in:spire with... Rakhi Singh (violin) and Annabelle Lawson (piano)

Dynamic and boundary-breaking violinist, Rakhi Singh - Music Director of the internationally acclaimed Manchester Collective - is joined in recital by pianist Annabelle Lawson

in:spire with... is delighted to host Manchester Collective's groundbreaking Artistic Director and violinist - Rakhi Singh - in concert with pianist Annabelle Lawson.

The evening will have an informal vibe and will be followed by wine and cake. The event is free of charge, although a donation of £7 (cash) on the door would be welcomed. Doors open at 6.30pm.

Rakhi Singh (violin)

Rakhi Singh is Music Director of Manchester Collective and co-Leader of Manchester Camerata. Highlights of 2017/8 included Brahms violin concerto with Cardiff Sinfonietta in Dora Stouzker Hall Cardiff – directing the Four Seasons with Manchester Camerata, Leeds Town Hall and Quartet for the End of time with Guy Johnston and Manchester Collective in Stoller Hall.

Rakhi is also an explorative musician and has been involved with a number of collaborations over the years, most notably as a solo violinist with the National Dance Company of Wales and Clod Ensemble. Throughout 2018 she performed in Shanghai, Washington and the Barbican with the internationally acclaimed Scottish Ensemble in their collaboration of Goldberg Variations with Swedish company Andersson Dance. She performed Different Trains at the opening week of the QEH April 2018 with London Contemporary Orchestra and created a new work based around Janacek’s Intimate Letters string quartet with electronic musician/producer Vessel which was premiered in Aldeburgh Festival June 2018.

With Manchester Collective she has collaborated with pianist Katya Apekishiva, African Cellist Abel Selacoe and his band Chesaba, Oliver Coates, Accordionist Bartosz Glowascki and Swedish dancer Danielle de Vries.

Between 2014-2018 Rakhi was generously supported by a Creative Wales Award which enabled her to embark on all these collaborations.

Annabelle Lawson (piano)

Annabelle Lawson has established herself as a pianist and chamber musician who exudes subtlety and vivacity in equal measure. She has performed widely, in venues including the Wigmore Hall, Southbank Centre, Royal Festival Hall, Bridgewater Hall and Kings Place, as well as broadcasting live for BBC Radio 3 and national Australian radio. She is a passionate advocate of both new and obscure repertoire, having commissioned and premiered a large number of works with the Lawson Trio and recently performing Stanford’s little-known 2nd piano concerto, as well as chamber music by Rebecca Clarke and Louis Vierne.

Having performed recently as concerto soloist with the Göttingen Symphony Orchestra in Germany, played trios in a French château, worked as a cabaret artist in the Far East, played ‘Carnival of the Animals’ with kangaroo impersonating dancers from Ballet Rambert and, last but not least, worn an Octopus Hat on stage for Wigmore Learning – her career is notable for its variety and versatility.

She enjoys a distinguished career as a music educator, teaching piano and chamber music at the Royal Academy of Music and examining for the ABRSM. She is also the Artistic Director of Chamber Music 2000, for whom she has organised and hosted numerous education workshops and inter-school showcase concerts, in venues including the Purcell Room, Menuhin Hall and Howard Assembly Rooms. Annabelle also ran a busy 2015/16 concert series for the West Essex branch of the hugely successful Bach to Baby enterprise.

Annabelle studied piano as a child at Chetham’s School of Music, before reading music at King’s College, Cambridge. After completing her BA she undertook a one-year BMus, during which time she researched the social role of the Argentine tango in Paris in the years preceding World War One. She then pursued postgraduate tuition in chamber music at the Royal Academy of Music, who went on to award her piano trio a two-year Junior Leverhulme Chamber Music Fellowship. Annabelle’s teachers have included her father, Peter Lawson, Ronan O’Hora and Philip Fowke.

Performers

Rakhi Singh (violin)

Programme

• J.S. Bach: Partita no.2 in D minor BWV 1004, Chaconne
• Leos Janacek: Sonata for violin and piano
• John Cage: Six Melodies
• Bela Bartok: Romanian Folk Dances