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Jennifer Raven
Jennifer studied at the University of Bristol, and with Wissam Boustany at Trinity College of Music in London. She co-founded the London-Jerusalem music project and Fairbeats!, a music education charity for young refugees and new migrant communities. She travelled to Amazonia with The Conference of Birds for a British Council residency and played at the premiere of Peter Cowdrey's opera, The Mad Duchess with Opera Unlimited. She is currently Programme Manager at Sound Connections, leading on Youth Leadership and Challenging Circumstances. Previously she worked for ARK Schools. |
Liz Cowdrey
Liz's free-spirited approach reflects passions for travel and exploration of different techniques and styles. Since her year abroad and music degree from Manchester, Liz has combined interest in world music and cultures with a childhood love of chamber music. She became a founder member of world music ensemble Orbestra, performing internationally with a series of concerts in Colombia, as soloist with ‘Anatolia’ in Turkey's Eskisehir International Festival, and at home with artists including the Brodsky and Emperor string quartets on London's South Bank.
Liz explores instrumental interaction inspired by the elemental presence of birdsong in beautiful venues and natural settings; with The Conference of Birds she travelled to Brazil via the British Council, researching and promoting links between Amazonian birds and music/dance; she took part in performances on birdsong-rich hillside terraces in Tuscany and Andalucia, serenading audiences with music ranging from classical violin sonatas to intoxicating folk and gypsy flavours from Eastern Europe. Liz's meticulous sound transcriptions mark her commitment to absorbing depths of style and gesture.
With Opera Unlimited Liz has featured in chamber operas involving staged violin and vocal duets with singers in London and around the UK.
Liz improvised violin and viola parts with Alma de Tango and Firebird, and continues to perform folk and gypsy-inspired music with trio Jubovski.
Liz explores instrumental interaction inspired by the elemental presence of birdsong in beautiful venues and natural settings; with The Conference of Birds she travelled to Brazil via the British Council, researching and promoting links between Amazonian birds and music/dance; she took part in performances on birdsong-rich hillside terraces in Tuscany and Andalucia, serenading audiences with music ranging from classical violin sonatas to intoxicating folk and gypsy flavours from Eastern Europe. Liz's meticulous sound transcriptions mark her commitment to absorbing depths of style and gesture.
With Opera Unlimited Liz has featured in chamber operas involving staged violin and vocal duets with singers in London and around the UK.
Liz improvised violin and viola parts with Alma de Tango and Firebird, and continues to perform folk and gypsy-inspired music with trio Jubovski.
Peter Cowdrey
Peter Cowdrey won music scholarships to Winchester College and Trinity College Cambridge. He studied composition with Oliver Knussen. His opera Zeller was performed by the Cambridge University Opera Society in 1985.
He was resident in Polynesia for three years. He then founded the world music group Orbestra, which toured in Europe from Shetland to Bulgaria and in South America, and recorded with Hannibal/Rykodisc. In 1995 he conducted the premiere of his A Garden amidst Flames in Aya Irene, one of Istanbul’s great basilicas, the culmination of a year long project for the Istanbul Festival bringing together musical traditions that had diverged after the crusades. Peter's works have been premiered at Schleswig Holstein Festival, the Royal Albert Hall, Queen Elizabeth Hall and Purcell Room. Bremania was commissioned by the BBC Concert Orchestra and premiered in Bucharest; it received its UK premiere in Bristol on March 23rd 2019. Peter has written music for the Royal Shakespeare Company. A short video about a performance of Sorrowful Glen, for ten brass instruments, can be watched here. Recovered Voices, a song cycle based on transcriptions of the recorded voices of Gumilev, Mandelstam, Akhmatova and Pasternak, was premiered at the 2016 Moffat Russian Conference. His most recent work, A Larkin Songbook, celebrates the 100th anniversary of Philip Larkin's birth in 2022.
As pianist Peter is a member of the trio Jubovski, which plays virtuoso gypsy inspired music from Haydn and Bartok to Transylvanian folk music and improvisation. He has performed Mussorgsky's Pictures at an Exhibition live while Russian artist Eugenie Vronskaya reimagined the pictures live.
Peter founded Opera Unlimited and conducted the premiere of his one act opera The Lovely Ladies at Christies in 2010. This production was repeated at the Buxton Opera Festival in 2011. In November 2011 The Mad Duchess was premiered at Boughton House in Northamptonshire with further productions in Norfolk and in London. A short children's opera, The Death of Hook was premiered at The Well Theatre, Moffat on March 31st 2019. You can watch it here. All of these works are written in partnership with librettist Hamish Robinson.
Many of Peter's compositions are inspired by birdsong; in 2009 he founded the ensemble The Conference of Birds. He founded a charitable initiative, Planet Birdsong, which promotes education and global communication through birdsong. Click here to view a short film about him on the BBC News website.
Peter's compositions can be heard at on his soundcloud page. A list of his compositions can be found here.
He was resident in Polynesia for three years. He then founded the world music group Orbestra, which toured in Europe from Shetland to Bulgaria and in South America, and recorded with Hannibal/Rykodisc. In 1995 he conducted the premiere of his A Garden amidst Flames in Aya Irene, one of Istanbul’s great basilicas, the culmination of a year long project for the Istanbul Festival bringing together musical traditions that had diverged after the crusades. Peter's works have been premiered at Schleswig Holstein Festival, the Royal Albert Hall, Queen Elizabeth Hall and Purcell Room. Bremania was commissioned by the BBC Concert Orchestra and premiered in Bucharest; it received its UK premiere in Bristol on March 23rd 2019. Peter has written music for the Royal Shakespeare Company. A short video about a performance of Sorrowful Glen, for ten brass instruments, can be watched here. Recovered Voices, a song cycle based on transcriptions of the recorded voices of Gumilev, Mandelstam, Akhmatova and Pasternak, was premiered at the 2016 Moffat Russian Conference. His most recent work, A Larkin Songbook, celebrates the 100th anniversary of Philip Larkin's birth in 2022.
As pianist Peter is a member of the trio Jubovski, which plays virtuoso gypsy inspired music from Haydn and Bartok to Transylvanian folk music and improvisation. He has performed Mussorgsky's Pictures at an Exhibition live while Russian artist Eugenie Vronskaya reimagined the pictures live.
Peter founded Opera Unlimited and conducted the premiere of his one act opera The Lovely Ladies at Christies in 2010. This production was repeated at the Buxton Opera Festival in 2011. In November 2011 The Mad Duchess was premiered at Boughton House in Northamptonshire with further productions in Norfolk and in London. A short children's opera, The Death of Hook was premiered at The Well Theatre, Moffat on March 31st 2019. You can watch it here. All of these works are written in partnership with librettist Hamish Robinson.
Many of Peter's compositions are inspired by birdsong; in 2009 he founded the ensemble The Conference of Birds. He founded a charitable initiative, Planet Birdsong, which promotes education and global communication through birdsong. Click here to view a short film about him on the BBC News website.
Peter's compositions can be heard at on his soundcloud page. A list of his compositions can be found here.
