Edgware Orchestra - Who's Who

Conductor - Rachael Young

Rachael began studying conducting several years ago with Lawrence Leonard at Morley College London. She has since been invited to participate in several prestigious masterclasses including, The Neeme Jarvi Summer Academy with Neeme Jarvi and Paavo Jarvi as Part of The David Oistrakh Festival held annually in their native Estonia, with Jorma Panula in Amsterdam and London and also in ‘The London Masterclasses’ at The Royal Academy of Music with The London Concert Soloists Chamber Orchestra.

Rachael was recently invited to conduct The Winchmore String Orchestra where she is now resident conductor. She was appointed conductor of The Edgware Symphony Orchestra in January 2002 and in 1998 assistant conductor to The Hendon String Orchestra.

Rachael has guest conducted with ‘One Voice’ and also The City of Peterborough Symphony Orchestra including a collaboration with Anthony Hopkins in his work for narrator and orchestra and recently made her first appearance at St. Martin in the Fields conducting ‘I Maestri.’ Other ensembles conducted include The St Petersburg Symphony Orchestra, The Kaiserslautern Symphony Orchestra,The Surrey Sinfonia, The Kingston University Symphony Orchestra, The Sibelius Academy Symphony Orchestra, Musica Viva and The Royal Academy of Music Symphony Orchestra.

Born in New Zealand Rachael Young began her musical studies at 14 with the cello. She went on to study at Victoria University, Wellington with Wilfred Simmeneaur where she took her B. Mus. A scholarship from The Boston Conservatory of Music enabled her to spend a postgraduate year studying the cello, after which she returned to NZ and played in The New Zealand Symphony Orchestra and also directed the ensemble‘ The Saint Andrews on The Terrace Cello Choir.’ She came to England in 1994 taking up a New Zealand Arts council grant that enabled her to study cello with William Pleeth and she subsequently went on to study with Moray Welsh.

Eleanor Percy was born in 1979 in Malvern, Worcestershire. She graduated with a first class honours degree from Trinity College of Music, London where she studied as a violin scholar with Nona Liddell MBE. Previously she studied with Angela Richey and Roger Coull.

At the age of 17, Eleanor won the English Speaking Union's prestigious Pushman Award for her interpretations of Britten and Rachmaninov Whilst studying at Trinity College of Music, she also won the Langdon Prize for Classical Concerto, the John Barbirolli Prize for Piano Trio, the Mehroo and Jeejeebhoy Prize for Violin and the John Barbirolli Prize for String Quartet. In 2000, Eleanor won 1st Prize and the Audience Prize at the Zumaia International Festival of Music in Spain with Trio Delora.

Eleanor is best known for her work in Duo which she formed in 2000 with pianist Irina Lyakhovskaya at Trinity College of Music. Over the past six years their work together has grown, matured and developed into what is clearly a remarkable musical partnership.

Their first commercial CD, on the IMLab label features sonatas by Mozart, Brahms and Prokofiev. Following its release, Duo signed a contract to record the complete Mozart sonatas for the Melodiya label. Volume 1; The Mannheim, Paris and Salzburg Sonatas was released in spring 2005 and Volume 2; The Viennese Sonatas was subsequently released in May 2006.

Duo have been highly acclaimed for their concert performances throughout the UK and Europe. They gave their Wigmore Hall debut in March 2005, supported by the Tillett Trust and the Cavatina Chamber Music Trust. As newly appointed Blüthner Artists, they returned to perform at the Wigmore Hall in an extremely successful recital at the end of February 2006 and again in March 2007. Already known for their ambitious projects; in just one year, Duo performed the complete Beethoven sonatas and appeared at the Logomusica Festival at the Coliseum in Porto (Portugal) with the complete Mozart sonatas.

From 2003 to 2004, Eleanor and Irina were the Helen Roll Junior Fellows at Trinity College of Music, London where they studied with Nona Liddell MBE and John Bingham. Future engagements for the duo include the Wigmore Hall and the Purcell Room and in June they will be making their much anticipated debut at the Philharmonic Hall in St. Petersburg as part of conductor Yuri Termirkanov’s festival “White Nights”.

Outside her work in Duo, Eleanor is in demand as a soloist and has performed concertos by Bach, Mozart, Beethoven, Bruch, Brahms, Chausson and Saint-Saens with orchestras in and around London. As an orchestral player, she has worked with the London Philharmonic Orchestra, English Chamber Orchestra and London Camerata.

Eleanor plays an eighteenth century Ceruti, generously loaned by Trinity College of Music and a David Munro, made for her in 1999.