Fiona Bonds completed her studies at the Royal Academy of Music and in Berlin. She is now Associate Principal Viola of the Academy of St Martin in the Fields, as well as being a member of their Chamber Ensemble. Fiona is also Principal Viola of the City of London Sinfonia, presenting frequent opportunities to appear as a soloist. Passionate about chamber music, Fiona was a founder member of the Grammy nominated Emperor String Quartet, and has recently started running a chamber music series in her home town of Hertford. She loves helping young musicians, coaching the viola section of the National Youth Orchestra, and returning to the Royal Academy of Music to give performance classes, sectionals and as an examiner.

Will Schofield was a student at Edinburgh university in the 1980s. where his tutors included Kenneth Leighton and Edward Harper. He first met Steven Isserlis at the inaugural Deal Music Festival and continued to take lessons from him until graduating, when he was awarded scholarships to study with Radu Aldulescu first in Rome and then at the Menuhin Academy in Gstaad.
On returning to the U.K., Will joined the Emperor String Quartet, together becoming the first British winners of the Evian/Bordeaux international competition and enjoying a busy career over the next 20 years, playing at major concert series throughout Europe. Will continues to enjoy a varied musical life and is currently Principal Cello with the City of London Sinfonia and Associate Principal Cello with the Academy of St. Martin in the Fields, and in 2023 joined the Maggini Quartet.

Since winning First Prize at the Maria Canals International Piano Competition in Barcelona, British pianist Viv McLean has performed in all the major venues in the UK, as well as throughout Europe, Japan, Australia and the USA. Viv often collaborates with groups such as the Leopold String Trio, Ensemble 360, the Ysaye Quartet, the Sacconi String Quartet, as well as with artists such as Natalie Clein, Alice Neary, Daniel Hope, Lawrence Power, David Le Page, Adrian Brendel, Rebecca Evans and Mary Bevan. Viv has appeared at many festivals including the International Beethoven Festival in Bonn, the Festival des Saintes in France, Vinterfestspill i Bergstaden in Norway and the Cheltenham International Festival in the UK.

Julian Godlee was head chorister at Kings College Cambridge under Sir David Willcocks. During this time, he toured Europe and West Africa, and of course sang in many Christmas broadcasts of BBC’s Nine Lessons and Carols.
He studied singing with Sir Peter Pears and has recorded with Benjamin Britten, Herbert Howels and Sir Neville Marriner, and performed as soloist on Classic FM and BBC Radio 3, as well as in The Royal Albert Hall. He performs regularly as an oratorio bass soloist, and has recently, as soloist, given the premieres of works by Will Todd, Susannah Self ‘Sea Symphony’ and Douglas Coombes ‘The Bravest Man’. He now primarily performs in solo recitals throughout the UK.

Until September 2019, Brenda Bleweetwas Joint Head of Accompaniment at Chetham’s School of Music in Manchester where she was part of the staff accompaniment team for 25 years alongside an active performing career. She is now based in Norfolk as a freelance accompanist and recitalist. ,br> As a recitalist, performances have taken her to major venues and festivals throughout the UK, Europe, Los Angeles and New York collaborating with many singers and instrumentalists. She has given live broadcasts on Classic FM, BBC Radio 3 and NRK radio.

James Kirby studied at the Royal Academy of Music in London with Hamish Milne and the Moscow Conservatoire with Tatiana Nikolaeva and Eliso Virsaladze. Following his student years in Moscow he undertook regular solo and chamber music tours of the former Soviet Union, making notable appearances at the Sakharov Festival in Nizhny Novgorod, the Omsk Festival and the Viktor Merzhanov Festival in Tambov. He was a semi-finalist in the International Tchaikovsky Competition in Moscow and won First Prize in the Citta di Marsala Piano Competition in Sicily.
He has appeared as concerto soloist in venues including the Royal Albert Hall and Royal Opera House, Covent Garden in London, Symphony Hall, Birmingham, the Great Hall of the Moscow Conservatoire and Astana Opera House. He has performed both Brahms Concertos in Russia and Romania.
James was a member of the Barbican Piano Trio for over thirty years, performing at Wigmore Hall, in major UK festivals and concert series, and throughout Europe and the USA. Highlights included Carnegie Recital Hall and several cycles of Beethoven’s complete Piano Trios including the Master Concert Series at Wigmore Hall. The Trio’s repertoire consists of over seventy works.

Lesley Schatzberger has spent much of her career as principal clarinet with the English Baroque Soloists and Orchestre Révolutionnaire et Romantique. She was also a member of Stockhausen’s chamber group, taking part in many performances and recordings with him. Chamber music recordings include the clarinet quintets by Mozart and Brahms, Mozart’s quintet for clarinet, basset horn and strings, the two Konzertstücke for clarinet, basset horn and piano by Mendelssohn, Schubert’s Shepherd on the Rock, and Spohr’s Six German Songs. Lesley teaches at the University of York, by which she was awarded an honorary doctorate. She has also been awarded Honorary Membership of the Royal Northern College of Music.

Nicola Tait Baxter studied at the RAM, winning prizes for solo and chamber music, and graduating with first-class honours. At 24 she gave her first solo broadcast for Radio 3 and joined the Academy of St. Martin in the Fields chamber orchestra. For 5 years she was cellist in the renowned Fitzwilliam String Quartet, performing and giving masterclasses throughout Europe, Russia, North America and South Africa. As soloist, she performs most of the major ‘cello concertos and has given concerts of the complete solo suites by Bach in festivals in Europe and the USA. A founder member of the clarinet trio Amabile, Nicola also regularly performs with pianist Colin Stone, Ensemble Serafin (with Nicola Loud & Viv McLean) and the Bochmann String Trio.

Paul Nicholson’s musical career has ranged from employment at the Britten-Pears School for Advanced Musical Studies - where he coached and accompanied alongside its co-founder, Peter Pears - to solo performance, and recording and directing with groups such as the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment. His recordings for Hyperion have included Handel’s Organ Concertos (directed by Roy Goodman), and his Eight Harpsichord Suites of 1720 - this has been the reviewer’s choice in BBC Radio 3’s ‘Building a Library’. He is also an Anglican Priest – now retired from parish ministry – and is increasingly returning to chamber music with piano.

This concert offers a rare opportunity to hear a variety of historical keyboard instruments in their proper musical settings - each introduced, demonstrated, and brought to life with repertoire written for its unique sound.
Our journey begins with music of the 16th and 17th centuries, performed on the harpsichord (a copy of a single-manual anonymous Italian instrument) and on the church’s resident chamber organ (a three-stop box organ built by Gary Crane). Composers featured in this first part include Orlando Gibbons, John Bull, Girolamo Frescobaldi, Jan Pieterszoon Sweelinck, and Louis Couperin. We then move into the later Baroque, with harpsichord works by Johann Sebastian Bach, François Couperin, and Jacques Duphly. Duphly’s music will also be heard on the fortepiano - a copy by Dennis Woolley of the famous Anton Walter instrument from around 1800. The fortepiano will remain the focus for pieces by C.P.E. Bach and W.A. Mozart.
The programme ends with the majestic sound of the church’s three-manual “Father Willis” organ - an overwhelming conclusion to a celebration of the rich diversity of the keyboard tradition.

Dan Tidhar completed a Masters in harpsichord performance at the UdK-Berlin, studying with Mitzi Meyerson in Berlin and Ketil Haugsand in Cologne, in parallel with a PhD in digital musicology at TU-Berlin. Since coming to Cambridge as a postdoctoral researcher he established himself as a harpsichordist, organist, fortepianist, choral director and a collector and restaurateur of early keyboard instruments. He performs regularly as a continuo player and soloist, both locally and internationally. Recent performances included Southwell Music Festival and the Well-Tempered Clavier Marathon in Jerusalem. Dan is the Cambridge Music Faculty’s advisor for historic keyboard instruments, and a member of Wolfson College.

Daniel Ephgrave is a flute specialist based in London whose work spans musical theatre, orchestral performance, and chamber music. He has held chairs in numerous West End and UK touring productions. He is currently playing in Here We Are at the National Theatre.

Kathryn McGuinness is a classical saxophonist and graduate of the Guildhall School of Music & Drama. She has performed as a soloist with the London Mozart Players and recorded with the Delta Saxophone Quartet.

Jill Morton enjoys a highly successful career as a soloist, chamber musician, and teacher. Since her professional debut in 1994, she has performed in all the major UK concert halls, including the Royal Albert Hall, and across Europe, receiving consistent critical acclaim for her expressive and compelling playing.

Established in 2011, the a cappella vocal group, Courtyard Quartet (Pam Lambert, Jan Robinson, Geoff Blyth, Paul Durbin) are well known to Soundbites audiences for their popular performances of a wide range of music in various styles. Together with four new members, they make a welcome return in a programme titled ‘Arrivals and departures’.