Oper Berlin, where she worked for two years. Rachel is also a member of ‘The 12 Cellists of the Berlin Philharmonic’, a chamber group made up of the Berlin Philharmonic cello section who recently received an Echo Klassik award for their latest recording.
Pianist and composer Gwilym Simcock moves effortlessly between jazz and classical creating a sound that is very much his own working with orchestras, choirs, big bands, small ensembles and musicians across the spectrum of music. His 2011 solo album ‘Good Days at Schloss Elmau” (ACT) was described as “dazzlingly fresh”, “world class”, “stupendous”, “phenomenal”, “a cause for huge celebration”. Gwilym often appears on BBC Radio and TV in the UK. In 2018-9 he was Artist in Residence with the NDR Big Band in Hamburg. Since 2018 he has worked regularly with the LSO Percussion Ensemble with whom he recorded and album “Quartet, Quintet”. In 2021 he worked with the Swedish orchestra OModernt for whom he arranged and recorded “Milestones” based on the music of Miles Davis featuring trombonist Nils Landgren. In 2022 he was commissioned to write a new work “When Time Has Told” for the Stuttgarter Kammerorchester. 2014 saw the release of two highly acclaimed albums on ACT “Instrumation” with the City of London Sinfonia and “Reverie at Schloss Elmau” a duo with bassist Yuri Goloubev. In 2019 he released a solo album on ACT “Near and Now” dedicated to some early influences. Gwilym co-leads Anglo-American Supergroup ‘The Impossible Gentlemen’ with guitarist Mike Walker
and has recorded three highly acclaimed albums with the band on Basho Records. He regularly tours the world with US guitar legend Pat Metheny with Linda May Han Oh and Antonio Sanchez. In 2019 Metheny released his album “From This Place” featuring these musicians on Nonesuch. Gwilym is Professor of Jazz Piano at his alma mater The Royal Academy of Music.
“No young musician outside the pop world has moved as fast into the upper reaches of his profession as Simcock”. Stuart Nicholson, Observer