DATE: Saturday 24th of May
TIME: 11am
FREE to attend - all welcome!

Join us for a family-friendly violin and cello performance in the courtyard of East Quay.

Introducing Jacqueline Shave on the Violin

Jacqueline Shave is one of the most versatile and dynamic musicians of her generation. She is an acclaimed leader, director and virtuoso chamber musician and is noted for her many collaborations with other musicians and artists of all genres.

Jacqueline received her formal training at the Royal Academy of Music but drew her particular performance inspiration and her love of chamber music from her time at the Britten Pears School in Snape.

She has since been in constant demand as a leader, beginning with English Touring Opera on leaving her studies, and subsequently guest leading many of the UK's orchestras including the London Sinfonietta, Scottish Chamber Orchestra, Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, BBC Scottish, BBC Symphony and the Nash Ensemble.

Jackie spent fifteen years leading the Brindisi String Quartet, giving concerts worldwide and making many recordings. She has appeared at the Wigmore Hall over fifty times. She is former leader and director of the Britten Sinfonia, Associate Ensemble at London's Barbican Centre. Notable performances include The Messiah in the Concert gebouw and Bach’s St John Passion at the Barbican. She is leader of the Red Note Ensemble, Scotland's leading contemporary music group, and gives concerts regularly as violinist in the Britten Oboe Quartet.

Jackie has appeared as conductor at the Barbican, St John’s Smith Square, Milton Court and at the Loch Shiel Festival, conducting works by Henze, Helen Grime, Anna Clyne and Benjamin Britten.

She gives performance classes at the Royal Academy of Music in London and the Royal Conservatoire in Glasgow and has taught at the Yehudi Menuhin School.

In 2011, she took a year away and based herself on the Isle of Harris in the Hebrides to explore other musical pathways, resulting in ‘Postcards from Home’ a world music/jazz CD in collaboration with Kuljit Bhamra (tabla) and John Parricelli (guitar).During this year she presented a complete Beethoven String Quartet Cycle in a Sculptor's studio on the East coast of Harris, and gave a free improvisation concert in a cave on Hestur in the North Atlantic Faroe Islands, which she sailed to via St Kilda with her husband on their boat Kyle.

Jackie is particularly drawn to Indian music and improvisation, and has collaborated with musicians such as Amjad Ali Khan, Kuljit Bhamra, Nitin Sawhney and Anoushka Shankar. She is the violinist in Simon Thacker’s group committed to Indian music, Svara Kanti, with whom she has performed and made recordings.

 She hosts a festival in Northern Italy in the tiny village of Borniga where the concerts are given in the square surrounded by mountains. 

Jackie works regularly in the London studios recording music for pop, film and TV. Her string quartet recorded the music for ‘Portrait of a Lady’ ( Nicole Kidman) and were subsequently invited to perform at the Venice Film Festival.

She led the chamber group for Thomas Adès' music for the film ‘Colette’ and for ‘Final Portrait’ directed by Stanley Tucci, and has played on hundreds of soundtracks, including Bond, Shrek, Mission Impossible and Harry Potter.

Jackie lives on Exmoor and is committed to the premise that ‘Music is for All’. She is always searching for ways to bring music out of the concert hall into the community. She has given performances in prisons, refugee centres, Ugandan orphanages, care homes, schools and hospitals and is currently in the process of forming a chamber orchestra for Somerset, Devon and Cornwall, planning to launch later in 2021.

Jackie plays on a violin by Nicolò Amati made in Cremona in 1672, acquired on her behalf by Nigel Brown OBE and the Stradivari Trust.

Introducing Robert Irvine on the cello

Robert Irvine is an accomplished cellist, and founded the Chamber Group of Scotland with Sally Beamish and James MacMillan.

Born in Glasgow, Robert was awarded a scholarship to the Royal College of Music (RCM) at age 16, where he studied with Christopher Bunting and Amaryllis Fleming. While there he won most of the major prizes in chamber music and solo playing.

After leaving the RCM, he studied with William Pleeth and Pierre Fournier, before joining the Philharmonia Orchestra as sub principal cello. He also worked extensively at Aldeburgh, forming the Brindisi String Quartet and working closely with Sir Peter Pears as continuo cellist and as principal cellist of the Britten Pears Orchestra.  At this time he toured much of Europe with the Brindisi Quartet, making numerous festival appearances and broadcasts.

He left the Philharmonia in 1988 to take up the position of principal cello with the Academy of St Martin-in-the-Fields, touring extensively. In 1990 he returned to Scotland to take up the post of principal cellist with Scottish Opera Orchestra, and founded the Chamber Group of Scotland with Sally Beamish and James MacMillan, performing and broadcasting a wide range of both chamber and solo music.

He is artistic director of the Red Note Ensemble which specialises in contemporary repertoire, and has a busy schedule of projects throughout the UK and Europe. He has broadcast frequently as soloist and chamber musician on BBC television and Radio 3, including several live performances on “In Tune.” He is a founder member of the Da Vinci Piano Trio, who play and broadcast widely in the UK, and also performs regularly with Allan Neave, guitar. He has performed concerts and recitals throughout the UK, including the Cheltenham Festival, St Magnus Festival, Aldeburgh, Gloucester, Norwich, Glasgow, Edinburgh, Aberdeen and Dundee, as well as several European festivals and at International Musicians Seminar (IMS) Prussia Cove.

He has recorded several critically acclaimed CDs, including the cello works of Sally Beamish for the BIS label, Dalla piccola solo works, the cello music of Giles Swayne, and the Rachmaninov and Shostakovich sonatas for the Delphian label.