2nd April 2016, 7:30 p.m.
Linlithgow Academy Theatre
Tickets: Full £12, Concession £10, Student £5
Alexa Beattie (viola), and Elspeth Wyllie (piano)
SCHUMANN: Frauenliebe und -Leben Op 42, arranged for viola and piano
SALLY BEAMISH: Sonata for viola & piano
BRAHMS: Sonata in F minor Op 120
DE FALLA: Suite Populaire Espagnole (6 songs arr. for viola and piano from ‘7 Canciones populares españolas’)
ALEXA BEATTIE and ELSPETH WYLLIE are both originally from East Lothian and studied at St Mary’s Music School.
Alexa holds the prestigious Artist’s Certificate in Chamber Music from San Francisco Conservatory. She is currently based in Munich where she is a guest player with Munich Chamber and Rundfunk Orchestras and a guest Principal Viola with the Chamber Orchestra of the Bavarian Philharmonic.
Her early musical development is rooted in traditional Scottish song which she was taught by ear at Law Primary School in North Berwick. She was a prize winner in group and duo vocal competitions at the Royal National Mod. After her time at Edinburgh’s St Mary’s Music School she gained her undergraduate and masters degrees in Performance from the Guildhall School of Music and Drama in London.
Elspeth specialises in accompaniment and chamber music. Based in London, she has performed throughout the UK and in Spain, France and Switzerland. She performs most regularly with the Metier Ensemble (including for Linlithgow Arts Guild in 2014), as well as with musicians from major UK orchestras and with singers from Glyndebourne, Garsington and Opera Holland Park, and has also given concerts in France, Spain, Denmark and Switzerland.
Following her education at St Mary’s Music School, Edinburgh she studied at Oxford University and the Royal Academy of Music in London. Elspeth teaches piano and general musicianship in addition to her extensive performing career.
The concert programme opens with an arrangement of Schumann’s romantic music to a song cycle (A Woman’s Love and Life) arranged for viola and piano. The subsequent piece by Sally Beamish was commissioned in 2002 and includes music inspired by Schumann’s work. Sally is also a viola player, originally from Scotland. She recently had one of her works “Stravaigers” premiered in 2012 at the Celtic Connections festival in Glasgow. Brahms Sonata in F minor (Op 120) was one of the last of his chamber works and was originally written for clarinet. The pieces by De Falla are arrangements of music for 6 songs, based on melodies from Spanish folk song collections. They were composed in 1922 and are presented in an arrangement for viola and piano which features aspects of the music related to pieces for both guitar and voice.