Online concerts: Ashley Solomon and Steven Devine

Online concerts at Hatchlands Park

Ashley Solomon and Steven Devine

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Ashley Solomon – flute
Steven Devine – piano

Ludwig van Beethoven (1770-1827)
Sonata in F minor, Op. 2, No. 1 (1795)
Allegro
Adagio
Menuetto and Trio
Prestissimo

Sonata in B flat major, Anh.4
Allegro
Polacca
Largo
Thema mit Variationen (Allegretto)

Sonata “Quasi una fantasia”, Op. 27, No. 2 (‘Moonlight’)
Adagio Sostenuto
Allegretto
Presto agitato

Ashley Solomon combines a successful career across both theory and practice. He is Head of Historical Performance at the Royal College of Music, having been appointed a professor in 1994. In 2014 he was awarded a Personal Chair and in July 2017 elected a Fellow of the Royal Academy of Music (FRAM), conferred on him by HRH Duchess of Gloucester. In 2019 Ashley was elected a Fellow of the Royal College of Music (FRCM), conferred on him by HRH Prince of Wales. Both Fellowships are in recognition of outstanding services to music. Since 2014 Ashley has been working closely with the Royal Collection Trust to curate musical performances in their Royal venues, including Buckingham Palace (Queen’s Gallery, Ballroom) at Windsor Castle and in the Queen’s Chapel.

Ashley is the director of Florilegium, and much of his time is spent working and performing with this ensemble that he co-founded in 1991. Since 2001 he has been its director. They have a busy touring schedule and perform at major international festivals and concert series throughout Europe as well as the Americas. Florilegium have been recording with Channel Classics since 1993 and have to date made 35 recordings, many of which have garnered international awards. They have given over 1,250 performances over the years, 80 of these have been at Wigmore Hall.

As a soloist, Ashley has performed worldwide, including concertos in the Sydney Opera House, Esplanade (Singapore), Teatro Colon (Buenos Aires), Concertgebouw (Amsterdam), Konzerthaus (Vienna), Beethoven-Haus (Bonn), Handel-Haus (Halle) and Frick Collection (New York). He also records as a solo artist with Channel Classics and his recording of the complete Bach’s Flute Sonatas was voted the best overall version of these works on either modern or period flute by Gramophone Magazine (February 2017):

Steven Devine is a music director and keyboard player working with some of the finest musicians. He is the Principal Keyboard Player with the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment and the principal keyboard player for The Gonzaga Band, Classical Opera (The Mozartists) and performs regularly with many other groups around Europe. Steven has recorded over thirty discs with other artists and ensembles and made six solo recordings. His recording of Bach’s Goldberg Variations (Chandos Records) has received critical acclaim – including Gramophone magazine describing it as “among the best”. The complete harpsichord works of Rameau (Resonus) has received five-star reviews from BBC Music Magazine and Steven’s latest recording of Bach’s Italian Concerto has been voted Classic FM’s ‘Connoisseur’s choice’. Steven has recently released Book 1 of Bach’s Well-Tempered Clavier with Book 2 just released.

Steven made his London conducting debut in 2002 at the Royal Albert Hall and is now a regular performer there – including making his Proms directing debut in August 2007 with the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment. He has conducted the Mozart Festival Orchestra in every major concert hall in the UK and also across Switzerland. Steven is Music Director for New Chamber Opera in Oxford and with them has performed repertoire from Cavalli to Rossini. For the Dartington Festival Opera Steven has conducted Handel’s Orlando and Purcell’s Dido and Aeneas. He is currently conductor and Artistic Advisor for the English Haydn Festival in Bridgnorth.

Steven works regularly with the Norwegian Wind Ensemble, Trondheim Barokk, the Victoria Baroque Players (BC, Canada) and Arion Baroque Ensemble (Montreal).

He teaches harpsichord and fortepiano at Trinity Laban Conservatoire in London and is Early Keyboard Consultant to the Royal Birmingham Conservatoire and Royal Welsh Colleges.

Steven is also a member of the ground-breaking Art of Moog: an electronic music group specialising in the performance of Bach.