Lasham Festival Players 2019
Catherine von Colson
Viola
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Katharina is currently studying on an Advanced Postgraduate Diploma at Trinity Laban Conservatoire of Music and Dance and studies with British violist Roger Chase. She is a Leverhulme Arts Scholar and a Trinity College London Scholar.
Before moving to London she was under tuition of Louise Lansdown and Robin Ireland at Birmingham Conservatoire and was rewarded a Master of Music in Performance.
Katharina has been enjoying taking part in various orchestral projects including the CBSO Orchestral Training Scheme, the Kidderminster Festival Orchestra Graduate Scheme, the Welsh National Opera side-by-side project and has given concerts with Dorset Opera, Hastings Philharmonic, Surrey Opera, New Sussex Opera, Winslow Hall Opera, Orion Orchestra and Dartington Festival Orchestra amongst others.
Upcoming projects include the Lasham Music Festival and projects with Arch Sinfonia.
Her passion for chamber music shows in the work she has done with the Remus String Quartet which included several recitals as part of the Birmingham Art Gallery concert series.
Katharina has taken part in Masterclasses with Thomas Riebl, Garth Knox, Tatjana Masurenko, Roland Gassl and Nobuko Imai to name a few.
Imy Luc
Piano
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Imy Luc was born in Chichester and started learning the piano locally, aged 6. At age 14 she attended the Junior Department of the Guildhall School of Music and Drama, then Chetham's School of Music for sixth form. After this she studied with the Italian pianist Carlo Grante in Italy and did so for two years. Currently she is studying with Dina Parakhina at the Royal Northern College of Music.
Whilst at the RNCM she has had the opportunity to have masterclasses and lessons from many renowned pianists including Boris Berman, Jean Efflam Bavouzet, Katherine Stott and Martin Roscoe. She has also been awarded several prizes, including the Shirley Cattarall Prize and the RNCM Chopin Prize for the best playing of Chopin.
Imy is an experienced performer and has given many recitals around the UK. She has performed in major venues such as St.George’s Hall Bristol, Wigmore Hall, Wales Millennium Centre and the Bridgewater Hall. She made her concerto debut at the age of 17 with the Worthing Philharmonic Orchestra playing Mozart's Piano Concerto no.9.
She is also in high demand as a chamber musician, collaborating with a variety of instrumentalists and singers. In March 2019, she won the prize for piano accompaniment in the RNCM Bessie Cronshaw and Frost Brownson Song Cycle Competition. During her time at the RNCM she has also formed the 'Alegria' Piano Trio who perform together regularly and, in November 2017, were finalists in the RNCM Beethoven Chamber Music competition.
Josh Hall
Oboe & Artistic Director
Josh Hall is a freelance oboist based in Manchester having recently graduated from the Royal Northern College of Music under the tutelage of Jonathan Small & Jenny Galloway having previously studied at Birmingham Conservatoire with George Caird, Jenni Phillips & Richard Weigall. He has performed with the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra, Hallé Orchestra, Northern Ballet Sinfonia, Skipton Camerata, Welsh Chamber Orchestra & Mowbray Orchestra and has participated on schemes with the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra as well as the Hallé. During his time in Birmingham he performed as Principal Oboe with the CBSO Youth Orchestra & Academy.
As a soloist, Josh has performed Strauss’s Oboe Concerto with the Wirral Symphony Orchestra, Finzi’s Interlude for Oboe & Strings as part of the Fondazione Cantiere in Montepuliciano with the RNCM String Orchestra & Mozart’s Sinfonia Concertante with VaCO.
During his studies Josh has participated in a number of masterclasses with international artists including Francois Leleux, Jonathan Kelly, Alexei Ogrintchouk & Nicholas Daniel. He has also attended masterclasses in Klausen, Italy with Nick Deutsch & David Walter. Alongside performing Josh has a real passion for chamber music and is currently Artistic Director for the Lasham Music Festival in Hampshire.
Eva Richards
Cello
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Eva Richards graduated with a First Class Honours degree from the Royal Northern College of Music in 2018, where she studied with Nicholas Trygstad. She is currently pursuing her MA in Cello Performance with Anthony Arnone at the University of Iowa.
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In November 2018, Eva performed Elgar’s Cello Concerto in E minor with the Ulster Orchestra in the final of the Flax Trust Music Awards, for which she was awarded the audience prize. Eva performed in the Wigmore Hall in November 2017 in the final of the Irish Heritage competition. Eva was selected to participate in the 2017/18 Ulster Orchestra Professional Experience Scheme as well as the 2018 RTE National Symphony Orchestra Mentoring Scheme. She has been a member of the National Youth Orchestra of Great Britain and the National Youth Orchestra of Ireland.
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Eva also has a keen interest in chamber music and was awarded a ‘Playing for Peace’ Scholarship to the Apple Hill Center for Chamber Music in New Hampshire. She has had masterclasses with Alisa Weilerstein, Paul Watkins, Karine Georgian and Steven Doane and studied with Andrès Díaz as part of the 2016 Camerata Ireland Academy at Clandeboye Festival. In 2013 Eva was the winner of the Northern Ireland Young Musician of the Year Competition.
Jody Smith
Violin
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Jody Smith is a violinist in her final year at the Royal Northern College of Music, studying with Pavel Fischer and Catherine Yates on a scholarship generously supported by the Waverley Fund. As a soloist she has performed in venues across the U.K. including Symphony Hall, Brangwyn Hall and Birmingham Town Hall. Awarded the Cowen prize for violin in her first year at the RNCM, she then went on to win the Norman George Violin Scholarship Competition last year. For three years, Jody was a member of the National Youth Orchestra of Great Britain and since attending the RNCM she has lead many of the college orchestras, whilst also gaining the opportunity to play with the BBC Philharmonic and Manchester Camerata on their Professional Experience Schemes. As a member of the Marvolo Quartet, Jody enjoys performing a wide range of chamber music in and around Manchester. A recent highlight for the quartet was opening the RNCM Chamber Music Festival with a performance of Haydn’s String Quartet No. 1 Opus 20.
Megan Thompson
Violin
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Megan completed her undergraduate degree at the Royal Northern College of Music in 2018 and has continued her postgraduate studies at the institution under the tutelage of Steven Wilkie. During her studies Megan has an active freelance career performing regularly with ensembles such as Manchester Concert Orchestra, Skipton Camerata and Docklands Sinfonia as well as performing as the solo violinist for the Carpenters Story UK Tour and the Illegal Eagles.
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During her studies she has performed with conductors such as Vasily Petrenko, Sir Mark Elder, Jac Van Steen, En Shao & Anthony Hermus. Megan has worked as principal second violin in projects with leading violinists James Clarke and Pavel Fischer and has performed in side-by-side projects with the Hallé Orchestra and Manchester Camerata. She has also participated in masterclasses with artists such as Yossi Zivoni, Henk Guittart & Verokia Eberle.
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Alongside performing Megan is an active educator and in 2017, was the recipient of the Leverhumle Scholarship Internship Award with RNCM Young Strings. Megan is also the acting director, music teacher and events manager of the award winning Olympias Music Foundation, a charity which delivers free music lessons to primary schools in Greater Manchester.
Steph Yim
Clarinet
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Steph Yim began her musical studies at Chetham’s School of Music in 2006. She graduated with honours from the Royal Northern College of Music in 2017 and then spent a year at the Hochschule für Musik Frankfurt supported by the Countess of Munster Trust. In 2016, Steph also completed a semester of ERASMUS studies at the Kunst Universität in Graz.
Steph has participated in high profile masterclasses with the principal Clarinet of the Berlin Philharmonic, Andreas Ottensamer and the Berlin Philharmonic Wind Quintet. As a member of the National Youth Orchestra, Steph was featured on BBC Radio 3 at the Proms and has worked as principal clarinet under conductors such as Jac van Steen and Sir Mark Elder during her time with the Chetham's Symphony and RNCM Symphony Orchestras.
In 2017, she toured as an Academy member of the Chamber Orchestra of Europe to Baden-Baden, the BBC Proms and as Principal Clarinet of the RNCM Symphony Orchestra at the 42nd Cantiere Internazionale D’arte, Montepulciano. She was also invited to the Järvi Academy in Estonia working with Harri Mäki and the Estonian Festival Orchestra. Most recently, she appeared as a guest at the Crans-Montana Festival Switzerland and played with the Ulster Orchestra and the BBC Philharmonic as part of live broadcasts on Radio 3. Steph is currently Principal Eb Clarinet in the Young Musicians Symphony Orchestra and she will also start her postgraduate studies at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama in September on the Orchestral Artistry Course working closely with the London Symphony Orchestra.