Programme:
Ruth Gipps - Piper of Dreams
Thea Musgrave - Niobe (oboe and recorded electronics)
Rhian Samuel - Salve Nos (d'amore)
Angela Slater - Laproptere Meges (d'amore)
Alyssa Morris - Selection from Collission Études, No. III Jimson Weed, No. V Autumn Leaves, No. VI My World is Not Flat.
Thea Musgrave - Whirlwind.
Nicola Hands – Oboe/Oboe D’amore/Cor Anglais
Born in Nottingham in 1987, Nicola Hands graduated in 2013 with Distinction from the Royal Academy of Music Masters programme, where she studied oboe with Melanie Ragge and cor anglais with Jill Crowther. Nicola is a busy freelance performer based in London, and whose playing has been described by local reviewers in Nottingham and Cambridge as both ‘beguiling’ and ‘exquisite’, and according to MusicWeb International her ‘warm, full tone is affecting’.
Nicola was the 2nd oboe and principal cor anglais player for the Orquestra do Norte, Portugal from 2015 to 2017, and has been on trial with the Philharmonia Orchestra. As a freelance performer Nicola has played regularly with the Royal Scottish National Orchestra, the Royal Ballet Sinfonia, the Chameleon Orchestra and the Orpheus Sinfonia as well as many other orchestras in and around London, and is an extra player for English National Opera, English National Ballet and Orquestra Metropolitana in Lisbon. Nicola also plays for musical theatre; from September 2013 to February 2014 she was the oboe and cor anglais player for ‘The Light Princess’ by Tori Amos at the National Theatre, and has played for ‘Miss Saigon’ in the Prince Edward Theatre.
Nicola is also very active as a soloist and chamber musician. As a concert soloist, Nicola has performed the Martinů Concerto with St. Paul’s Sinfonia in 2019, the Vaughan Williams Oboe Concerto with West Forest Sinfonia, the Mozart Oboe Concerto at Jesus College, Cambridge and the Strauss Oboe Concerto in St. Mary’s Church, Nottingham. In 2015 she was awarded a Jellinek soloist’s award by Croydon Symphony Orchestra, and as a result performed the Albinoni D minor concerto in Guildford in 2016 and returned to St. Mary's Church, Nottingham in 2016 for a solo performance of the Marcello D Minor concerto.
Nicola also enjoys giving solo recitals, and has performed in venues such as St. Martin-in-the-Fields, St. James Piccadilly, St. Mary's Perivale, Winchester Cathedral, Peterborough Cathedral, St. George’s Hanover Square, St. James’s Church Paddington and Waltham Abbey as a soloist with pianist Jonathan Pease. The duo was selected to appear in the Making Music Selected Artists guide and is supported by the Concordia Foundation. In 2020 the duo released their first album, Light and Shade, in which ‘Hands’ performances are a wonderful demonstration of the diversity of the oboe and cor anglais repertoire’ and ‘Hands really makes the oboe melodies sing and cohere’.MusicWeb International said of the duo’s recording of Poem by Marina Dranishnikova that ‘It’s hard to imagine a more sensitive and sincere performance of Poem than it receives here.’ The duo released their 2ndalbum, ‘Phoenix’ in early 2021.
In 2019 Nicola co-founded the ‘Tailleferre Ensemble’, a chamber collective whose aims are to support women in music and perform lesser-known chamber works.
In 2012 Nicola was awarded the Evelyn Barbirolli prize for oboe and the Grimaldi Cor Anglais Scholarship at the Royal Academy, and in 2013 she won the concerto class of the Hastings Music Festival Concerto Competition playing the Martinů oboe concerto. In 2013 she was also Highly Commended in the Leila Bull oboe prize at the Academy.
During her Masters Nicola played in many high-profile performances, including principal oboe for Sir Colin Davis, Thierry Fischer and Yan Pascal Tortelier and cor anglais for Jac van Steen and Semyon Bychkov with the Academy Symphony Orchestra. She also performed the solo oboe part in Bainbridge’s Concertante in Moto Perpetuo with the Academy Manson Ensemble conducted by Franck Ollu, in a special birthday celebration concert for the composer.
Before attending the Royal Academy, Nicola completed an MA in languages at Cambridge University. She was very active as both an oboist and a choral scholar in Cambridge. With the help of instrumental and choral scholarships from Jesus College, she was able to pursue her musical ambition, finding many opportunities to perform as both an ensemble player and soloist in the Cambridge music scene.
Ruth Gipps - Piper of Dreams
Thea Musgrave - Niobe (oboe and recorded electronics)
Rhian Samuel - Salve Nos (d'amore)
Angela Slater - Laproptere Meges (d'amore)
Alyssa Morris - Selection from Collission Études, No. III Jimson Weed, No. V Autumn Leaves, No. VI My World is Not Flat.
Thea Musgrave - Whirlwind.
Nicola Hands – Oboe/Oboe D’amore/Cor Anglais
Born in Nottingham in 1987, Nicola Hands graduated in 2013 with Distinction from the Royal Academy of Music Masters programme, where she studied oboe with Melanie Ragge and cor anglais with Jill Crowther. Nicola is a busy freelance performer based in London, and whose playing has been described by local reviewers in Nottingham and Cambridge as both ‘beguiling’ and ‘exquisite’, and according to MusicWeb International her ‘warm, full tone is affecting’.
Nicola was the 2nd oboe and principal cor anglais player for the Orquestra do Norte, Portugal from 2015 to 2017, and has been on trial with the Philharmonia Orchestra. As a freelance performer Nicola has played regularly with the Royal Scottish National Orchestra, the Royal Ballet Sinfonia, the Chameleon Orchestra and the Orpheus Sinfonia as well as many other orchestras in and around London, and is an extra player for English National Opera, English National Ballet and Orquestra Metropolitana in Lisbon. Nicola also plays for musical theatre; from September 2013 to February 2014 she was the oboe and cor anglais player for ‘The Light Princess’ by Tori Amos at the National Theatre, and has played for ‘Miss Saigon’ in the Prince Edward Theatre.
Nicola is also very active as a soloist and chamber musician. As a concert soloist, Nicola has performed the Martinů Concerto with St. Paul’s Sinfonia in 2019, the Vaughan Williams Oboe Concerto with West Forest Sinfonia, the Mozart Oboe Concerto at Jesus College, Cambridge and the Strauss Oboe Concerto in St. Mary’s Church, Nottingham. In 2015 she was awarded a Jellinek soloist’s award by Croydon Symphony Orchestra, and as a result performed the Albinoni D minor concerto in Guildford in 2016 and returned to St. Mary's Church, Nottingham in 2016 for a solo performance of the Marcello D Minor concerto.
Nicola also enjoys giving solo recitals, and has performed in venues such as St. Martin-in-the-Fields, St. James Piccadilly, St. Mary's Perivale, Winchester Cathedral, Peterborough Cathedral, St. George’s Hanover Square, St. James’s Church Paddington and Waltham Abbey as a soloist with pianist Jonathan Pease. The duo was selected to appear in the Making Music Selected Artists guide and is supported by the Concordia Foundation. In 2020 the duo released their first album, Light and Shade, in which ‘Hands’ performances are a wonderful demonstration of the diversity of the oboe and cor anglais repertoire’ and ‘Hands really makes the oboe melodies sing and cohere’.MusicWeb International said of the duo’s recording of Poem by Marina Dranishnikova that ‘It’s hard to imagine a more sensitive and sincere performance of Poem than it receives here.’ The duo released their 2ndalbum, ‘Phoenix’ in early 2021.
In 2019 Nicola co-founded the ‘Tailleferre Ensemble’, a chamber collective whose aims are to support women in music and perform lesser-known chamber works.
In 2012 Nicola was awarded the Evelyn Barbirolli prize for oboe and the Grimaldi Cor Anglais Scholarship at the Royal Academy, and in 2013 she won the concerto class of the Hastings Music Festival Concerto Competition playing the Martinů oboe concerto. In 2013 she was also Highly Commended in the Leila Bull oboe prize at the Academy.
During her Masters Nicola played in many high-profile performances, including principal oboe for Sir Colin Davis, Thierry Fischer and Yan Pascal Tortelier and cor anglais for Jac van Steen and Semyon Bychkov with the Academy Symphony Orchestra. She also performed the solo oboe part in Bainbridge’s Concertante in Moto Perpetuo with the Academy Manson Ensemble conducted by Franck Ollu, in a special birthday celebration concert for the composer.
Before attending the Royal Academy, Nicola completed an MA in languages at Cambridge University. She was very active as both an oboist and a choral scholar in Cambridge. With the help of instrumental and choral scholarships from Jesus College, she was able to pursue her musical ambition, finding many opportunities to perform as both an ensemble player and soloist in the Cambridge music scene.
