Davis, Emily

Violinist who attended Royal Northern College from 1992 to 1997 and began to fashion a career for herself whilst still in school.

Groups with whom she has worked include the BBC Philharmonic Orchestra, the BBC Symphony Orchestra, the Brunel Ensemble, CHROMA, the City of Birmingham Orchestra, the City of London Sinfonia, the Glyndebourne Touring Orchestra, Intermedi, the London Philharmonic, the London Sinfonietta, Ludus Baroque, the Manchester Camerata, the Northern Sinfonia, the Orchestra of the Golden Age, the Philharmonia, the Scottish Chamber Orchestra, and Sound Collective.

In 2003, Sound Collective appeared in concert at St. John’s in Westminster and Wallingford in Oxfordshire.

The St. John’s concert comprised “Allegro Deciso” by Robert Simpson, “Little Suite for Strings” by Carl Nielsen, “Red Leaves” by John McCabe, “Serenade for Strings” by Dag Wiren, “SinfoniaBrevis” by Matthew Taylor, and “Suite for Violin and Orchestra” and “Two Humoresques for Violin and Orchestra” by Jean Sibelius.

The Wallingford concert included Johann Christian Bach’s “Sonata No. 6”, Claude Debussy’s “Sonata en trio”, David Matthews’ “Clarinet Quartet”, Maurice Ravel’s “Introduction and Allegro”, Toru Takemitsu’s “And then I knew ‘twas Wind”, and Heitor Villa-Lobos’s “Assobio a Jato”.

In 2004, they appeared at St. Giles in London in a program of Benjamin Britten’s “Les Illuminations”, Sir Edward Elgar’s “Serenade for Strings”, Igor Stravinsky’s “Appolon musagete”, and Matthew Taylor’s “Concerto for Horn and Strings”.

They were at the Chelsea Arts Club on 15^th February 2004 in collaboration with pianist John McCabe for a recital of his “Fantasies for Cello and Piano”, “Fauvel’s Rondeaux”, “MusicaNotturna for Violin, Cello and Piano”, and “Sonata for Cello and Piano”.

Their concerts at Bishopsgate Hall, Brewood in Staffordshire and the Little Missenden Festival in Bucks consisted of Sir Edward Elgar’s “Serenade for Strings”, David Matthews’ “Adagio”, Robert Simpson’s “Allegro Deciso”, John Tavener’s “Song of the Angel”, Matthew Taylor’s “Concerto for Horn and Strings”, and Ralph Vaughan Williams’ “Five Variants of Dives and Lazarus”.

In 2006, they performed John Simpson’s “String Quartet No. 1” and “String Quartet No. 7” in Hastings, Sussex.

CHROMA appeared at several schools on 23^rd and 24^th May 2007, including Christ Church Primary, Halley Primary, Old Palace Primary and Stebon Primary for an educational program that highlighted various instruments. Selections included “En Bateau” by Claude Debussy, “Storm” from “Four Sea Interludes” from Peter Grimes by Benjamin Britten, “Sinbad and the Sea” from Scheherazade by Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov, “Song of the Volga Boatmen”, and “La Source” by Alphonse Hasselmans.

Emily hosted the Philharmonia’s podcast on 20^th August 2007. It included a visit to Royal Festival Hall and a conversation with Christoph van Dohnanyi about, among other things, Beethoven’s ninth.

CHROMA ended 2008 with Music for Christmas at the Unitarian Chapel. Emily, along with cellist Clare O’Connell and violist Rose Redgrave, were joined by accordionist Howard Skempton for three chorales by Johann Sebastian Bach.

On 16^th September 2010, the aforementioned string musicians performed Bach’s “Goldberg Variations”, arranged for string trio, at St. Mary’s Church in Aylesbury.

Now based in Norway she was the Associate Concertmaster of the Bergen Philharmonic Orchestra for the season 2016-17. She is also First Violinist of the newly North Sea Ensemble and in 2016 became Concertmaster of the European Union Youth Orchestra.

Here is talking to the violinist Pierrette Galeone about her career in the Philharmonia in the 1950s for the orchestra’s 70th Anniversary …

Sources:

Davis, Emily

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