Thursday 9 February | 7.30pm
Curtis Auditorium, MTU Cork School of Music
The Jacquin Trio are an audacious classical chamber ensemble, dedicated to exploring, expanding and celebrating music for the inimitable combination of clarinet, viola/violin and piano. The only group to have won both the Royal Overseas League and St Martin in-the-Fields Competitions, the Jacquins have been making music together for the best part of a decade.
The trio take their name from the von Jacquin family – the original dedicatees of Mozart’s famous Kegelstatt Trio. With a line up that allows them the rare freedom of music for both violin and viola trio in a single concert, they have a vast and varied repertoire at their fingertips; from works by Mozart, Beethoven, Bruch, Schumann and Kurtag to Stravinsky and Bartok.
Regrettably, this concert has been cancelled due to the enforced closure of MTU’s Cork campuses on Thursday 9th and Friday 10th of February.
Programme includes:
Johannes Brahms: Clarinet Trio in A minor, Op. 114
Songs and romances by Clara and Robert Schumann (new arrangements)
Jessie Grimes Clarinet & Bass Clarinet
Kay Stephen Viola & Violin
Charis Hanning Piano
London-based Irish clarinettist Jessie Grimes, despite not being able to actually juggle, loves juggling different careers. She is a chamber musician and orchestral player, as well as a teacher, presenter and creative workshop leader.
She has performed as a soloist at the Purcell Room, St John’s Smith Square, St Martin-in-the-Fields,NCH Dublin and at the Brighton Festival, but her first love is chamber music. As well as her long-standing joyful collaboration with the Jacquin Trio, she also enjoys a musical relationship with the Dr K Sextet, Ensemble Perpetuo, The Riot Ensemble and Ossian Ensemble.
As an orchestral musician, Jessie been principal clarinet of the Wexford Festival Opera Orchestra since 2014 and also enjoys working with orchestras such as the BBC and RTE Orchestras, ROH Covent Garden and Camerata Ireland. As a student she enjoyed many outrageously fun and musically inspiring tours with the European Union Youth Orchestra.
Jessie is really keen to share her love for music with others. She teaches clarinet at the Royal College of Music (RCM) Junior Department. She has presented live on BBC television, is a Live Music Now and Sound Connections mentor, and delivers workshops for Camerata Ireland, Wigmore Learning, Spitalfields and RPO Resound. She also works closely with with the Ulster Orchestra, presenting concerts and workshops and with Sinfonia Viva as an SEN specialist and creative workshop leader.
Jessie graduated with an MMus from the RCM in 2011 and was awarded the Worshipful Company of Musicians Silver Medal for Outstanding Musical Achievement as well as RCM Rising Star and RCM Senior Woodwind Prizes, thanks to many hours in practice rooms fuelled by huge double-decker sandwiches. As well as being a musician she dreams of becoming a vegetable gardener, and loves hiking, rock climbing, yoga and stand-up comedy.
Scottish violist and violinist Kay Stephen is passionate about ensemble playing in all of its forms, and loves the spontaneity and communication of making music with others.
As a chamber musician, she has been a recipient of numerous awards including the Royal Overseas League Chamber Music Prize and the Audience Engagement Prize at the Franz Schubert and Modern Music Competition, Graz. She has been supported by the City Music Foundation, the Tunnell Trust and twice by the Park Lane Group, performing regularly at major UK venues including Manchester’s Bridgewater Hall, the Wigmore Hall, the Cadogan Hall and frequently on BBC Radio 3.
For nearly ten years, Kay was violist with the award winning Gildas Quartet, performing with them world wide throughout China, South Africa and Australia, among others and recording for Champs Hill. She has performed with ensembles such as the Elias, Navarra, Florian and Edinburgh quartets, and the Manchester Collective, the Vonnegut Collective, Ensemble Deva and Red Note Ensemble. Formerly co-principal viola with the Manchester Camerata, she appeared many times as principal and as soloist with the orchestra. She has been invited as guest principal viola with the Amsterdam Baroque Orchestra, the Royal Scottish National Orchestra, Camerata Alma Viva, as co-principal with the BBC Philharmonic, the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra, the City of London Sinfonia and the Britten Sinfonia, and as a freelance player with the Academy of St Martin-in-the-Fields. She also performs as violinist with orchestras such as the London Contemporary Orchestra, the Royal Northern Sinfonia, the Hallé and the Gabrieli Consort.
Concerto performances have included first viola in Brandenburg 6, under the baton of Nicholas Kremer, and Bosso’s ‘Towards the Golden Hour’, both with the Manchester Camerata; Telemann Viola Concerto at St. Martin-in-the-Fields, and violin concertos by Brahms, Mozart and Joe Cutler. Through a long time musical collaboration with clarinettist and composer Jack McNeill, Kay joined twelve piece cross-genre ensemble, Propellor in residency at Snape Maltings. The group’s debut recording ‘Loom’ was released in 2019.
Kay was thrilled to have been invited to curate the chamber music strand of the incredible Aldeburgh Young Musicians programme for 2019-20. This has involved devising and leading residential courses at Snape Maltings, and more recently coordinating a month long online project during the Covid 19 lockdown.
As the newest addition to the Jacquin Trio, Kay has loved immersing herself in the rich and surprising repertoire for the combination of clarinet, viola and piano, as well as treading new paths with her colleagues as they explore the equally wonderful trio repertoire for violin.
With family roots in Vancouver and Hong Kong, pianist Charis Hanning made London her home after arriving there as a naive student in 2009 with little more than her Canadian hoodie and keep-cup. Her sense of adventure is ever-present, making her a versatile, creative and spirited artist.
Experienced in solo, accompaniment and chamber music, Charis loves most of all to collaborate with others. As well as being a founding member of the Jacquin Trio, Charis has worked with instrumentalists and singers from around the world in places such as Fundación Juan March and Chan Centre for the Performing Arts. She has also combined with singers at the Aldeburgh English Song Project and Vancouver International Song Institute. Currently she very much enjoys working with students at Trinity Laban Conservatoire of Music and Dance, as their Junior Fellow accompanist.
Charis has given solo performances in the UK including at Purcell Room and St Martin-in-the-Fields, and also in Canada, Hong Kong, Italy and India. Among her solo awards are the McCallum Prize at the Royal Overseas League Keyboard Competition, the Belle Shenkman Award and the John & Jean Redcliffe-Maud Prize at RCM.
Beyond her concert schedule, Charis takes great delight in inspiring music-lovers and music-novices alike. She coaches chamber groups and gives masterclasses for young musicians, is staff pianist at Trinity Laban’s Junior Department, mentors artists for Live Music Now, leads creative workshops and gives teacher-trainings.
Charis received her MMus with distinction from RCM and her BMus from the University of British Columbia. For her, making music with the Jacquins is so fun because it’s like how she makes food – by instinct, with spice and for sharing.