EAChO presents: Wonderful Prokofiev and Mozart
Saturday 25 April at 7:30pm
Duration - 120 minutes
West Road Concert Hall
Tickets : £25 adults, £22 concessions, £10 students, £5 under 18s
Prokofiev - Classical Symphony
Mozart - Clarinet Concerto
Mozart - Symphony no 41 'Jupiter'
Conductor Dominic Grier
Soloist Anna Hashimoto - Clarinet
The East Anglia Chamber Orchestra is delighted to return to the West Road Concert Hall in Cambridge with another attractive programme that demonstrates the brilliance of the classical form. Prokofiev, Mozart, and Clementi were all celebrated as virtuoso pianists during their lifetimes and all composed within the constraints of sonata form.
Under the skilful baton of Dominic Grier, the concert will open with the delightful “Classical” Symphony by Prokofiev. The composer described his lively and inspiring first symphony as the work Haydn would have written had he been alive in 1918. The Mozart Clarinet Concerto is well known and loved throughout the world and will be performed by the hugely talented Anna Hashimoto.
Mozart greatly admired Bohemian wind playing and wrote this concerto for his friend, Anton Stadler, to be played on the new-fangled basset clarinet.
Muzio Clementi’s symphonic works are less well known – although they were very popular in London during the early nineteenth century. The sparkling D major overture demonstrates his mastery of sonata form. By contrast, the late symphonies of his near contemporary, Mozart, are justifiable famous. 1788 was an incredibly busy and productive year for Mozart, including the composition of the last three symphonies. He would not have known that his 41st symphony would be his last and the Jupiter title was not given to it by the composer. Yet, as our concert concludes, you will feel that you have heard the music of the gods.
Join us for a wonderful evening of marvellous and inspiring music-making.
NOTE: advance reservations can be made by emailing Julian Brandon HERE
Guest Soloist: Anna Hashimoto : Clarinet
Anna Hashimoto’s career encompasses appearances as a soloist and orchestral musician alongside a commitment to education and new music. As a soloist Anna has worked with conductors such as Vladimir Ashkenazy, Myung-Whun Chung and Martin Brabbins, performed with chamber musicians such as Michael Collins, Leon McCawley, and Tsuyoshi Tsutsumi, and string quartets such as the Endellion, Kodaly, Maxwell and Prazak String Quartets. After winning the Young Clarinettists Competition in Tokyo in 2003, she made her London concerto debut at the age of fifteen with the English Chamber Orchestra at the Barbican Centre, and went on to win international clarinet competitions in Carlino, Italy, in 2009, and the 1st International Clarinet Competition Ghent, in 2010. Following this, her solo career took her to major venues across Europe and Japan. Her four solo CD albums all received high praise, and have been heard on NHK TV and FM, Tokyo FM, ABC Radio and BBC Radio 3. She is a founding member of the Atéa Quintet, the Associate Ensemble in Residence at the Royal Birmingham Conservatoire and former Quintet in Residence at The Purcell School.
She has appeared as guest principal clarinet with numerous UK orchestras including the BBC Symphony Orchestra, London Philharmonic Orchestra, Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, London Mozart Players, and the Orchestra of the Royal Opera House, as well as orchestras further afield such as the Japan Chamber Orchestra, Amman Chamber Orchestra, and the Flanders Symphony Orchestra.
Anna teaches at the Royal Birmingham Conservatoire and the Royal College of Music Junior Department, and is a Tonebase Artist. She has taught on many summer schools and is a regular tutor for the National Youth Orchestra of Great Britain. She has given masterclasses and workshops across the country and judged numerous competitions for organisations such as the Japan Clarinet Society, Cardiff Clarinet Convention, and the International Clarinet Association.
Anna is keen to promote new music, having commissioned numerous works for her recitals, including ‘Hikinuki’ by Richard Bullen. She recorded an album of music for clarinet and piano by Edward Cowie, and regularly works with contemporary ensembles such as Manchester Collective and Trans Atlantic Ensemble.
Anna is a graduate of the Royal College of Music Junior Department, The Purcell School, and the Royal Academy of Music where she studied with the world–renowned soloist Michael Collins. She is now an Associate of the Royal Academy of Music, a Vandoren-UK artist, and is represented by Nippon Artist Management Inc. in Japan. She plays on Peter Eaton International model clarinets and basset clarinet. In her free time Anna enjoys spinning wool and knitting.
Guest Conductor : Dominic Grier
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Dominic Grier is widely acknowledged as a conductor of distinction, equally at home in opera, ballet and symphonic work as well as contemporary music and orchestral training. He was a permanent staff conductor at the Royal Opera House from 2008-10, affiliated with the Jette Parker Young Artists Programme, and has since served as a regular guest conductor with many of the foremost ballet companies in the UK and Europe including The Royal Ballet, Dutch National Ballet, Ballet Vlaanderen, Birmingham Royal Ballet, Northern Ballet and Scottish Ballet. He has been Music Director of the Worthing Philharmonic Orchestra since 2014 and was recently a major prizewinner at both the 2024 Bucharest International Conducting Competition and the 2024 Ionel Perlea International Conducting Competition.
He has served as Music Director of the Ashover Festival Orchestra (2007-9) and of the King's College London Symphony Orchestra (2009-12), Principal Conductor of the London International Orchestra of Academia (2006-8) and Assistant Conductor for British Youth Opera (2007). He was appointed as Music Director of the Angmering Chorale in January 2025. He is a much-respected teacher of conducting, having served on the academic staff at the Royal Academy of Music as Tutor in Undergraduate Conducting and Postgraduate Second Study Conducting since 2016. He is also a Founder and Director of the Girton Conducting Course, Joint Principal Conductor of the Symphony Orchestra and Sinfonia at the Junior Royal Academy of Music, and Director of The George Hurst Foundation.
In the field of opera, he made a critically acclaimed guest conducting début at the Opéra National de Lyon in March 2010, with the French premiere of Copland’s The Tender Land, and had formerly worked as an Assistant Conductor there, where his repertoire included Siegfried (2007), Porgy and Bess (2008 and 2010) and Death in Venice (2009). He has also assisted on Peter Grimes at the Aldeburgh Festival, and has served as rehearsal conductor to the Britten-Pears Orchestra. More recently, he conducted a rare performance of Malcolm Arnold’s opera The Open Window with the Berkeley Ensemble. He is a regular coach and pianist for the Royal Opera House, working with many of the current and former singers of the Jette Parker Young Artists Programme.
On the concert platform and in the theatre, he has worked recently with the Bucharest Symphony Orchestra, Covent Garden Chamber Orchestra, BBC Concert Orchestra, the Royal Ballet Sinfonia, the Orchestre Symphonique et Lyrique de Nancy, the Orchestre de Limoges et du Limousin, the Orchestra of Welsh National Opera, the Tokyo City Philharmonic, the Orquestra do Theatro Municipal do Rio de Janeiro, the Royal Tunbridge Wells Symphony Orchestra, Salomon Orchestra, Purcell School Symphony Orchestra, and the Chandos Symphony Orchestra, among others. His performances have been broadcast on BBC Radio 3, France Musique, and throughout the UK as part of the Royal Opera House’s live screenings, as well as having been released on DVD for the Opus Arte label.
Other recent projects include The Nutcracker for The Royal Ballet, Faust and Giselle for Ballet Vlaanderen with the Antwerp Symphony Orchestra, a new version of Eugene Onegin for Maribor Opera and Ballet in Slovenia, and David Bintley’s acclaimed production of Cinderella for Birmingham Royal Ballet.
Future engagements include a touring production of The Sleeping Beauty for English National Ballet; concerts in Romania with the Sibiu Philharmonic Orchestra, Bacau Philharmonic Orchestra, Dinu Lipatti Philharmonic Orchestra, Oradea State Philharmonic Orchestra and Arad Philharmonic Orchestra; and performances with the East Anglia Chamber Orchestra and Havant Symphony Orchestra.
Dominic read music at the University of Cambridge and initially studied conducting with George Hurst, then subsequently at the Royal Academy of Music under the tuition of Colin Metters, Sir Colin Davis and Mark Shanahan. He graduated with distinction and was awarded the prestigious DipRAM for outstanding final performances and the Fred Southall Memorial Prize. In 2006, Dominic was a major prize-winner in the Alliance Cornhill Conducting Competition.
