MEET OUR FACULTY
- Anthony Hewitt, piano
- Ning Kam, violin
- Thomas Carroll, cello
- Roberto Carillo-Garcia, double bass
ANTHONY HEWITT | piano
Award-winning British pianist Anthony Hewitt is well-known and respected as a musician of integrity, and a pianist of versatility and virtuosity. His performances and recordings have been met with critical acclaim (“a remarkably gifted artist”, The Gramophone), and his unique projects have captured the imagination and admiration of the public.
Anthony has performed internationally with the National Symphony Orchestra in Washington D.C, with orchestras in Germany, Poland, and Russia, and with many of the UK’s leading orchestras including the Royal Philharmonic, English Chamber, Orchestra of the Swan, Manchester Camerata and Royal Northern Sinfonia. Venues in the UK include London’s Royal Festival Hall, Purcell Room, Symphony Hall in Birmingham, and no less than eight recitals at Wigmore Hall.
His discography includes Protégé (Divine Art Records) – the first coupling on disc of the Liszt and Reubke Sonatas – which was praised in International Record Review as “magisterial”, and received a Gramophone recommendation. His debut CD Live at Wigmore Hall was described in BBC Music Magazine as “displaying a fine communicative and poetic musicianship”. His 2015 recording of the complete Preludes of Alexander Skryabin won him plaudits from the press, including from the Guardian which praised it for its “command and understanding”. Most recently his 2022 recording on Naxos of Bowen viola and piano works with violist Yue Yu was rated as being equal to the finest in the catalogue.
He has formed many regular chamber music partnerships including a duo with cellist Thomas Carroll, Dimension Piano Trio, and a two piano duo with Japanese pianist Miki Yumihari. Other collaborations include with Emma Johnson, Jess Gillam, Chloe Hanslip, Martin Roscoe, Jess Dandy, and Daniel Rowland.
In 2004, Anthony founded the Ulverston International Music Festival with the aim of bringing internationally renowned, high quality artists and groups to a rural part of England alongside educational work in the community. He continues to enjoy a diverse musical life as a solo pianist, festival director, professor of piano at Royal Birmingham Conservatoire, collaborative chamber musician, jury panellist, and is a frequent visitor to the Far East where he is held in high regard for his engaging master classes for young pianists. He performs and teaches young musicians annually at festivals in Holland, Italy and France.
By far his most unique ‘feet’ to date was under the guise of the ‘Olympianist’, where he cycled 1200 miles from Land’s End to John O’Groats with a piano in his ‘BeethoVan’ and gave a full-length recital at the end of each day. He performed over thirty engagements in total and raised £13,000 for charity. In 2017 he cycled overnight from London to Birmingham Town Hall to perform Ravel’s Gaspard de la Nuit at 6am – fiendishly difficult to play at the best of times!
Most recently Anthony organised and presented a series of eighteen online piano recitals from St. Mary’s Barrow during the 2021 lockdown, raising local spirits and giving professional pianists an artistic lifeline. For the Platinum Jubilee celebrations, the ‘BeethoVan’ made a reappearance on the lanes of the Lake District with a mini tour of remote locations as well as a pop-up performance on the cobbled streets of Ulverston, replete with break-dancers! He continues to champion and support outreach activities and causes in the community, and brings a regular concert series to Ulverston Parish Church. 2024 saw the 20th anniversary of the Ulverston Festival and the 40th anniversary since Anthony’s debut recital in the area as a young boy! Anthony splits his time between London, Birmingham and the Lake District where he enjoys cycling up the many famed ascents and steep passes.
NING KAM | violin
Hailed by Strad magazine as a “strong artistic personality”, Singaporean violinist, Ning Kam has gone on to perform all over the world both as soloist and chamber musician. She was the Second Prizewinner at the Queen Elisabeth Competition in 2001 and was praised by Belgium’s De Standaard as “manifestly the best violinist of the competition”. She also won the Flemish Radio and Television Audience Prize in that year. She has performed under the batons of conductors such as Yehudi Menuhin, Lorin Maazel, Okko Kamu, Lan Shui, Louis Langree and Eri Klas with orchestras such as the Cleveland Orchestra, Singapore Symphony, Malaysian Philharmonic, City of London Sinfonia, National Orchestra of Belgium and the Phoenix and Tucson Symphony Orchestras. Kam has also collaborated in chamber music with musicians such as Yehudi Menuhin, Patricia Kopatchinskaja, Louis Lortie, Marie Hallynck, Qin Li-Wei and Francis Kam amongst many others.
Ning performed at the inauguration of the Concert Hall at Esplanade Theatres on the Bay in 2002, in the presence of Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong. She was also invited to perform at the President’s Command Performance in Singapore in 2009 by the late President S.R. Nathan. She was the winner of the Young Artist Award in 2000, presented by the National Arts Council of Singapore.
Between 2010 and 2017, Ning was the Artistic Director of Het Kamerorkest Brugge, a conductor-less chamber orchestra with a focus on 20th and 21st century music. She was invited to guest lead and direct the strings of the Rheinische Philharmonie Koblenz in season 2015/16 and has returned every season since. She has also directed the Re:Sound Collective in Singapore and the strings of Symfonieorkest Vlaanderen. Ning is a member of the Kheops Ensemble and is also a founding member of Loco Motive, a bluegrass and jazz trio with cellist, Sebastien Walnier and double bassist, Lisa De Boos. She has released recordings on Etcetera, Meridian Records UK as well as Cypres.
Between 2017-2020, Ning was Professor of Violin at the Conservatoire Royal de Musique de Bruxelles and is currently Principal Teacher at the Yehudi Menuhin School, UK.
As a born-again Christian, she has been an Ambassador for International China Concern, a Christian charity that cares for the abandoned and disabled in China. Ning plays on a 1762 Michele Deconet on generous loan from the Rin Collection, Singapore.
THOMAS CARROLL | cello
Thomas Carroll is professor for cello at the Hochschule für Musik und Tanz in Cologne since 2018, from 2004 to 2021 professor for cello at the Royal College of Music in London and solo cello teacher at the Yeduhi Menuhin School
As a winner of the Young Concert Artist Trust in London and Young Concert Artists in New York, he had debut concerts at Wigmore Hall London, Alice Tully Hall in New York and in Boston, California, Florida and Washington DC since then. As a soloist with orchestras such as the London Philharmonic Orchestra, the Vienna Chamber Orchestra conducted by Heinrich Schiff, the English Chamber Orchestra and the Symphonieorchester des Bayerischen Rundfunks. Over 30 CD recordings for labels such as Champs Hill Records, Orchid Classics, Decca, Naxos and Signum Classics.
The Strad describes Thomas Carroll as “a musician of authority and passion with an unerring sense of direction, timbre and clear musical intelligence”. The Welsh-born cellist was a student of Heinrich Schiff and Clemens Hagen and regularly worked with Steven Isserlis.
ROBERTO CARILLO-GARCIA | double bass
Multi-instrumentalist Roberto performs on double bass, guitar and viola da gamba. Born in Tenerife, he started his musical studies at the Conservatorio Superior de Musica de Santa Cruz. After graduating on the guitar, he studied the double bass and composition while playing in the Orquesta Sinfonica de Tenerife. He subsequently studied the double bass at the Royal Northern College of Music in Manchester.
In 1992, Roberto joined the Royal Northern Sinfonia as Principal No. 2 Double Bass. Whilst in Newcastle, he was a member of several chamber groups, as bass soloist, viola da gamba and as a guitarist. Subsequent appearances led to playing guitar concertos with the Royal Northern Sinfonia and other professional, amateur and youth orchestras with tours to Germany, France, Switzerland and Spain.
Roberto has also played Guest Principal Double Bass with the London Symphony Orchestra, Orchestra National de France in Paris, Mahler Chamber Orchestra, Royal Scottish National Orchestra, Scottish Chamber Orchestra, BBC Scottish, Tenerife Symphony Orchestra, and European Union Chamber Orchestra, touring in South America, Europe, the Middle and Far East.
In September 2001, Roberto became Principal Double Bass of the Hallé Orchestra where he stayed for 17 years. He has been double bass professor at the Royal Northern College of Music and gives masterclasses in Spain, Poland and the UK. Roberto currently teaches double bass, viola da gamba and chamber music at Chetham’s School of Music. He coaches with the National Youth Orchestra, NYO Inspire, Aldeburgh Music and the Hallé Youth Orchestra.