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HARROGATE clarinet SUMMER SCHOOL FACULTY

Robert Plane’s career as a solo and chamber clarinettist is rich and varied. Concerto appearances in Europe, Asia and North America have included performances of Mozart’s Clarinet Concerto in Madrid with the City of London Sinfonia, Beijing with the BBC National Orchestra of Wales and in the USA with the Virginia Symphony. A champion of new music as well as the classics, Rob is equally at home performing Christian Jost’s concerto ‘Heart of Darkness’ with the Dortmunder Philharmoniker and Simon Holt’s ‘Centauromachy’ at the 2011 BBC Proms as playing Finzi with the Zurich Chamber Orchestra, Stanford with the Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra and Copland with the London Mozart Players. He has given the world premieres of concertos by Judith Bingham, Diana Burrell, Piers Hellawell and Mark Boden.

Rob was principal clarinet of the BBC National Orchestra of Wales for over twenty years and has held the same position with the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra and Royal Northern Sinfonia. In a distinguished orchestral career, he has performed as guest principal clarinet with the Chamber Orchestra of Europe, Concertgebouw Orchestra Amsterdam, London Symphony Orchestra and in Aurora Orchestra’s performances of Brahms 1 from memory. He was invited by composer James Newton Howard to be solo clarinettist for the score to the Disney film Maleficent. A respected teacher and educator, he holds the post of Head of Woodwind Performance at the Royal Welsh College of Music and Drama.

Rob has tirelessly pursued a particular passion for British clarinet music in concert and on disc, his Gramophone Award-winning account of Finzi’s Concerto and Gramophone Award-shortlisted Bax Sonatas being just two of a large collection of recordings of works by the great English Romantics. He has performed and recorded with the Gould Piano Trio for thirty years, and their recording of Messiaen’s Quartet for the End of Time to mark the composer’s centenary was hailed by BBC Music Magazine as the ‘finest modern recording’ of this epic masterpiece. He also appears on the Goulds’ recorded cycles of Beethoven and Brahms Trios. They commissioned Huw Watkins to compose ‘Four Fables’ in 2018, in celebration of the twentieth anniversary of the Corbridge Chamber Music Festival which they direct together in Northumberland.

Rob has explored the clarinet quintet repertoire with a number of the finest string quartets, opening BBC Radio 3’s ‘Brahms Experience’ with a live broadcast from St. George’s Bristol of the Brahms Quintet with the Skampa Quartet. He enjoys a close relationship with the Elias String Quartet, making his debut at the 2023 Schubertiade Schwarzenberg with them in Brahms, joining them at the Wigmore Hall for Brahms and Bliss and at the East Neuk Festival for Schubert’s Octet. He has given concerts in Germany and the USA with the Mandelring Quartet and at home in the UK with, amongst others, the Marmen, Castalian, Maggini, Brodsky, Heath, Solem, Carducci, Sacconi and Callino Quartets.

Rob is clarinettist of Ensemble 360 and enjoys exploring chamber music of all kinds with them at their home in the Crucible, Sheffield and country-wide.

Rob has enjoyed a thirty-year long relationship with the Royal Over-Seas League since winning the competition’s Gold Medal in 1992, highlights of which have included a recital tour of New Zealand and a gala performance of Bruch’s Double Concerto with the Symphony Orchestra of Sri Lanka in Colombo as part of the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting.

Always keen to take on a challenge, Rob gave his first performance of Boulez’s epic ‘Dialogue de l’ombre double’ at the Belfast Sonorities Festival in 2018, a work he subsequently revived in Manchester’s Stoller Hall in 2019 and at Cardiff’s WhirlWinds Festival in 2022. Cross-discipline collaborations have included performances with leading South Asian dance specialist Mayuri Boonham. His delving into unjustly neglected works has unearthed concertos by Iain Hamilton, Ruth Gipps and Richard Walthew, which he subsequently recorded at Glasgow City Halls with the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra and Martyn Brabbins. The resulting disc, ‘Reawakened’, was released by Champs Hill Records in July 2020. 2023 will see two new releases for Resonus Classics: a disc of chamber music by Pamela Harrison, followed by an album featuring four of Rob’s commissions from the past twenty-five years, including the clarinet concertos of Diana Burrell and Mark David Boden which he recorded with the BBC Philharmonic.

Juliet Colville has worked with orchestras including the Hallé Orchestra, Royal Northern Sinfonia, Opera North, National Concert Orchestra and British Philharmonic Concert Orchestra playing clarinet, Eb and bass clarinets, and alto saxophone.  She spent four years as the clarinet, tenor saxophone and flute player for the Thursford Christmas Spectacular with whom she made several TV broadcasts including for BBC Songs of Praise.  She has also performed as a deputy for UK tours including South Pacific, Wicked, The King and I, and Bedknobs and Broomsticks and in Sondheim’s Merrily We Roll Along for Theatre Clwyd.  She has recently performed the Weber Concertino with Hitchin Concert Band's clarinet section.

Juliet has performed as a member of the Ebonites, a clarinet choir made up of Manchester based freelance clarinettists and the Arundo Trio (oboe, clarinet and bassoon) and is currently the leader of the British Clarinet Ensemble.

Juliet is passionate about education work and has been a tutor on the Harrogate Clarinet Summer School since its first year.  Her teaching work includes working at schools in the North West, as well as a number of private students, both in person and remotely. Several of her students have gone on to gain places at the junior department of the RNCM, various universities and the National Youth Wind Orchestra.  She has also delivered various workshops for adults with learning difficulties and for nursery children.

She was previously the Musical Director for the Special Virtuosi Orchestra, made up of children and young people with special needs and currently runs the Windstruments Clarinet Choir. 

Juliet studied clarinet at the Royal Northern College of Music with Nicholas Cox, Linda Merrick and Colin Pownall (bass clarinet).  She was awarded a Major Entrance Award from the RNCM to continue her studies and graduated with a Master of Music in 2006.  As a student, Juliet was the leader of the National Youth Wind Orchestra for 2 years, playing in concerts around the UK and in Ireland, having been a member for several years previously.