CONCERT PROGRAMME BIOGRAPHY

Jennifer Pike - violin

“…Britain’s foremost young fiddler...Jennifer Pike stepped on to the platform and delivered the prelude (and gavotte en rondeau) from Bach’s Third Partita with perfect poise and assurance, her instrument sounding clear and strong…” The Independent

Jennifer Pike has emerged in recent seasons as one of the most gifted of the younger generation of British artists. Currently a member of the high profile BBC New Generation Artist Scheme, Jennifer is a regularly featured artist with many of the BBC orchestras and chamber music series. Her close relationship with the BBC Symphony Orchestra and Sir Andrew Davis dates back to her victory at the BBC Young Musician of the Year competition in 2002, when her performance of the Mendelssohn Violin Concerto saw her become the youngest ever winner of the competition.

Jennifer Pike’s success at the BBC competition led to immediate recognition, particularly in the UK, and at the age of fifteen she made her BBC Proms debut. Despite frequent similar high profile performances, Jennifer has maintained a carefully balanced programme of education and development over recent years that has seen her mature steadily, growing into a wonderfully thoughtful musician and technically impressive violinist. Public acclaim continued at the start of 2008 when Jennifer was honoured with The South Bank Show/The Times Breakthrough Award, in acknowledgement of the impact that she made throughout the arts during 2007. In 2009, she was awarded one of only three London Music Masters awards, which help support the career of exceptional young violinists and also act as an opportunity for the award holders to work with students participating in the exciting and innovative educational scheme, the Bridge Project.

Currently signed to the Chandos label, Jennifer recently released her debut record, a disc of French recital repertoire with pianist Martin Roscoe, to wide critical acclaim; the Telegraph’s Geoffrey Norris enthused that Pike “gives thoroughly idiomatic, glistening performances of three core French violin sonatas. This is playing that brims with character, bringing a smoky seductiveness to the finale of the Debussy.” This season she will record both the Rozsa Violin Concerto with the BBC Philharmonic and the Chausson Concerto for Violin, Piano and Strings with the Doric Quartet.

Highlights of last season include performances of the Brahms Violin Concerto with the London Philharmonic Orchestra and the Philharmonia, concerto engagements with the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra and the Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra and a return to the Mendelssohn Violin Concerto with the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra and BBC National Orchestra of Wales. She also made her Japanese debut with a recital in Tokyo and a concerto performance with the Nagoya Philharmonic. Engagements this season include a performance with the Halle Orchestra and Sir Mark Elder, recitals in Perth and Manchester and the premiere of Haflidi Hallgrimsson’s Violin Concerto with the Scottish Chamber Orchestra.

At the age of 16 Jennifer was awarded a postgraduate scholarship, with the generous support of the Leathersellers' Company, to study with David Takeno at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama, winning the Derek Butler London Prize in 2007. In 2005 and 2007 she won the prestigious Manoug Parikian Award administered by the Musicians’ Benevolent Fund. She is also grateful for the support of the Philharmonia/Martin Scholarship Fund. In 2009 she gained a place to continue her studies at Lady Margaret Hall, Oxford University.

Reviews  

“Her playing has led to her being hailed as one of Britain’s brightest musical prodigies for a generation. I heard in Jennifer a remarkable understanding of music far beyond her years. It was really quite astonishing.  I felt it was like listening to a 12-year-old Menuhin.”  Daily Mail, May 2002

“The most rewarding part of the whole five-hour venture came in the first five minutes, when 15-year-old Jennifer Pike played a pair of movements from Bach's solo Partita No.3 with great subtlety and composure”  The Daily Telegraph, August 2005 (BBC Proms)

“Equipped at 16 with phenomenal tuning, pace, control of timbre and range of dynamics, she brought the house down with Saint-Saëns' Introduction and Rondo Capriccioso” The Independent, March 2006 (Barbican Hall)

Promoters: please note that no modification of this programme note may be carried out without the prior consent of the artist. Please contact jeremypike@lineone.net for further information or email james.leakey@hazardchase.co.uk for the latest biography and a hi-res photograph.

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