Meet the Players
Described by The Birmingham Post as “a pianist of amazing maturity and concentration,” David Quigley has established an international reputation as a performer of rare depth and versatility. His playing – praised for its expressive range, stylistic insight and captivating presence – has enthralled audiences across Europe, the USA and Asia.
Following early success in major competitions including BBC Young Musician of the Year, the Royal Over-Seas League Music Competition, and as the UK representative for the ECHO Rising Stars concert series, David has gone on to perform in many of the world’s leading concert halls. These include Carnegie Hall (New York), Concertgebouw (Amsterdam), Musikverein (Vienna), Mozarteum (Salzburg), Philharmonie (Cologne), Wigmore Hall (London), and Symphony Hall (Birmingham).
As a concerto soloist, he has appeared with orchestras such as the National Symphony Orchestra of Ireland, Ulster Orchestra, Northern Sinfonia, RTÉ Concert Orchestra, Camerata Ireland, Southern Sinfonia, and the Cairo Symphony Orchestra.
more about david
A passionate chamber musician, David is pianist of the Fews Ensemble, one of Ireland’s leading chamber groups. He also collaborates with distinguished artists including oboist Nicholas Daniel, clarinettist Michael Collins, cellist Jonathan Aasgaard, and sopranos Ailish Tynan and Mary McCabe.
His growing discography includes acclaimed recordings such as Piano Music from Northern Ireland, Rediscoveries: Old and New Music of Ireland, Piano Music by Philip Hammond, Piano Classics, Piano Nocturnes, and The Fair Hills of Éire: Irish Airs and Dances. His performances are regularly featured on BBC, RTÉ, Classic FM, and RTÉ Lyric FM broadcasts
Alongside his performing career, David is deeply committed to education. He teaches at both the Royal Birmingham Conservatoire and the University of Birmingham, and is co-founder of Newry Chamber Music, a concert society dedicated to performance and outreach in his hometown and surrounding communities. He is frequently invited to give masterclasses and adjudicate across Ireland and the UK, including serving as a juror for BBC Young Musician of the Year in 2018 and 2020.
David recently founded the Cecilia Ensemble, one of the UK’s newest and most dynamic chamber music groups, and looks forward to developing new artistic collaborations as the ensemble establishes its presence on the international stage.
David is proud to represent Kawai Pianos UK as a Kawai Artist and brand ambassador.
Caroline Pether
Caroline is the Leader and Artistic Curator at Manchester Camerata, often assuming the role of Soloist and Director with the orchestra. Chamber music sensibilities are at the heart of Caroline’s music-making; she enjoys regular chamber music with Camerata’s principals, and guest leads chamber music projects and chamber orchestras across the UK. Caroline was the Leader of Welsh chamber orchestra Sinfonia Cymru from 2016 until 2021. In 2022, Caroline was made an Associate Member of the RNCM (ARNCM).
From 2010 to 2019 Caroline was the first violinist of the Zelkova Quartet, winners of the 2017 St Martin’s Chamber Music Competition and the 2014 Royal Overseas League Elias Fawcett Award for Outstanding Chamber Ensemble. Through her work with chamber orchestras and her quartet, Caroline has been fortunate to study and work closely with many incredible musicians including Gábor Takács-Nagy, Ferenc Rados, Hatto Beyerle and Peter Cropper.
more about caroline
As a soloist, highlights include directing Vivaldi’s Four Seasons with Manchester Camerata and performing the Sibelius Violin Concerto in Bridgewater Hall with conductor Yan Pascal Tortelier. Caroline holds a Silver Medal from the Worshipful Company of Musicians and a Postgraduate Performance Award from Help Musicians UK (formerly known as Musicians Benevolent Fund).
Caroline is passionate about enthusing and educating the next generation of musicians; she coaches and performs alongside students from the Royal Northern College of Music, Royal Birmingham Conservatoire, Chetham’s School of Music, and youth orchestras across the country. Caroline also works closely with Camerata’s 360 Scheme participants – teaching, mentoring and contributing to the design of their individual programme of study. She was a Violin Tutor at the Royal Birmingham Conservatoire from 2016 until 2024.
As a young musician, Caroline began her studies with leading violin educator Lucy Akehurst at the Royal Birmingham Conservatoire’s esteemed Young Strings Project, and later studied at Chetham’s School of Music and the Royal Northern College of Music. Caroline plays on a violin made by the internationally acclaimed maker Stephan von Baehr.
Oliver Heath
Oliver Heath has quickly gained a reputation as one of the most dynamic chamber musicians on the international music scene. His performances with The Heath Quartet have taken him to the world’s most important music centres, and their recordings have won several awards including a Gramophone award and Limelight Magazine Recording of the Year award. He has performed widely as a soloist, and is increasingly in demand as a pedagogue, giving regular masterclasses in both violin and chamber music, and as an adjudicator.
He studied at The Purcell School, Royal Northern College of Music and Reina Sofia (Madrid), as well as being part of European Chamber Music Academy for several years and a regular attendee of IMS Prussia Cove. His most important teachers included Hatto Beyerle, Ferenc Rados, Erich Hobarth, Andras Schiff, Gabor Takacs-Nagy and Gerhard Schultz. The Heath Quartet took home all the prizes at the Tromp International String Quartet Competition, and won the major prizes at The Haydn International Chamber Music Competition. Oliver has also been awarded by Royal Philhamornic Society (Young Artist Award), Borletti Buttoni Trust and Festspiele Mecklenburg-Vorpommen.
more about oliver
The quartet has a close relationship with many concert halls around the world including The Wigmore Hall, Boulez Saal (Berlin), Carnegie Hall and UKARIA Cultural Centre (Adelaide). They have completed cycles of the most important string quartet composers including Beethoven, Bartok and Mozart at venues and festivals around Europe and the US, and their recording of Michael Tippett’s complete quartets (recorded live at Wigmore Hall) won the chamber recording of the year award at the Gramophone Awards. The quartet has also recorded Bartok’s complete string quartets and Tchaikovsky Quartets 1 and 3 for Harmonia Mundi.
Contemporary music is especially important to Oliver and the Heath Quartet, and they have worked with leading figures such as Sofia Gubaidalina, Hans Abrahamsen, Brett Dean, Steve Mackey and Helen Grime. Other musicians Oliver has collaborated with include Ian Bostridge, Stephen Hough, Tokyo String Quartet, Igor Levitt, Anna Caterina Antonacci and Carolyn Sampson.
Oliver teaches both violin and chamber music at Guildhall School of Music & Drama, and was in-residence at Royal Birmingham Conservatoire 2015-2019. He has given masterclasses throughout UK, US and Europe, including Musica Mundi (Belgium), ConChorda (Ireland), Middlebury College (US) and Conservatorio Nacional Superior de Musica (Argentina), and has taught at Dartington Summer School for many years. He has adjudicated for Royal Philharmonic Society, Young Classical Artists Trust, Worshipful Company of Musicians and Wigmore Hall International String Quartet Competition. He has also taken part in many community outreach projects, especially in collaboration with Wigmore Hall Learning.
Marie Schreer
Marie Schreer is a musician whose work pushes at the limits of expression through the violin and through the shifting territory between composition and improvisation. Her practice is driven by a persistent curiosity about how music takes shape — how it breathes beyond notation, and how it communicates in ways that can be both precise and deeply felt. Her artistic path moves deliberately between control and unpredictability, structure and spontaneity. With exacting technique and unguarded energy, Marie fuses discipline with risk, crafting performances where detailed writing and impulsive expression exist side by side.
Marie’s work thrives on collaboration and trust and spans a wide range of settings, from chamber music to experimental ensembles. She has held key orchestral roles, including sub-principal violin of Royal Northern Sinfonia and section leader of the second violins in The Hallé. She is co-artistic director and violinist of Riot Ensemble, and regularly appears as principal player with leading ensembles across Europe.
more about marie
Her latest solo album, ‘until between’ (Coviello Contemporary/Deutschlandfunk, November 2025), consolidates her artistic profile as a curator, creator and commissioner, presenting three major new works – including her own – that reflect her commitment to collaboration, innovation, and expanding the expressive possibilities of the violin.
David Aspin
David Aspin studied at the RCM and has served as principal violist of the Orchestra of Opera North since 2007. David is also a regular guest principal with many of the UK’s finest orchestras. He is a founder member of Chroma, resident at Royal Holloway, University of London and the Pleyel Ensemble in Manchester. As a chamber musician he has performed at the BBC Proms, toured in the UK and overseas as well as recording for CD and radio.
As soloist, David has performed at the RNCM’s Turnage Festival, Mozart in Gstaad and Britten at the Three Choirs Festival. David has also performed and recorded the Telemann viola concerto with the Lancashire Sinfonietta and performed the Walton concerto with the Orchestra of Opera North and Sinfonia of Leeds. He has also performed concertos by Bartok, Vaughan Williams, Berlioz, Bruch and Mozart.
more about david
David taught at the RNCM for 10 years until 2020 and is a coach for the National Youth Orchestra of Great Britain and the Ulster Youth Orchestra. He was recently elected to join the Bliss Society with an Honorary Membership in recognition of his work on the Bliss Sonata and Concerto in 2025. He also sits on the Culture and Heritage Investment Panel for his home town Accrington in Hyndburn, Lancashire.
In the bars rest, David can be found on a yoga mat or walking the Pennine hills with his dog, preferably with a pub enroute.
Nicholas Trygstad
A native of Minneapolis, USA, Nicholas came to Manchester to study cello with Hannah Roberts and Ralph Kirshbaum at the Royal Northern College of Music. As a student he won many awards and prizes, most notably 3rd prize in the LSO Competition, performing the Schumann Concerto with the LSO, and the RNCM’s Gold Medal.
Having previously been Principal Cellist of the Orchestra of Scottish Opera, Nick became Principal Cellist of the Hallé Orchestra in 2005, a position he held until 2024. He also has guest led the Royal Northern Sinfonia, Royal Liverpool Philharmonic, Manchester Camerata, Scottish Chamber Orchestra, BBC Scottish Symphony, Welsh National Opera, Philharmonia, and Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra. A passionate educator, Nick has taught for many years at the RNCM and regularly tutors the National Youth Orchestra of Great Britain and NYO Inspire. In 2024 he took on the role of Head of Strings at the Royal Birmingham Conservatoire.
more about nicholas
Nick still freelances, particularly with Manchester Collective and sits on their board as a player representative. He is also a trustee of Manchester Concert Hall Ltd, the body that oversees Manchester’s Bridgewater Hall, making sure it delivers a world class experience for artists and all the people of Manchester.
Timothy Lines
Timothy Lines enjoys a varied career as a clarinettist and conductor. From 1999 to 2003 he was principal clarinet of the London Symphony Orchestra, becoming chairman of the orchestra during his last year there. From from 2004 to 2005 he was section leader clarinet of the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra.
He was regular principal clarinet of the English Baroque Soloists and the Orchestre Revolutionaire et Romantique from 2003 until 2023, performing on period instruments. He is currently principal clarinet of the London Mozart Players and performs regularly as guest principal with many orchestras and ensembles such as London Sinfonietta, Rednote Ensemble and the newly formed Knussen Chamber Ensemble.
more about timothy
Timothy conducts termly concerts with the New Perspectives Ensemble at the Royal College of Music, specialising in performing music by living composers. He has also conducted the RCM Chamber, Philharmonic and Symphony orchestras. He is clarinet coach for the National Youth Orchestra of Great Britain and took the role of assistant conductor with them during their Spring 2019 course.
Timothy has been a clarinet professor at the Royal College of Music since 1998 and he was appointed a Fellow there in 2016.
Francesca Moore-Bridger
Francesca is a successful freelance French horn player and the Principal Horn of Orchestra of the Swan. After graduating from Newnham College, Cambridge and the Royal Academy of Music she became Principal Horn of the Philharmonic Orchestra of Santiago, Chile. Upon returning to the UK she has become an established soloist and orchestral and chamber musician.
Francesca has performed as Principal Horn with numerous orchestras, including the London Contemporary Orchestra, Welsh National Opera, Scottish Chamber Orchestra and the RTE National Symphony Orchestra. She works in theatres including the Royal Shakespeare Company and also tours the country performing live soundtracks for feature films. Francesca regularly works as a session musician recording music across multiple genres.
more about francesca
Francesca firmly believes in the importance of music education for all and is a passionate educator. She is a tutor with the National Childrens Orchestra of Great Britain and she teaches at the Royal College of Music Junior Department and at Guildford High School. She takes part in numerous education and outreach projects and has a huge breadth of experience working with young people.
Francesca believes in the power of music and has performed in dementia care homes and hospitals to bring a little light to those in need.