Participants
Imogen Parry (Violin)
Imogen was a music scholar at Latymer Upper School in South West London until she moved to Ipswich with her family in 2008. She studies singing and viola at the Royal Academy of Music Junior Department on saturdays. She is in her first year of GCSE's in which she is studying Drama, Music, Design and French and has taken part in several school productions including "Oliver" and Howard Goodall's "The Hired Man". She dreams of performing onstage in the West End!
Alyssa Ralph (piano)
Alyssa has been studying piano since the age of 4, violin since the age of 7 and drum kit since the age of 11. Alyssa has performed in concerts in Cambridge, London and Birmingham as well as Melbourne, Australia.She busks with her brother in Cambridge with their string duo "in-2-Mezzo", playing classical repertoire for private functions. Alyssa is also a keen dancer having performed in several christmas pantomimes and last summer at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival. She is delighted to be a member of AYM!
Jay Richardson (composition/piano)
Jay was curious about music from an early age, and began his musical studies in his home country of Canada. After moving to Cambridge in 2004, he was inspired by the choral and classical music he discovered as a chorister with Jesus College. He regularly performs piano and/or keyboard solos for school events and productions and has recently added his own compositions. Jay's other interests include acting, and he enjoys the challenge of combining both of these two interests by composing his own film scores.
Imogen Ridge (Harp)
Imogen is 14 years old and has studied harp for the last 4 years. She also sings and composes and her work has been performed by the Landon Ensemble, London. She won the 2010 Leamington Festival Under 19 Composition and Elsa Gibbs Memorial prizes. Imogen has recently given solo recitals and hopes to join the Suffolk Youth Orchestra. She loves music form classical harp to jazz and rock and is looking forward to being immersed in it all as an AYM!
Sian Roberts (percussion)
Sian has been playing drums since she was 10 and until she was 13 only had the occasional lesson with a friend. In year 8 she started having formal lessons with Mark Aldous where he encouraged her to go to the Cambridgeshire Youth Percussion Ensemble. In September 2008 Sian's drum lessons turned into tuned percussion lessons and she found the marimba. Since then, music has become a big part of her life.
Andrew Samarasekara (violin)
Andrew is 11 years old and started playing the violin at the age of five following the Suzuki Method. He currently studies at the Royal College of Music Junior Department and plays with the National Children’s Orchestra and the Barbican Youth Orchestra. Andrew is also learning the piano and is a member of Trinity Boys Choir.
AYM Exchanging Worlds Ensemble
The Aldeburgh World Orchestra Project
The AWO project brings emerging professional musicians from all over the world to Suffolk; to inspire, engage and perform; raising ambition and celebrating talent on a local to international level, as part of the London Cultural Olympiad in 2012
AYM Exchanging Worlds Ensemble
As part of Exchanging Worlds we will also establish a creative performance ensemble made up of exceptional young musical talent (under 18's) through Aldeburgh Young Musicians (AYM). This commissioning ensemble will be cross cultural and cross genre in content. Through collaborative working and the exchange of global musical conversations, new works will be created for performance at Snape Maltings and regional touring.
Alongside the ensemble AYM Composers will compose a fanfare for members of Aldeburgh World Orchestra, experiment with remote interactivity and take advantage of AWO mentoring opportunities. Finally, two young musicians will join AWO.
Exchanging worlds has been funded by Legacy Trust UK, an independent charity set up to help build a lasting cultural and sporting legacy from the London 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games across the UK.